by zautman
Aton is quickly becoming one my favorite short, 2-player games. For a short, fairly cheap game, it offers surprising depth. Although the BGG description says the game mechanic is hand management, area control is also very important in Aton. Here’s a quick summary of how the game plays.
Theme: Ostensibly this game is about dueling sets of priests who are trying to take control of four temples and make their god the dominant deity. That being said, the theme is pasted on. The theme during actual gameplay does not go much beyond having Egyptian graphics.
Setup: Could not be easier. You snap together the board, shuffle two small decks of cards, and split up counters.
Rules: Four short pages of rules. Easy to explain, but you probably want to go through them twice with new players so they understand all the scoring and victory conditions.
Gameplay: Once you understand the rules, it plays fast unless you are playing with someone prone to analysis paralysis. Each card has a number between one and four. Both players draw four cards, assign one to each cartouche, flip the cards over, and then you take turns implementing them. Any counters that are removed from the temples or which cannot be placed in a temple due to lack of space go in the kingdom of the dead. When the Kingdom's 8 spaces are full, scoring occurs.
The Cartouches
Cartouche One: The player with the higher card value gains victory points equal to twice the difference between the players’ cards. This cartouche is probably the easiest to overlook if both players get in the habit of using their low value card here. Becoming complacent can become very costly if the opposing player puts down a 4 against your 1. Those six points are worth more than controlling some of the temples and these points can definitely add up if you are focusing too much on placing counters in the temples.
Cartouche Two: This cartouche serves two important functions - determining player turn order and determining how many counters of the other player to remove (if you played a 3 or 4) or yours (if you played a one). Most players will likely avoid playing a 1 card here (because you are then forced to remove one of your counters from the temple) unless there is a critical temple or space that you need to place a counter in before your opponent. This cartouche is a tempting spot to play 2’s since you often get to place first and don’t have to remove any counters. However, if both players are playing low cards here, the temples can become very full and scoring very infrequent. This may be a disadvantage if you have strong control over the temples.
Cartouche Three: The card laid here determines which temples you can remove counters from and where you can place your counters. Once again you need to decide whether to play high value cards here so you have more options where to place your counters or save the high value cards for cartouche four so you have more counters to place. If your opponent does not have many counters in the first temple, it can be worthwhile to play a low value card here and then stuff the first temple with your counters. Otherwise, you want to play a few high value cards here so you do not get shut out of the third and fourth temples.
Cartouche Four: This determines how many counters you get to place. Probably the most tempting cartouche for 4 cards so you can place the maximum number of counters in the temples. Once the temples become full though, you may run into difficulties placing all of your counters, especially if you played a low value card in the previous cartouche.
The Temples: In all cases, only the player who has the most counters scores.
Temple One: The winner gets victory points equal to the difference in value between the counters. Not quite as good as temple 3, but you can still rack up a lot of points if your opponent has few counters here.
Temple Two: The winner gets 5 victory points. Probably the least valuable temple in my opinion (especially with relatively full temples), but worth it if you can win it with just a few counters.
Temple Three: The winner gets victory points equal to the number of counters placed here. This temple is great for stuffing with counters.
Temple Four: The winner gets 3 points for each blue space he occupies. Each temple has one blue space. Although you can win up to 12 points here, the counters on blue spaces make very tempting counters for your opponent to remove so it can be hard to maintain your control of the blue spaces.
Miscellaneous Scoring:
Black Squares: Each temple has 2-3 black squares. Whoever has the most of these occupied wins 8 points. Since 8 points is 20% of a winning score, placing counters on black squares is never a bad idea.
Bonus Squares: Each temple has a few squares that give you an extra victory point or two. These squares usually fill up fast.
Winning the Game: There are four victory conditions:
a) Gain 40 points
b) Occupy all the squares of a temple
c) Occupy all the yellow squares in the four temples
d) Occupy all the green squares in the four temples
Overall Thoughts: What I love about this game is that there rarely are any easy choices unless you draw all high cards. Normally, you have to figure out where to play your high and low value cards and every one has a tradeoff. Furthermore, you have to avoid getting too predictable or your opponent can do some real damage.
I also think the multiple victory conditions keep the game interesting. You definitely do not want to get too fixated on one victory condition. While reaching 40 points is probably the most common way to win, you can win by the other conditions if your opponent gets distracted and you take full advantage of removing key counters of your opponent. In some games, you only score the temples once so you need to take full advantage of other scoring options rather than getting too fixated on control of the temples. At the same time, the frequency of scoring can vary quite a bit. If both players are mostly playing 2's on cartouche two, you can go through an entire deck of cards without scoring. On the other hand, if both players are placing high value cards in cartouche 2, you could be scoring every 2 to 3 turns. By paying attention to how frequent scoring is occurring, you can adjust your strategy to maximize your points.
I give Aton a score of a high 8, which I have rounded up to 9.
Thanks fot Bernd, Nnoc, Cktjharris, and Toynan whose images I borrowed
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