Minos Components Overview and Impressions

This week, Minos arrived for review, and we could not be more excited about it. Although we hear the game runs a bit long, I’ve also heard it nestles nicely in that medium weight category, despite the length. While I haven’t had the chance to play Minos quite yet, that didn’t stop me from getting it unboxed. Let’s take a look at what’s inside!

Minos is a HEAVY game, and that’s not based on its Board Game Geek rating. It’s just physically heavy, and once you get everything opened and sorted, it’s easy to understand why. There is a ton of content packed into this box, both in terms of gameplay and just the sheer number of pieces.

What I love here is the nice balance of cardboard bits and wooden player pieces. Cardboard is used for the universal items – permanent resources, temporary resources, and battle tokens (forget their name as I write this!). These pieces are incredibly sturdy and pretty thick. You won’t be handling them a ton – i.e. drawing them from a bag – so they are probably a bit better than is necessary, but I’ve never seen that as a negative in any review, so it won’t be one here!

Equally impressive is the central board where a lot of the gameplay will happen. Everything is nicely sectioned off – there are sports for drafting and placing the dice, the central board and map where you work to have dominance or presence, the vase areas with in-game scoring objectives, and of course the three tracks you will be moving up. The art on the board is phenomenal in my opinion – I especially like the way the map is presented, as if it was one of those tabletop maps with people standing around it managing pieces and planning strategies. It is brilliant!

The card quality is fine as well. I’m not sure it matches the level of linen finished Stonemaier games, but it doesn’t really need to either – you aren’t handling the cards a ton, and outside of pre-game shuffling, you won’t be doing much of that either. I’d be perfectly fine NOT sleeving these cards as the quality doesn’t require it. I’ve never had issues with Board and Dice and their cards, and I doubt I will go forward either.

Alright, the creme de la creme. The player boards and player pieces. Having screen printed wooden pieces is phenomenal, and in many games the screen printing is only done on one side. Once again, Board and Dice has gone above and beyond with screen printing both sides of the player pieces – and they look great too! The little dice trays you use for drafting are fantastic as well. I also love the dual layer player boards that hold all those pieces in very specific places. Now, the downside to dual layered boards is that they tend to warp a bit because of the glueing process, which is why I enjoy companies moving to the flip-over style dual layer boards. Those are not present here, but these boards seem to be in relatively good shape compared to other boards I have seen.

The only real issue I have with this title, and it’s a constant theme across all Board and Dice releases, is the lack of any kind of insert. Everything is just thrown into the box when the game is over (with baggies of course), but not having an insert is a bit of a let down. That being said, there are things to consider here. Because of their fantastic production, Board and Dice games do tend to be a bit more expensive than other games on the market, and adding an insert only increases those costs. If you had me choose between dual layered boards with nice wooden pieces and an insert, I’m taking the former all day long. And insert, in most cases, is a nice to have item, not a need to have an item.

Overall, I’m very impressed with what Board and Dice have done here (again). All of their games are top notch, using quality components regardless if they are wood or cardboard. It’s safe to say that when I write my components overview for Reef Project, you’ll read some of the same sentiments – these games are just made so well!