Minos: Dawn of the Bronze Age Board Game Review

Before we even get into the nitty gritty of this review, I think it’s important to highlight the only major flaw I’ve found in this game so far. It’s too long. This game is full of great, cascading actions, choices, strategic opportunities, and so much more. It’s been a while since I had a game that made each turn feel so memorable and fun, but yet I need to complain – it’s so, so long.

Listen, that’s not a knock on Minos as a game. There are a ton of really long board games out there that are fantastic – just know that if you are walking into this game with 4 players, which I don’t recommend, that you are in for a game that could last 3 hours, if not a bit more. That’s not a comment on the game’s presentation nor complexity – I found Minos to be a fairly straightforward experience with great iconography that will keep you from diving into the rulebook again and again. There is just so much thinking here, and with each player taking turns one after another, you are going to be here for a while.

Have I hammered that home yet? Because rest assured the rest of this review is going to be a glowing endorsement of why Minos is one of my favorite games I’ve played so far in 2025. But again. For your knowledge – it’s long, and that might be too much for some people.

It’s long. OK there, I think we are good.

Welcome to the Bronze Age, a glorious time of expansion and innovation. In Minos, players will draft dice to take various actions: drawing cards, playing cards, building onto the board, and placing and moving units. The drafting of dice happens before anyone even takes a single action in each round, and there are a number of reasons why you want specific dice, both for colour and pip value. Lower dice bump higher dice within each of the 5 available dice locations, but higher dice might allow players to move up on tracks and earn benefits. There is a nice strategic decision to be made between getting better actions by taking the first slot in a given area, versus getting high pip values to move up tracks.

The other thing to consider is WHERE you are placing the dice you draft. You always play out each round by using your highest valued die first, which means if you need to draft some cards before you play some cards, you better have a higher value die in the draft spot than the play spot! I absolutely loved this little puzzle, as it provided 3-4 things to consider when drafting. Yes, this is what makes the game take a long time, but it’s a worthwhile moment in the game that brought me a lot of joy.

After this draft phase, you are basically just taking actions as dictated to the strategic maneuvering you’ve already accomplished. Ideally you’ve hammered out a strategy – either a build heavy strategy, playing lots of cards, sending out ships, or a combination of them all – because you’ll want to prioritize the tracks that provide you the most benefits. For example, if you plan to work on having lots of guys on the map, you might want to move up the blue track, not only unlocking more soldiers but also getting more points for presence and domination of areas!

As you move up tracks, build things out onto the board, and play cards you will get a ton of cascading actions that are a lot of fun to pull off. Play a card that lets you play a card, that lets you play a card, and so on. Deciding which cards to play is important too – what instant benefits do they give you, but what palace benefits can they get you when you tuck them? Perhaps getting your resources everytime you pull back a 4 pip die? Or perhaps letting you move your soldiers around the board when you draw cards. The combinations seem endless, and while this does extend the game, it’s so exciting to have a great turn.

It’s pretty difficult to explain absolutely everything in Minos in depth, but understand that for a fairly simple game, there is a ton going on. The difficulty of this game is keeping tack of everything you might get, and how these various actions will work together to propel your civilization further and further ahead. Minos is NOT a game for those who dont ‘like keeping track of multiple things, who don’t like cascading actions that need to be planned. It definitely IS for folks who love a good challenge and a long but satisfying play experience.

There is a ton of down time when playing Minos, so prepare for that. But it was just as much fun for me watching other players take their turns as it was to take my own. This was definitely a game for me, but my wife wouldn’t be interested in this in the slightest. Know your game group before putting Minos on the table – that could be the difference between a great experience and one you may not even finish!