Praetor Board Game

Underrated Euro style tile laying "worker placement" strategy game. Smooth mechanics. One small thing is that markers are need to make the experience level of workers who are put into play.

Great game and works well with 2 players

"Creating is the Essence of Life." ~ Julius CaesarWhat better quote to describe Praetor, one of the most unique worker placement games that I’ve ever played. The goal is to gain the favor (called favor points) of Caesar by building the best city. You win by gaining the most favor points – imagine that!What sets this game apart from other worker placement games (like Lords of Waterdeep) is that workers are represented by dice. Pips designates the level and workers level up by performing certain tasks like chopping wood, gathering stone, etc.. The amount of resources gathered is dependent on the level of the worker. Just be careful. When a worker’s experience reaches 6, you must “retire” them. Retired workers must still be paid, even though you can’t use them (with the exception of a special building that allows the use of a retired worker). This adds an additional element of strategy.(Note: Workers cost gold, which is the primary resource in Praetor.)Figuring out when to retire workers is one of the best aspects of this game!Players gain favor points by placing buildings, building walls, building morale, and activating certain buildings. There are a lot of different actions that can be taken each turn, but I won’t go into too much detail here. Actions pretty much fall in line with other worker placement games.With that said, there are a few balancing issues that have been addressed by the game’s creator. For example, one of the buildings gives 1 favor point for each “Stone” and “Wood” in the player’s possession. This is definitely broken because I gained 26 Favor Points in a single action, which is quite a lot! This imbalance has been addressed by the developers on Board Game Geeks.Pros• Unique worker placement concept that maintains the core concepts of other games.• Colorful artwork depicted on tiles.• Detailed rule book makes it very easy to learn.• High quality pieces for an affordable price.Cons• There are some imbalances that have been addressed by the creators. The fact that they acknowledged and made an effort to fix those issues is commendable.Overall, Praetor is a fantastic game that is well-deserving of a five-star rating. It changes up the idea of worker placement games just enough, but manages to keep the core concepts of worker placement intact. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes worker placement games.

Praetor uses a novel game mechanism where the more you use your workers (dice), the more powerful they become for future actions. You have to carefully manage your work force, and train new workers to enter the game to counter the most powerful workers (6 pips) retiring after they've done their final game action. This alone leads me to add the game to the collection.