The Origin Story
Greek聽mythology is so rich and vast and it is not explored enough despite countless titles. I thought it should have a CCG that can聽eventually have a card for every single character. There are so many good stories! That was my starting point years ago. (Now, there are already 600+ cards, with many聽more to come!)
But the typical聽"I have my side, you have聽your side, everything fights and dies" formula of such card games is boring. Instead,聽4X and RTS gameplay offer much more聽strategic depth, long-term planning, and interesting decisions. Thus, this game is an attempt to capture all of that with known CCG card mechanics on a 2D board.
Furthermore, just fighting isn't enough. Greek mythology and ancient Greek history are about聽farming, hunting, love, aesthetics, law, and so much more. All聽of life! So you win by having聽more Arete (victory points), and all ways of life offer a valid path to victory:
Build Farms, optimise your harvest, and celebrate聽the Eleusinian Mysteries with聽a Demeter deck. Play聽Huntresses and Hunters and go on聽the hunt for hares and boars聽across the map with an Artemis聽deck. Build Harbors and Ships, go fishing, and explore the聽Seas with a Poseidon deck. Or just play a bunch of Warriors聽and attack your enemy with an聽Ares deck.
Those kinds of strategies聽exist for all 12 Olympian gods, all of their combinations, and so much more in Areteion.
And we must聽not forget about the Olympians themselves. They always want to have their say. Favor is another resource you'll have聽to manage. If you fail, their聽anger can derail your entire game plan, but some strategies may also be able聽to work around it.
Game聽Modes
Solo: Relaxed gameplay. It's only聽you and the gods. Build the best聽deck and work your way up to higher聽and higher Arete scores. The map聽brims with barbarians, pirates, game animals, encounters (e.g. the Sphinx), and monsters聽(e.g. Lernaean聽Hydra). Endless variety is guaranteed.
Versus: More competitive, with a聽pre-defined map structure and聽1v1 games. Test yourself against聽the neural-network-trained AI, play against friends, or play ranked online聽multiplayer.
Hero's Journey: A roguelike mode where you聽iteratively build your deck facing ever-escalating challenges. Lots of different聽opponents on always different maps.聽