All Roads

About this board game

All Roads is a 2022 tile-laying game for 2–4 players that plays in about 30 minutes. Develop the surroundings of Rome with Houses, Villas, Spas, and Monuments in a contest where cooperation and competition constantly overlap.

Each player begins with wooden structure tokens and a hand of four tiles. On your turn, place two tiles freely, following one essential rule: every road must connect to Rome. Build dead-ends to place Houses, then enclose them within a road loop to upgrade them to Villas.

• Houses beside a lake can be upgraded into Spas.
• Enclosing empty areas awards valuable Monuments.
• Victory goes to the player with the fewest tokens remaining when all tiles have been placed.

Planning your own development is only part of the challenge. You can place Houses in an area an opponent is working to enclose and let them complete the work, or leave promising moves that encourage others to upgrade your structures. You may even cooperate temporarily on an area containing many Houses.

The balance of power changes as players run low on different types of tokens. A player with few Houses may be eager to focus on upgrades, creating an opportunity for others to add Houses to their area for free upgrades. If opponents have already placed their Monuments, easy monument locations become less important to your plans.

With simple rules and an evolving social dynamic, All Roads is easy to learn while offering considerable depth through tile placement, timing, cooperation, and exploitation.