Who wants to learn a bit of Latin? Well, 'Deus' means god, which is appropriate because the board game Deus is a game all about Romans worshipping their gods. I mean, it's mostly about conquering a map and slaying 'barbarians', but there's some temple building, and making offerings to Jupiter, mixed in as well. Godlier still: you can currently get it on Amazon for $30 - 50% off the off the typical $60 asking price!
Deus is a tableau building strategic war board game. As the turns go by, you'll gradually build up columns and columns of structures that all grant different beneficial effects. These buildings are placed both on the map and into your tableau.
The game rewards you for 'going tall' and constructing lots of structures of the same type, since whenever you build a new structure, it activates the abilities of every building stacked below it in the tableau. Maybe you'll have the best farms in the Roman empire, or you'll set up a sprawling network of military outposts that would make Caligula envious. You can't just focus on one thing, though, since in order to construct a temple (which grant victory points and act as one of the game's ending conditions) you must have a building in every column of your tableau.
You can also discard cards to make offerings to the gods. What this does depends on the specific god that you're praying to, but beneficial effects include gaining resources, accumulating victory points, and enabling the construction of new buildings.
The game ends either when every temple from the supply has been built, or when every barbarian on the map has been vanquished for victory points.
Do you prefer building tableaus or sending armies of miniatures across maps? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord community.
Deus may not be on our all time list of the best board games, but Total War Rome earns itself a spot. And if this stuff is your bag, you should definitely check out our buyer's guide to the best strategy board games too.