Byzantion: The Justinian Era

Byzantion is a deeply thematic, highly detailed competitive miniature board game set in the shadowed halls of imperial power.

In Byzantion, you assume the role of one of the four great Demoi, powerful factions that influenced the fate of the Eastern Roman Empire during the reign of Autokrator Justinian. Across nine rounds, players face a series of nine randomized historical events (ensuring replayability), revealed at the start of the game, allowing for long-term strategic planning and political maneuvering.

At the beginning of each round, factions vie for influence over the Emperor’s decisions. Through a bidding system, players attempt to sway Justinian toward one of two possible responses to each crisis:

“Should we pay ransom to the pirates ravaging our shores, or raise a fleet to crush them? Should we send the clergy to pacify a rebellion, or unleash the army to drown it in blood?”

Each decision reshapes the course of the Empire and history itself. Once a path is chosen, all factions must contribute to its execution. Success rewards the most committed faction; failure punishes the least. Your ability to anticipate, adapt, and manipulate will offer your Victory points and determine your legacy.

To meet the challenges ahead, you will recruit renowned personalities and specialists of the time from all kinds of trades. “Build your engine“ and secure the required resources to meet the challenges that history will unveil.

But this is the Byzantine court, where daggers are as sharp in the shadows as on the battlefield.
Use diplomacy to align rival interests with your own.
Employ espionage to outmaneuver your enemies with your intrigue cards.
Strike alliances, break them, and strike again, at just the right moment.

At the game’s end, unveil the secret objectives you’ve fulfilled, adding their value to your accumulated Doxa (Victory Points). Only then will it be revealed which faction truly ruled from behind the veil, the unseen hand that shaped the Emperor’s will and steered the fate of Byzantium.

—description from the designer