At Spel Antwerpen 2025, I had the pleasure of meeting Robby Boey, founder of Pontifex Games. He was full of energy behind his stand and introduced me to his first game, Abbates, a game he developed and released in collaboration with Bornem Abbey. If you’d like to find out more about Pontifex Games, you can read the in-depth interview with Robby Boey here.

Intro
Step into the shoes of an abbot in the beautiful abbey in Bornem and collect as many art treasures as possible, but hey… wait!!!! Stay close to the Abbot General!

Rating

Overall	8
Story	10
Game system	9
Design & art	7
Replayability	9

Abbates is a challenging strategic puzzle, set and collection game, offering plenty of challenge for 1–4 players aged 12 and over. Abbates takes around 45 minutes to play.

The Story

This game was designed in collaboration with Bornem Abbey to introduce players to the abbey’s history in a playful way. You take on the role of an abbot from Bornem Abbey. You’ll explore the cloister corridors and the cloister itself. You’ll discover all sorts of art, stained-glass windows and artefacts that can be viewed at Bornem Abbey.

The aim of the game is to score as many points as possible by the end of the four rounds and to be as close as possible to the Abbot General. You can score points by, among other things, completing your task card and collecting certain cloister cards, cloister corridor cards and bonus cards.

Game rules

This game is played over four rounds, each consisting of four phases. In the first three phases, you play for a courtyard card, whilst in the fourth phase you play for the cloister card. Each phase consists of three actions:

• Play an Abbot card;
• Performing a courtyard card action and taking a courtyard card (in phase four, only for a corridor card);
• Replenishing the courtyard cards, moving the Abbot-General and determining the new starting player.

A round
Phases 1 to 3 consist of the following actions:

1. Playing an abbot card

At the start of the game, you begin with a set of 13 abbot cards (only at the start of the game).
Which card you play during this action affects the course of the phase and determines your starting position in the next phase.

• If you play the lowest card during this action, you become the starting player in the next phase.
• If you play a high card and it turns out to be the highest card during this action, you are the only one allowed to perform the cloister action and are the first to choose a cloister card.

You can also choose to let the beans determine your choice. This allows you to help place the Abbot-General in the spot you desire.

Once you have considered your strategic choice, you may proceed to play a card.

Play an abbot card from your hand face-up on the table next to your abbot portrait.

There are a few conditions attached to this:

• You are not allowed to play a card with the same value as another player’s.
• Look at your Ora et Labora card: this is different for every player. It lists conditions for playing cards. If you meet that condition, move your abbot on your Ora et Labora card one space forward. If you can achieve this in all four phases, you will receive a Benedictus bonus card in phase 4.

Benedictus card: this is a card with a value of 14. You can use it in the game and play it from your hand. The advantage of this is that there is no higher card, which means you are guaranteed to win the phase. However, once played, the card is removed from your hand and you do not receive any extra points for it. If you choose to keep this card in your hand until the end of the game, it is worth 1 point. In this way, you can earn four cards throughout the game.

Please note: this is not compulsory!

If you do not meet this condition in a subsequent phase, place your meeple face down next to the row and you can no longer compete for a Benedictus bonus card this round.

If you have played the highest card, place your abbot card at the top of the general chapter board and move the Abbot General forward on the track by the number of white beans.

2. Perform a cloister action & choose a cloister card (in phases 1 to 3)

Perform the cloister action: If you played the highest card in action 1, you are the only player allowed to perform the cloister action from the row/column where the Abbot General is located. Note: performing this action is optional, unless it is specifically stated as a mandatory action on the card.

Choose a monastery card: If you played the highest card in action 1, you are the first to choose a monastery card of your choice from the row/column where the Abbot-General is located. Place the chosen card face up on your abbot’s portrait, in a place of your choice, but within the row/column corresponding to that of the Abbot-General.

The other players now choose, in descending order according to the value of their played abbot cards, a monastery card from the remaining cards. The player with the lowest value may not choose a card, but must take the top face-down monastery card from the draw pile.

When placing your manor card, it is important to look carefully at your task card. If you manage to fill the purple shape with the same type of manor card, you will receive 5 points at the end of the game. If you also manage to fill the remaining spaces of the same colours with a manor card type, you can halve your penalty points at the end of the game.

Move your own abbot token on the general chapter board by the number of black beans on the monastery card you have just placed. You may build on top of a card that you have already placed in this row/column in an earlier phase.

The following situations apply:

• If the number of black beans differs and there are more black beans than on the previous card: move your abbot forward by the difference.
• If there are fewer black beans than on the previous card: move your abbot backwards by the difference.

Each placed monastery card is worth 1, 2 or 3 points (you decide this during the game setup).

3. Restocking and Moving the Abbot-General

Place any remaining courtyard cards from the row/column onto the discard pile. Fill the empty spaces with cards from the restocking piles. Take the cards from left to right and place them face-up in the empty spaces, starting with the Abbot-General. If necessary, continue restocking with cards from the draw pile.

Move the Abbot-General clockwise to the next row/column. The player who played the lowest abbot card becomes the new starting player. Place your played abbot card on your discard pile (except for the winner, who places their card on the chapter board).

Repeat this two more times (phases 2 and 3).

Phase 4

1. Playing an Abbot card
Play this as in phases 2–3.

• Lowest card = starting player for the next round
• Highest card = winner of the phase

If you have fulfilled your Ora et Labora card, you receive a Benedictus bonus card.

2. Taking the cloister card
In phase 4, you play solely for the cloister card. In rounds 1, 2 and 3, they yield bonus points according to the round. In round 4, they yield 1 point per abbot card on the chapter board.

3. End of a round
Once you have completed all four phases, the round ends. The player with the Pandgang card decides which cards are returned to the hand (lowest or highest). Afterwards, each player permanently removes their discard pile from the game.

Move the Abbot General again and determine the new starting player.

A new round can begin! Repeat this until round 4.

End of the game

After four rounds, the scores are tallied. The player with the most points wins.

Content and design

The illustrations and game design are beautifully finished and of high quality.

The rulebook is beautifully finished and features clear graphical examples. At the very back, there is also a section, ‘Lexicon’, which explains the names and terms used in the game, providing a bit of history and background. The game pieces, both the cardboard ones and the wooden meeples, are of good quality, although the colours cause some confusion. The game comes with wooden meeples representing abbots; if you wish, you can also buy an extra bag from Pontifex Games containing meeples with mitres, making the components fit the game even better.

Pontifex Games operates from an ecological perspective. In all aspects of production, careful thought is given to the most environmentally friendly way of designing the game.

Box Content

• 1x Abbey game board
• 4x personal player boards (abbot portraits)
• 52x Abbot cards
• 8x Ora et Labora cards
• 14x Abbot tokens
• 16x Benedictus bonus cards
• 90x Courtyard cards
• 24x Cloister cards
• 16x Mission cards
• 1x Scoring card
• 1x “Henricus” solo variant
• 1x Rulebook (NL)

Conclusie

The game concept is very consistent and well thought out. This ensures that Abbates plays very smoothly and has an enjoyable dynamic. When played in its full form, as described in this review, it is a challenging game. It requires sound decision-making and tactical thinking regarding which strategy to adopt.

Robby Boey felt it was important that the game could also be played with novice board game players and has therefore included three other beginner variants in the rulebook. As the game was created in collaboration with Bornem Abbey, he wanted as wide an audience as possible to be able to get to know this abbey through play. A solo variant is also included in the rulebook.

The game is designed in such a way that you can omit certain layers when playing with beginners or younger children; this is a very good mechanism and certainly deserves praise.

A few points of criticism: the text in the rulebook feels rather jumbled, and the overview is sometimes hard to find, which means it isn’t immediately clear. I feel a clear structure and flow are missing here.

Given that points can be earned across many different tracks in the game, it would feel more logical to me if a score pad with the various score fields were included.

The colours of the player cards and the meeples differ quite a lot, which I find a pity. I did ask the designer about this, as I found it hard to believe that Robby would make such a choice. It turns out this is indeed because the Abbey used their own house colours. You won’t find this in other games that weren’t created in collaboration with Bornem Abbey

This, of course, does not detract from the game itself.

This game was well received and inspired Robby Boey to create and publish more games, and that is how Pontifex Games came into being. In his other games, he gives a lot of thought to the ecological aspect and how he can integrate this himself. In the meantime, the games Sacra Maioritas and Via Peregrina have been released. He believes it is important that heritage is not lost and that it can be appreciated through play.

Abbates is the only game from Pontifex Games that has been published physically in Dutch. The game itself is language-independent and the rules in ENG – DE – FR can be found on the page on BoardGameGeek.

In the interview with Robby Boey, which you can find here, I discuss in more detail the origins of the publishing house Pontifex and his passion for developing board games.

Text and photography: Esmeralda Wolf