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REVIEW
Pericles
Not a Casual Game
The Peloponnesian War has always fascinated me. Fought between Sparta and Athens and their allies from 431 to 404 BC, the war had everything: land battles, raids, naval battles, treachery, plague, you name it. The war has been the subject of several wargames, notable Clash of Arms, The Epic of the Peloponnesian War (2006), along with two block games, GMT’s Hellenes (2009) and Columbia’s Athens & Sparta (2007) among others. Into this mix comes designer extraordi- naire Mark Herman with GMT’s Pericles, a four player romp that includes polit- ical infighting, with two players representing different factions of both Sparta and Athens, as well as theater level conflict.
Driving the debates (which in turn drives the theater action) are the cards, Both sides have their own deck and there is the “random” deck, called the Aristophanes deck which pushes certain issues of theater. One Aristophanes card is drawn per turn and established some issues in the debates and some goals for the turn. For example, the Lysistra- ta-C card sets up the diplomatic issue for debate in both assemblies and earmarks theaters for building bases – Athens in Macedonia, Sparta in Thessalia. Success gains honor, failure loses honor as well as some strategos available in the next turn. The goals can be straight forward, like the one above or they can clash as sev- eral require the two sides to go head to head to control a particular Theater. The cards can also take strategos away from each side or – shudder – cause plague. Athens, because of his walls and density, losses a third of its land forces and naval forces, while everyone else loses one land and one naval in all contested Theaters – unless that’s all that’s there.
I Very insightful comments on strategies
The City State decks are two cards in
one, with both factions listed on the same card (upside down and color coded from one another.) Each card also has a numer- ical value which is used in the debate as well as for a random addition in combat. The cards also list issues they are aligned with and, when played in a debate for that issue, can earn strategos and possi- bly win the debate for their faction. For example, the Spartan Gerousia 23 card has a numerical value of 2, and would provide a +3 on a military issue debate and gain two strategos for the Agiad fac- tion. If reversed and played by the Euryp-
ontid faction, the card provides a +2 on a League issue and one strategos.
Accompanying the major compo- nents are two booklets, one for the basic rules and one for scenarios, examples of play, solitaire and “less than four player” rules, plus some very insightful comments on strategies by designer Herman. The example uses the solo rules so you get both a sense of the game as well as how some of the solo rules work. Take your time to read through the
The Spartan factions are named for the two dynasties of the dual kingship system that ruled Sparta, Eurypontid and Agiad. For the Athenians, their two factions come from their dem- ocratic political structure, the Dema- gogues (a popular leader, sometimes a rabble-rouser) and the more conservative Aristocrats. The two factions debate vari- ous issues between themselves vying for political honor and for control of what their city-state and its allies do. Once the debates are settled, their various strate- gies come into play within the Pelopon- nesian theater.
The map used in Pericles is really nice. You have part of it (about a third) taken up by the political maneuvering tracks (aka assemblies), where debate issues are resolved. The other part is a set of 20 theater boxes overlaying a full color map of the Peloponnesian area. The theater boxes are named and color coded des- ignating whether they are Land or Naval theaters. The distinction is vital as it deter- mines what type of primary battle occurs in the Theater. Some are marked with a granary symbol which makes them valu- able – so valuable that if Athens doesn’t
have one in their control, they lose (think starvation.) The Theaters are connected by coded communications lines – naval, land or both – and occasionally include some restrictions, like needing a base in order to move across a line. The coding is not as clear as it could be and will cause some confusion through early playing, but it becomes clear with play. The map is gorgeous and fun to play on.
Units are either small colored squares cubes for land forces (blue and white, for Athens and their allies, the Delian League, respectively and red and yellow for Sparta and its allies the Pelopon- nesian League) or longer rectangles for naval units. Combat value of the units varies with Sparta having better land value and Athens having better naval value as you’d expect. There are two spe- cial meeples – one for Alcibides, the Athe- nian demagogue who had such an effect on the war (and switched sides as well) and one for the Spartan 300. Athens has a special black hexagon representing its State Ships. Finally, there are strategos cylinders; these represent the will or cur- rency for various actions taken in a the- ater. They earned through debate and
used to “push” your will on the map.
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