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All issues placed in the same Theater are stacked, so the first one placed will be the last one resolved in a theater. In addition if your factions’ city state Symbol is not on top of the stack when it comes time for you to select and resolve an issue, you can’t pick any of your issues below it. Thus, When you place the issue is as
important as Where. For example, you have a League issue in an uncontrolled theater awaiting resolution – a faction from a another city state places a League issue on top of yours. When it’s revealed, the enemy places a base in the theater making it controlled, so your league issue there is suddenly useless.
If you to take a look at some action, including a military expedition and battle, the most intricate of the games mechanics, refer to the box to the left.
Expeditions and battles are expensive on both sides – in the example, Sparta would have spent half of their available strategos – but occasionally, you gotta
IThe Battle of the Hellespond
t’s turn 3 of the 1st Pelopennesian War all factions secretly committing strategos So the opening battle looks like one campaign; the Aristophanes card is tokens. The Agiad King commits the max- Athenian ship (2 points) + five strategos Peace A with the Will of the Assembly imum of 5 – which will allow him to move + 1 base (2 points) for seven points total
for Sparta demanding to build or convert a base in Hellespont. As the Agiad King (the current controlling faction in Sparta looks at his map, he sees essentially a clear path to Hellespont through neutral theaters which is currently being held by Athens and the Delian League, with a base, one Delian ground unit and one Athenian ship. To build a base, the King knows he need to at least contest the the- ater if not outright control it first before he can build a base. In Theater issue terms, he has to generate and resolve a military expedition to force a
battle, then resolve a
League issue to create
a base. Thus during the
issue placement he will
place the League issue
before the Military issue
in order to resolve them
in Hellespont in reverse
order. However, some
preparation has to take
place since the Helles-
pont is a Naval Theater
(blue border) thus the first battle to be fought will be a naval battle, so Sparta must build up naval units where they can.
(Note about assembly targets: the other side knows what you are trying to do and what the consequences are for failing to do it. So in this case the Athenians are aware that Sparta is targeting Helles- pont – just as Sparta is aware that Athens needs to do the same on Sicily)
By the time the Spartan Military issue in Hellespont is revealed, the dastardly Athenians have already resolved a League issue of their own on Hellespont building two more Delian land units. But Sparta has built up the fleet at the Isthmus of Corinth from four to six naval units.
Now it’s time for Sparta to march to War. The military expedition starts with
five land/naval units to the Theater. His Eurypontid compatriot – after the debates they’re both Spartan and work for Sparta together – commits four. The Athenian opposition commits three and two, with their eyes still on Sicily.
The Spartans can now move up to nine units to Hellespont. For the land units the only potential problem is the Boeotia Theater which is a contested theater, with a Delian land unit, a base and an Athe- nian ship. The Delian League sports three points of land military strength there (one
verses four Peloponnesian ships (one point each for four points) + 10 strat- egos for 14 points. Each side draws a card from their unused deck; Sparta pulls a 2 and Athens pulls a 5. Battle totals then are Sparta 16, Athens 12. Athens has only one unit to lose – its ship, while that causes the loss of 2 Peloponnesian ships. For this battle the Agiad king gains 1 point of Honor for the destroyed Athenian ship, plus five extra points, for Hostages – a Spartan naval win creates Hostages just as an Athenian Land vic-
tory does. His Eurypo- ntid compatriot gets a point for the lost ship.
With the naval battle out of the way, the land battle (a second battle is optional) takes place: in this case two Delian league and one Athe- nian land unit total a point each for three + the 5 strategos and one base (2) for a total
of 10. The Spartans counters with three land units (2 points each for six) + 10 strategos for 16. Card draw is Sparta 1, Athens 2 so the totals are Sparta 17, Athens 12. Athens can lose up to 5 units and thus loses all three of its land units. Sparta has a single point of potential casualties left with its 300 counter, but that’s not enough to destroy the Delian Base (two additional casualty points were needed), so the Theater remains contested.
Only three enemy land units (four were needed) were destroyed so Sparta escapes with no losses at all. Both Eury- pontid and Agiad received three Honor points for the destroyed units, while the Athenian factions both lose four total from the battles at Hellespont.
base and one land unit) while the Pelo- ponnesian League has four land units and a base for six strength points, so Sparta doesn’t have to leave any land units there to “match” enemy strength. It moves three land units from Sparta, plus the Spartan 300 unit which is also a strategos and can self deploy.
Because it’s a naval theater Sparta also moves six Peloponnesian ships from the Isthmus of Corinth to the battle but this time Boeotia causes a problem. The Athenian ship is worth 2 strength point in combat, so two of the Peloponnesian ships (worth one each) will have to stay in Boeo- tia to allow the other four to move on.
Note that the opposing city state does not move units; their contribution to defense is their strategos.
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