From: Wray Ferrell Subject: Successors - A Quick Review I got my game yesterday and was able to play the four player version today. My first thoughts: o The game components are very nice. I like AH's trend of charging more for thier games, but getting higher quality components. The game cost me $49.99 o There was not as much player interaction as I expected, but this probably has a lot to do with us being unfamilar with the rules. Not knowing how a game plays tends to make people conservative. o The game should play different every time since each person is dealt two generals at random and each general has a different starting location and army strength. Still not sure if it better to have two generals close to each other to help renforce each other, and two apart so you have a better chance of grabbing more provinces. o Order of play o Player with the least number of victory pts decides who goes first, then play continues in clock-wise order. o Label the usurper. (This is the person with the most victory pts) You can attack them and not lose legitimacy points o Renforcement phase (Skipped on turn one) Two mercenary units to all players 1 macedonian CU to the player with the most legitimacy points 1 macedonian CU to the player who controls Macedonia 2 mercenary units to the player with the most victory points o Shuffle and deal Tyche cards o Player 1 plays card and moves, then player 2 ect.. until all cards have been played o Check for marker isolation o End of turn o Very little reinforcements in the game. o Battles are very one-sided. The victory _may_ lose 1 CU, while the loser loses all mercenary and elephant units with his army and the remaining macedonian units must ungo attrition. ie only attack when you must or you are assured of winning. o Different units have different strengths. Mercenary's have battle str of 1, macedonian's have battle str of 2, the silver shield have a battle str of 3, and each elephant has a battle str of d6 -2. o In a battle, each side adds up thier battle strength as above. Two dice are rolled. The battle rating of the general leading the army is the lowest each die can roll. So a general with a battle rating of 3 that rolls a 1,2 would be a 3,3. A roll of 5,2 would be 5,3. Cross-index the roll with your battle str gives you a #. The other army does the same. High # wins. Ties mean both armies lose a CU. o Not really sure what I think about combat, with only two armies and most of your army being destroyed if you lose, losing a battle is a very serious thing, but the game forces you to fight. o Anyway, it is getting late, I will try to post a better review tomorrow. The bottom line is we enjoyed the game even though we were not quite sure what we were doing! I am looking forward to playing again. Wray