Epic of the Peloponnesian War, Clash of Arms Games, released fall 2006
Reviewed on 6/1/2007

This was a game I long anticipated, a strategic simulation of the classic 
ancient Greek conflict and the first one since VG's 1991 much simpler game. 
Indeed, immediately after opening the box, it was clear that a lot of effort 
was put into researching the period.

The main game components include a hex-grid map of Ancient Greece divided 
into 26 regions, and units (hoplites, cavalry, light infantry, fleets) 
color-coded for each region. It is primarily a two-player game (Athens vs. 
Sparta) but it can be expanded to three or four players (with Thebes and 
Corinth). The game system combines hex and area movement, and covers land 
and naval battles, sieges and assaults on fortresses. Players collect 
tribute from the regions they control and spend their treasury to build and 
supply units. Numerous named leader chits represent historical commanders, 
whose presence is required to move stacks outside cities. Each region has an 
allegiance (AL) and a militance (ML) rating recorded on a special track, 
which are affected by the military situation and the player's financial 
policies. If a region's AL falls below -3 its control switches to the other 
side, while regions with ML below 5 can't build troops. Time is divided in 
game years, each with four seasons and three campaign turns per season 
(essentially representing months). Tribute is collected yearly while 
revolts, unit construction, AL/ML adjustments, supply, and sieges are 
handled at the start of each season. Raiding, movement, and combat take 
place during the campaing turns. Event cards played every season introduce 
random events like Argos or Persia entering the war, storms at sea, bad 
omens halting operations or (surprise) Alcibiades switching sides. The game 
theoretically has no set time limit. Capturing the opponent's capital or 
home region brings an automatic victory. Otherwise the game can end by 
successful play of a Peace card; victory is then determined by the number of 
regions controlled by each player.

Although apparently promising, the game is disappointing in many respects. 
It is evident that it was prematurely released. Very basic errata were 
published immediately and included with the game, while further rule 
clarifications were posted online. Although beautiful and generally 
well-researched, the map is missing a couple of important cities (notably 
Olynthus in Chalcidice and Oenoe or Panactum in Attica), while some hexes 
seem to belong to multiple regions, which is confusing for play. Several 
historical details (like the antagonism between the Persian satraps of Asia 
Minor) were tastefully included, but several others were left out, leaving 
the gamer cum history buff with much to be desired. The designers decided to 
abstract the war in Sicily in an off-map box, an outright disappointment. 
The oligarchic coup in Athens and the civil war in Corcyra are missing (by 
the way, so is half the historically formidable Corcyran fleet). If players 
agree to a truce, like the Nician Peace, they are forced to evacuate their 
forces from enemy regions (a gross historical inaccuracy ignoring the basic 
reason why the Nician Peace failed). More importantly, the game design 
suffers from what seems to be a perennial problem in Clash of Arms 
creations: unwarranted complexity in some areas coupled with insufficient 
playtesting in others. After becoming familiar with the rulebook, I set up 
to play the campaign game scenario. I could put up with tediously recording 
the AL and ML (were two indexes really necessary?) on a game track with 
insufficient space for chits. I could also initially put up with some bad 
rulebook organization and looked for additional errata online, even though I 
still couldn't figure out if troops in besieged forts were supplied or not 
and other such small but important details. Playing just the first season, 
my frustration climaxed when I realized that it was apparently impossible 
for the Athenians to maintain a siege on the island of Cythera, despite 
their undeniable naval superiority, because of the silly sequence of play 
(basically Sparta can block Athenian sea supply by building a few ships in 
its ports before Athens gets a chance to blockade them). Experienced gamers 
may come to terms with such problems, make up some rules, and continue 
playing. Or they may put everything back in the box and move to another 
game. I decided to do the latter for now.

Gamers familiar with VG's The Peloponnesian War will find this to be a very 
different and richer game. Both players have numerous units they can 
mobilize from each region's force pool, but their main problem is managing 
their finances and carefully choosing which campaigns to fight according to 
their treasury situation. Many campaigns can be fought with local troops, as 
was historically the case (although regions should be given their own 
designated leaders). Unfortunately, and despite its virtues, all the small 
missing details and vague rules in the Epic of the Peloponnesian war give it 
an air of sloppiness which cries out for additional errata and a more 
careful future edition.