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A Hellas of a Game
History of the Ancient Seas is massive. I have the kickstarter compendium that includes all 3 Ancient Seas games: Hellas, Dies Irae and Mare Nostrum which comes in the biggest box in my collection holding over 700 wooden pieces, 4 huge maps and 16 player aid sheets. Up to 5 players are expected to take 3 hours minimum to get the best out of it!
This is the first of the three games – Hellas. This is a two player contest between the Greek City states of Athenae and Sparta. It is centred on a map of the Greek peninsula and the Ionian Sea, extending to the Western edge of Turkey in the East and, somewhat too close, Sicily in the West.
By the way Hellas itself (sold separately) is no slouch in the table-filling department with its 85 x 60 cm map board (plus a reduced to A3 size copy for the Peloponesian War scenario), 2 separate Player Boards, large Development Chart, 2 foot long Merchandise control Table, separate Cost table plus a couple of A4 example boards with 241 playing pieces and 38 cards for the Solo variant. This is not a travel game or to paraphrase Jaws “you’re gonna need a bigger table!”
Your goal is to become the predominant empire measured by getting 10 VPs. Alternatively if your opponent slips into Revolution on the Stability track you’re left supreme. These VPs are gained by building monuments, reaching a Golden Age of Development or Stability and by controlling Islands and Provinces across the Eastern Mediterranean. There’s 17 of these VPs available for each player so you can choose different strategies to get there. While we’re on about strategies the designer Karl Hausser is keen to point out there are no dice or cards, victory is based on your skill with no luck involved. Rather more ominously that it is a very intense game where a single mistake can come back to haunt you even three hours later. We’re gonna need a longer life!
What the Hellas are you doing?
Each turn Players alternate taking 5 Actions out of the 8 available. There are restrictions on playing an Action more than once and crucially you can not make the same Action immediately after your opponent. This can make for interesting blocking Actions in your turn.
The actions are the usual moving Armies and Fleets and building Units, Trade Posts, Fortresses and Monuments. You can also Develop Skills and enhance your Stability. You can, of course, make attacks and more unusually ask for an armistice if your battle is not going well. These Actions are marked on the Action Wheel so both can see what has been done.
The starting forces are somewhat asymmetric with Sparta leaning towards the land with 4 Legions and only 2 ships whilst Athenae has 3 of each. Sparta has more money 100 Talents to 80 and has a Stability level of +1 to Athenae’s -1. Note the pieces represent a finite limit of availability, Sparta can have a maximum 20 legions to Athenae’s 16 whereas Athenae can have twice as many fleets 12 to 6. Both have the same number of other pieces available.
Get the Hellas out of here
The game itself is essentially a 4X style (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) venture like Civilization as you move across the map setting up Trading Posts for key resources and controlling Provinces and Islands for VPs. Whilst doing this you will also advance along the Development Track in the 4 areas of: Military; Fleets; Economy; Culture.
There are 9 steps, that increase In cost to take, to each of these, taking you through four Phases. When you reach the end of a track you also gain a VP. These steps will require certain conditions to be met before you can take them and whilst they will give you various in play bonuses they also mean an increase in cost to the units and structures you build.
Hellas Hath No Fury
One of the main bonuses is an increase in strength to your armies and fleets. Combat is quite stylised with units having a Combat Value (CV). Each sides CVs are added up and each total of 3 kills an enemy unit. As all the units start with a CV of 1 it is hard to succeed in the early stages before you have advanced on the Development chart. Defensive terrain like mountains and Fortresses make this harder still.
So the first part of the game is all about spreading through the area and gathering resources. This is also the best time to buy your Trading Posts, Fortresses and units whilst they’re cheap.
As the game progresses and all the Trading Posts fill the map you are forced to look further afield like Turkey and Sicily. Note you can’t easily get across to Sicily until your fleets have got to the 2nd stage, appropriately enough Biremes, and can move 5 hexes a turn.
Alternatively you start to take Trading Posts and Territories off your opponent. As you progress through the Development Table your Armies and Fleets become a lot stronger but then so does your opponent. The combat system doesn’t increase defence but raises the number of casualties making warfare an expensive business.
So a lot of the latter stages involve trying to outmanoeuvre your opponent rather than just bludgeoning them until someone gets the 10 VPs or watches the other fall into Revolution.
Go to Hellas?
There is a lot to Hellas (and remember this is just the first of three increasingly larger games). It is well thought out, the rules are lengthy but are split into 2 columns with examples and explanations in the 2nd column. With 26 pages of them I’m not sure I can agree with Karl Hauser’s assertion that “Hellas is not a complicated game” but once you get the hang of the systems it is straight forward enough.
The blocking moves on the Action wheel are key and there is a lot of “take that” style moves to thwart your opponent. I’m finding Hellas hard to rate as you need to find someone who is interested in the era and is willing to trade blows with you for a 3-hour session (3,4 or 5 such people for the later games) and I’m struggling to find said player(s). My usual style of play: Multi-Player Solo does not really get the full benefit out of the game.
Thus Archimedes to the rescue! Archimedes is the name of the solo module designed to take the place of any one opponent. In the case of Hellas the only opponent. The Archimedes system consists of a Rule Book, a set of AI cards and a AI order sheet detailing the actions that will be taken. Unfortunately my set did not have this sheet! I have, subsequently been able to download a copy from the “Sound of Drums” website but it does mean I haven’t tried it out yet. Their website did quote excellent reviews for it though.
This lack brings me to a couple of production niggles. As well as the missing sheet my 3 Greek Fleet tokens were labelled I, II, II instead of I, II, III. The map board is printed with very faint grey hexes, only marked at the vertices. Whilst this does lead to a more immersive feel it can make it difficult to count hexes in all but the strongest of light. Also there are a lot of charts and tables and maybe more effort could be made in getting some of the info more readily presented.
Overall I’m not unhappy with Hellas (or History of the Ancient Seas as a whole). It’s a serious game for serious gamers but I’m just not sure how often I’ll set sail with it.
