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Annotated Games: 4 playersThis game was played during the game testing of Politeia. The players pursued different paths towards the victory.
The action board is coded with black numbers for the number of action markers. The political and geographical boards are coded with colored numbers for the citizens placed there and the resource board lists the face up resources. Finally, the player table shows talents, citizens, talents in stock, citizens removed and hand (resources and buildings). Actions are written with parantheses around actions not taken (i.e. the actions from which action markers are taken and any actions where action markers are dropped without any action taken). Round 1
Athens starts with the action (Trade)->Produce1 and gets 1 talent and 1 resource (Wine) for Athens. The action cost of 1 talent is covered by the turn income. Next, Sparta takes the actions (Produce)->Mobilize1->Intrigue1 to place citizens in Sparta and Ephesus. This costs her all talents (Starting talents 3 - Turn income 1 - Action cost 2 - 2 talents turned to citizens) but puts her in a good position for attacking next turn. Thebes goes for her peaceful strategy with Hellas influence and colonies through the actions (Intrigue)->Influence1->Colonize1, also costing all her talents but getting her a 2nd colony in Syracuse. Korinth improves her economy with (Mobilize)->Produce0->Import1 and earns 1 talent and 2 Grain. Round 2
Athens uses this turn to turn talents into citizens through (Import)->Mobilize0->Intrigue0. Sparta is short of talents but still decides to (Colonize)->Attack1->(Export1), foregoing the second action but uses it to make Export more expensive. With 3 Spartan citizens against 1 Persian citizen and no negative political level, Sparta takes Ephesus without losses. Thebes takes the action of (Export)->Build1->Import0, not only getting her 2 resources but also the Harbor (Import+1) for 1 of the resources. The Harbor also increases the political level again. Korinth also turn talents into citizens through (Attack)->Colonize0->Intrigue1, getting both a citizen in Neapolis and in Phocaea. Round 3
Athens starts balancing her position through (Influence)->Colonize1->Attack0, colonizing Sybaris and attacking Miletus. Sparta chooses (Intrigue)->Tax1->Influence0 and Persian influence+1, for short-term defensive purposes (to discourage the other players from attacking if spreading the citizens too thin) and long-term offensive purposes (to increase strength if and when attacking the other players). Thebes starts building a 2nd resource set through (Build)->Import1->Produce1, getting the Import action for free thanks to her Harbor and earning a net of 1 talent and 3 resources. Korinth takes the two free actions (Tax)->Trade->Intrigue to buy 1 rare Metal for 1 talent and spend 1 citizen to take over Phocaea. Round 4
Athens enters the race for Persian influence through (Colonize)->Influence1->Tax0, although this pushes the Spartan influence to +2. Sparta is grateful and increases her military strength through (Influence)->Tax1->Mobilize1. Thebes accepts the Import cost to play (Produce)->Import2->Export0 (paying only 1 since she has the Harbor) and completes a unique set of 4 resources, earning her 6 talents. This gives Korinth the opportunity to "triangulate" through (Import)->Produce0->Export1->Import0, earning her 1 talent and 2 resources, adding to a set of 4 unique resources worth 6 talents. How will the more military powers Athens and Sparta respond to this? Note that the peaceful round increases the political level again. Round 5
Athens uses the tactical trick (Export)->Maneuver1->Colonize0 to get a new citizen in a colony and immediately move it to Phocaea, where it defeats the Korinthian citizen thanks to Athen's Persian influence. Sparta is more cautious and builds a war treasury first with (Mobilize)->Produce1->Import1, giving her 2 resources. Thebes is even more cautious and uses (Tax)->Influence0->Colonize to increase her Hellas influence and colonial empire. Korinth has no choice but (Produce)->Mobilize0-Intrigue1 to increase her military strength. This pushes the both the Hellas/Persian military strength and political strength towards positive values, bringing a Greco-Persian War closer... Round 6
Athens decides to trigger a Greco-Persian war after first having consolidated her position with (Intrigue)->Tax0->Mobilize1. Both the military and the political level is positive so the war is won by Greece, removing citizens in Miletus (Athens), Ephesus (Sparta), Thebes (Thebes) and Phocaea (Athens). All city-states are kept and Athens earn 2 talents against Sparta's and Thebes' 1 each. Sparta seizes the opportunity to attack and conquer Thebes with (Colonize)->Attack1->Build0 and builds Kerameikos (Produce+1). This stretches the Spartan forces thin but Sparta relies on her Persian influence +2 to avoid immediate retaliation. Thebes realizes this and turns to colonization instead with (Attack)->Colonize0->Intrigue0. Korinth stays out of trouble with (Import)->Produce0->Export0, earning her 1 talent from the free actions, 1 talent from Produce and another 3 talents from Export. Round 7
Athens is in the lead with 10 citizens into play and plenty of talents so she targets the runner-ups Thebes and Korinth with (Maneuver)->Colonize0->Intrigue0, removing the competitors from Neapolis and Phocaea. Sparta uses her newly acquired building to get Produce for free. (Mobilize)->Produce(1)->Trade(1) earns her 2 talents and 2 resources (Grain and Wine), of which the Grain is traded for a Pottery. Thebes gives up the fight for her city-state for now and uses (Attack)->Build1->Export0 to get the Wharf (Export+1) and 2 more resources. Korinth on the other hand decides to give Athens a fight with (Trade)->Mobilize0->Intrigue1 to place citizens in Korinth and Phocaea. Round 8
Athens prepares for a battle with Korinth with (Produce)->Mobilize1->Tax1. Sparta solves her liquid problems once and for all with (Tax)->Trade0->Produce(0), earning her 3 talents (including the turn talent) and Grain and Wine, of which the Grain is traded for a Metal and completing a set of 5 unique resources. Thebes is less fortunate but still goes for (Build)->Export1->Import1, getting both actions for free thanks to her buildings and Metal and Pottery to complete a set of 4 unique resources exported for 6 talents. Korinth launches a surprise attack on Athens through (Intrigue)->Maneuver0->Attack0. This allows her to move the Phocaean citizen to Korinth and then 4 citizens to conquer Athens. In addition, the 3 removed Athenian citizens decrease the political level to -1, triggering a Greco-Persian War with a Persian victory. This hurts both Athens and Sparta, since they lose 2 citizens and have to pay 2 talents. An expensive move for Korinth but will it pay off? Round 9
Athens is still in the lead with 12 citizens entered into play and uses (Mobilize)->Intrigue0->Influence1 to bring the rest of the citizens into play. Sparta cashes in on her resources and prepares an offensive with (Import)->Export2->Mobilize. Thebes "triangulates" with (Export)->Import0->Build->0->Export1, exporting Grain, Pottery, Oil and Metal and building Farm (Colonize+1) with her last Oil. (Paying her last talent now would end the game next turn and Thebes needs to turn more of her talents into citizens first.) Korinth continues her aggression towards Athens with (Influence)->Intrigue1->Mobilize1 to place a citizen in Athens and remove the Athenian from there. Round 10
Athens' only focus now is to turn talents into citizens, this turn with (Intrigue)->Influence0->Colonize1. Sparta reasons likewise with (Mobilize)->Intrigue0->Influence1 and so does Thebes with (Influence)->Intrigue1->Mobilize0, giving her Thebes back from Persia. Korinth would like to join the influence race as well but can't do that in a good way without leaving 3 action markers on an action and instead chooses (Intrigue)->Mobilize1->Produce1. Looking at the score, Athens remains in the lead with 13 citizens in play and +4 influence. Thebes (8 citizens+2 influence+4 build bonus) and Korinth (13 citizens) come next while Sparta is slowly catching up with 8 citizens+3 influence. However, Athens still has 5 talents in stock with few possibilities to clear them and end the game, and with only 5 talents left on the hand to turn into citizens, she can't hope to keep the lead for very long. Thebes and Korinth on the other hand have only 1 talent left in stock each and can end the game when they want to. The question is when this "when" should happen. Round 11
Athens' decides to continue turning talents into citizens as cheaply as possible with (Colonize)->Influence0->Intrigue0. Sparta takes back her lost influence and also takes control of Miletus with (Mobilize)->Intrigue1->Influence1. Thebes finds no better option than (Intrigue)->Influence2->Colonize0. This leaves 3 action markers on Influence but decreases the distance to Athens by passing her in Hellas influence and bringing yet another citizen to a colony. Korinth appreciates the opportunity and chooses (Influence)->Colonize1->Intrigue0->Mobilize0. However, this also triggers Greco-Persian War, since the colonization can't be done without removing an Athenian citizen and bringing the political level to -1. The war mainly hurts Sparta (2 citizens and talents) while Thebes and Korinth only lose 1 citizen and talent each. Athens is left unharmed "thanks" to have been kicked out of Hellas and Ionia in the previous turns. At this point, the test was discontinued with the conclusion that the current action system was too tactical, preventing long-term planning and benefitting "the player to the left", as exemplified by Thebe's move that gave Korinth 3 actions. An new test was started of Version 0.7, giving the players individual action markers to block opponents and set up own action paths. |
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