When you attend a boardgames convention, you usually bring some of the titles in your collection which otherwise do not land on the table so often. This is the time and place when the chance to find people interested in particular game is pretty high – and that way you can remove some of the titles from your “shelf of shame”.

Of course, this is true also for you boardgame buddies and colleagues – they also, among others, are bringing such games. So when during our Wargameron 2024 convention Adam asked me if I would like to play a classic Martin Wallace title – Pericles, published in 2006 – I said, why not, let us try this!

About the Game

Perikles is a game designed by Martin Wallace, and published from Warfrog Games in 2006. This is almost 20 years old game which still can provide quite a lot of fun!

Players assume the role of a noble family seeking to become the leader of one or more of 6 ancient Greek city-states. The game plays out in two phases:

  • In the first, players vie for area control in each of the six states, which end in elections. Players who win the election in each state can then “control” that state’s army.
  • In the second phase, players use cards to move their armies to attack or defend one of seven battles (each tied to a state, and you can’t attack your own!) that are up for grabs that round.

The gameplay mechanic is straightforward, with elements drawn from other Euro-style wargames (especially Martin Wallace‘s Struggle of Empires). What makes Perikles unique is the smooth integration of the area control/voting phase and the military phase.

Session Report

What is the best way to start sharing the impressions about the game? Definitely by showing the actual plays and session reports which can explain the game flow and give the feeling what it is all about. Through they years of running this blog I have learnt that picture-rich After Action Report is best suited for such purposes. We shall do it exactly in that way!

So I played with the red color, Adam with the green, Bartosz with the orange and the other Michal with the white. It was first play for all of us in this game so we really did not know what are the differences in size, composition and strengths of the armies. The suspicion was Sparta will lean towards hoplites while Athens towards triremes, but what about the rest? And how to best invest in wars which are about to erupt? (see lower track, so far empty at the beginning of the game).
We were about to learn – some of us, in a hard way.
Now we can see the close-up on the heart of the game – the wars track. First of all, the conflict theaters were randomly drawn (central column, tiles with VPs). Then everybody in turn was committing (secretly!) one unit to land or naval battle in chosen theater. Then you will flip the tiles, check size ratio and roll the dice to resolve the war. Very elegant and straightforward mechanics.
The fight was fierce, in second turn we really grasped the elegant system designed by Martin Wallace and where are the main focus points (spoiler: not one strategy will win you this game!). Poor Bartosz was a bit overrun by the others and the struggle for the first place was decided between two Michals 🙂

First Impressions

That was a real fun playing Pericles, especially after the whole, long day of other heavy wargames. What we took from the play are the following impressions:

  • This is a very elegant, straightforward and easy to explain conflict game. It will take no more than 10-15 minutes to familiarize other players with the rules and maximum 30 minutes / per player for actual session.
  • The war resolution mechanic is vey cool. The way you and other players secretly commit forces and then the roll for resolution feels just about right.
  • The political aspect of the game is abstracted – still, that is fine as you can quickly and clearly asses your influence within each of the main city states.
  • The components are functional – wooden pieces, simple map, ordinary counters. For a 20-years old game completely ok; for the current times – a bit old-fashioned.

To sum up, I enjoyed this small, classic game very much. I am fully aware that in some areas – especially graphics – it might not live up to today’s standards. There will be also question of replayability after 3-4 games. Still, it is just the right title to close the day after long, intense convention time. Definitely try it by yourselves!