It was a time of myth and legend. When fabled warriors inspired lesser men by
the thousands to rise above their mundane lives and march into history’s pages. While old kings squabbled over land and power
and wealth, they fought for glory and honor and love. Now you can relive the most epic conflict of
the ancient world. All because of a
woman.
How it Plays
Iliad is a battle game, loosely themed on the Trojan War,
where players build up their armies – represented by cards – in order to attack
each other and win victory points. The best
general – as in the shrewdest manager of his/her hand over successive rounds –
will triumph.
Everyone begins a standard game with twelve Army cards
representing various units. There are
three other decks, as well. Oracle cards
determine the manner in which individual rounds are fought. Hero cards boost your army’s strength. And fighting over the Victory cards is the
point of the whole affair to begin with.
Oracle cards determine what kind of siege is conducted in a
given round. One type lasts until every
player has passed with first choice of Victory card awarded to the strongest
army – and then sometimes the second and/or third strongest with picks, as well. The weakest army is saddled with a
penalty. In the second siege style,
battle continues until one player achieves the strongest army at the start of his/her turn.
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| The spoils set up for the first round. |
Game play involves one of three, simple actions. You can place a unit from your hand to your
tableau – otherwise known as your army.
You may attack an opponent with one of your units already in your
army. Or you can simply pass, which is
not really an action despite the need
for game publishers to universally label it so.
Building up armies is the heart of Iliad because size equals
victory points. But not all units are
actually worth anything. Hoplites do the
grunt work, befitting infantry’s historic role in warfare. These cards are rated anywhere from 1 to 4,
but stacking them creates phalanxes which vastly increases their aggregate
value. The catch in creating these
formations is that you can only place a Hoplite of lower value on top of
another. Ironically, Hoplites cannot
attack. Archers can, but they’re only
worth 1 point towards army strength.
Chariots, meanwhile, are worth 3 strength points and are the only unit
that can attack straight from your hand without having to be first placed in
your army on a previous turn.
Elephants, while not worth anything individually and unable
to attack, may carry up to two other units, doubling their values (however,
these combat pachyderms cannot carry Chariots – you have to give the designer
props for theme on that one).
Additionally, an Archer on an elephant may pick off any Hoplite within a
stacked phalanx. Otherwise, they are
restricted to eliminating only the front ranks, which means the lowest strength
Hoplite.
Attacks in Iliad smack of an intricate style of rock-paper-scissors
- kamikaze style! The unit that attacks
is also lost, so use this action wisely.
Archers can take out Hoplites or other Archers. Chariots can also assault Hoplites and
Archers, but not if your opponent has a Harrow for protection. If you want to eliminate an opposing Chariot,
you need a Ballista or Catapult.
Ballista can also hit Elephants, while Catapults are formidable war
machines that destroy all other siege instruments, yet can’t seem to hit Hoplites
or Archers.
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| What you're fighting for...Victory cards. And Helen! |
Finally, any game loosely themed on the Trojan War would be
remiss without the Trojan Horse. Play
this card to your army and then hide any number of Hoplites or Archers in it
that you want and are able. These units
are protected from attack and not revealed until the end of the game. Unless an opponent destroys your Horse with a
Catapult, in which case your men have to file out and line up per the normal
rules of warfare. Don’t dismay too much,
because you can try the tactic again.
That’s right…Iliad has more than one Trojan Horse! Perhaps if they built a large, wooden rabbit?
This brings us to the non-action action – passing. In the most common type of siege, the first
player to pass gets his/her pick of the available Hero cards. These inspirational warriors can add lots of
strength to your army and are protected from attack. However, when you pass you also forfeit any
right to continue for the round. This
means that your army can still serve as target practice for other players. Even though you might acquire a strong Hero
by passing early, you could end up hopelessly watching the rest of your army
dwindle away.
In a standard game, the player who first earns 12 victory
points immediately wins the hand of the lovely Helen. Such was the fate of influential women in
ancient times. And if she doesn’t float
your boat, well I guess you’ll have to settle for bragging rights. Sorry.
No one said life is fair. Just
ask the Trojans.
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| Oracle cards determine the type of siege...and look a little creepy. |
Does it Launch 1,000
Ships, or is it an Achilles’ Heel?
Do you know what María Corda, Rossana Podestà, Irene Papas, Yvonne
Furneaux, Sienna Guillory, Galyn Görg, and Diane Kruger all have in
common? They’ve all portrayed Helen of
Troy in a movie or television series. I
actually thought there would be way more
than that. I mean, a Trojan prince runs
off with the most gorgeous woman in the Hellenic world – who just happens to be
Queen of Sparta – instigating the largest war to date with a thousand ships,
mythical warriors bigger than life, and one of the most famous military legends
of all time. It’s like Homer was a Hollywood
producer! You can’t tell me this stuff
isn’t ripe for entertainment, but Duck Dynasty is?!
Interestingly, there are also very few hobby games covering
the theme, and those are usually war games.
Exactly where are our hopelessly romantic game designers, these
days? Oh well, I’d say that Iliad is
more Trojan-flavored, rather than
Trojan-themed, anyway. Which is
fine. After all, you can’t really expect
the real thing. And actually, there have been several other
actresses who have taken on Helen’s role over the years in non-traditional
interpretations. But despite all of
their loveliness, I’m sure none could match the real Helen’s timeless beauty.
The most intense and interesting element to Iliad’s hand management aspect is the three-card – and three cards only – reinforcement phase to begin each new siege. It can also be the most frustrating part, if you botch it. Nabbing the best available Hero card by passing first is tempting. Not only do you increase your army’s strength by that warrior’s value, but you conserve cards for later sieges. However, bowing out too soon could leave you vulnerable in the current round, thus negating the benefit of the hero you just claimed.
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| A pretty decent army. |
On the other hand, if you commit a lot of troops to one
individual siege, you’ll likely be too weak in subsequent turns. If so, you may have to sit out a siege or two
in order to gather cards. That’s not
always a terrible thing when that round’s Victory cards are of low value. But if Helen and her 5 points become
available, you’ll be kicking yourself for squandering troops prematurely.
Since replacements are few, you also need to be savvy on the
offensive in order to avoid a one-step forward, one-step back scenario. Frequent, pell-mell attacks will quickly
prove fruitless as your army whittles down in size, strength, and defense. This is especially true when attacking with
Archers and Chariots. Attack with them,
and they’re gone. Hold them back, and
hopefully protect their values for victory.
The balance between unit strength and ability is well
designed. Archers are potentially deadly
as they can take out Hoplites greater than their own value. So expending one to take out a 4-strength
Hoplite is a net positive in your favor.
Meanwhile, Chariots can take out an Archer, so you have to consider
carefully the cost of loosing 3 strength points to your opponent’s 1. Is a pre-emptive attack worth the price to
defend your Hoplites? Only you can
decide.
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| The two baddest boys on the block. |
The replacement limit keeps Iliad from devolving into a
simplistic affair where the best hand simply wins every round. Rather, it creates a tactical give-and-take
between players who may yield the field to their foes one round in order to
conserve strength for a show of force in the next – or wait for the worthiest
Victory cards before striking hard. The
mechanic also reduces chaos. Access to a
large pool of cards, coupled with the design’s admittedly sharp interactive
nature, might tend to favor frequent and indiscriminate attacks. Instead, attacks actually matter, are
generally more focused, and carry consequences for both the attacker and
defender.
As a result, the 2-player variant is unfortunately
anti-climactic and lacks depth. The
tactical card play and strategic hand management just doesn’t shine. Further, the chance of setting up your
opponent for an easy counterattack is exacerbated since they only have to worry
about you. With three or more players, however, the game
scales very well. The 4- and 5- player
configurations are especially interesting as the second strongest (in a 4-player
session) and then third strongest (with 5-players) armies in every normal siege
also get Victory cards. This both
enhances and complicates hand management.
If you don’t want to commit towards total victory, you can settle for a
consolation prize. Figuring out the
optimal time to pass and conserve, however, can prove problematic.
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| Heroes boost your army...and look freaking cool! |
With a higher player count, there can be a gang up on the
leader element. That’s a fact of life
for these free-for-all combat games. If
that presents a problem for you or your gaming group, the team version offers a
unique solution. Game play is
essentially the same, army strength is still calculated individually in sieges,
but partners aggregate their Victory point cards for winning the game. In essence, you have a permanent ally. A standard option for two teams of two is
included. However, you can also play
with three teams of two, which is rather different. In any event, Iliad is a rare design that
really works well for 5-6 players.
Iliad has a good deal of replayability. First of all, there are two types of sieges,
thus two different ways to play a particular round. Granted, one kind of siege only comprises two
of the 10-card Oracle deck, but it nonetheless mixes things up, and at
unpredictable times at that.
Furthermore, the variety of units, the disparate ways in which they
interact, and the rate in which they come out ensures that each game will play
a little differently. The one drawback
to the possible combinations is that it creates a learning curve, both in
remembering which units can attack who, and then in using them effectively.
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| Chariots can't attack when a Harrow is in place. |
The theme, as I think I’ve mentioned, is pretty loose and a
bit wonky. I like the fact that Helen is
a Victory card. Plus, if you have a
majority in one of the other two types of Victory cards, you get a deity’s
favor tile for an extra point. And the
mythical warrior-kings represent the legendary heroes of the ancient conflict. However, there are elephants, for some
reason, as well as multiple Trojan horses.
Chariots weren’t really used as an offensive weapons platform. And Nestor was actually so old at the time of
the battle that the Trojan hero Memnon refused to fight him. But those aren’t major quibbles. What is odder are the arbitrary rock beats
scissors beats paper type pairings.
Hoplites can’t attack? Catapults
can’t hit Hoplites? And Archers can’t
pick off Charioteers? Oh, and most
peculiar of all – when you think about it, we have Greek fighting Greek…in the, you know, Trojan War!
So with more of an Achaea vs. Troy flavor, the production
quality is left to pick up the slack. On
that point Iliad delivers a near perfect score.
The cards are a hefty stock and the tiles nice and thick. The rulebook is one of the better examples I’ve
encountered – clear, concise, and well organized. Yet it’s the artwork that shines above all
else. While I was not an art major in
college, having actually graduated in four years, the illustrations here are
some of the best in the hobby. The graphics
are aggressive and bold, with earthy colors, and crisp detail. They do a great job of depicting ancient
warriors and siege engines to vibrantly deliver the theme’s spirit. I’ve actually considered buying another copy
of the game just to frame and display the artwork. Alas, my wife refuses me a Trojan War themed
room in the house. I even said she could
already play the part of Helen. It didn’t
work.
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| The face that launched a thousand ships...? |
Iliad packs a lot of game into a mere 110 cards. It’s not a brain-burning, hardcore, strategic
design. There is some randomness, and
the various ways units interact present a bit of a learning curve. However, what it does offer is variability,
tough decisions, bluffing, a unique theme, and some old-fashioned fun. It may not match Helen’s legendary beauty,
but it’s a keeper for any average Joe.
Pros:
Simple rules and turn structure
Tense hand-management
Good replay value
Scales very well at 3+
Great artwork
Cons:
Inherent luck of the draw aspect
With 2 players, play something else
Does have a learning curve
Theme is shaky if that matters to you
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