ILIAD Conflict Games (published by GDW), 1978 Designed by Tim Orisek and Rik Fontana Complexity 4 on a scale of 10 Reviewed by; William Sariego February 2005 With the blockbuster movie Troy still in our minds, gamers may be tempted to dust off copies (or troll the 'Net looking for) of the old classic, Iliad, by Conflict (GDW). The game simulates the battles before the legendary city and is based largely on Homer's epic poem. Like the movie, however, events are condensed to allow action and excitement. In other words, heroic battle as opposed to a 10 year old siege. For those unfamiliar with the game the player's control individual heroes, either Major or Minor; no armies per se. Each side only has an OoB of 30 (23 Minor and 6 Major and 1 special case for each) heroes and begins the game with only ten in play. You are talking low density game here! Heroes are rated for attack, defense, movement, saving throw and victory points. The latter are awarded to the other player if your hero is killed. Saving throws represent the chance (mostly quite low) of Divine intervention saving the hero from death. As an example; Patroclus, a Greek Minor hero of some familiarity, has a 14 attack value, 13 defense, moves 7, with a save of 1, and is worth 3 victory points. Movement values range from 4 to 9. Saving throws are as low as you can get at 0 (impossible) upwards to 5 (50% chance). Every Hero is worth at least one point if sent to Hades, up to a high of 10 for Hector's death (Achilles is 9). Speaking of those two mighty warriors, other than the vp values above, Achilles is 22-22 with 0 save and a move of 6. Hector is 20-19 with a save of 1 and a move of 5. You can freely move, but only attack with 3 Minor and 1 Major hero in your turn. In combat a hero can be forced to retreat, suffer wounds (6 accumulated equals a kill) or be killed out right. Each player has a deck of cards representing Divine intervention in the battle, and each can appeal to the gods for sacrifice points. The latter can be used for many things; increasing a hero's combat values, allowing extra heroes to attack, etc. The cards are the only real detriment for solo play. In addition to killing off heroes, players can score points for being close to the others home base (either Troy or the Greek ships), destroying Greek ships, and breaching or damaging the walls of Troy. Since Achilles is in a funk most of the game (he is one of the Greeks starting heroes) and sulking on his ship and Troy's walls are harder to damage than it is to destroy a Greek ship; you can give the slightest of edges to the Trojan player. There is some chrome to represent the story and associated special rules. The rules concerning Achilles are the biggest. He is basically inactive unless certain game events happen that causes him to leave his ship, hack a Trojan hero to pieces, and then promptly return. Needless to say, the Greek dream move is to attack Hector with Patroclus, with the latter's death resulting. Achilles will come out until he kills Hector in this case. This is a fine little game and I'm certainly glad to have a copy. With the recent movie fresh in our collective minds, you might even use the game to get some sword swinging fantasy gamers to try a board game! Unable to resist tinkering with any game in my collection (some extra counters are included demanding use), I've added the following two heroes as a result. Neoptolemus (son of Achilles) for the Greeks and Priam, King of Troy for the Trojans. Neoptolemus enters play the turn following the death of Achilles (if it ever occurs). There are five Trojan heroes noted as "Sons of Priam". If three of them are killed add Priam the following turn at Troy. Their values are: Name Victory Points Saving Throw Attack Defense Movement Neoptolemus 2 1 12 10 6 Priam 2 2 7 8 4 Both are treated as Minor heroes. Yes, Priam was pretty old but so was Nestor, and he is included in the Greek OoB. Sorry, still no Trojan Horse counter...........