So this game isn’t my normal thing I’d pick up, being 2 player only which doesn’t fit into my usual gaming nights, but I received it as a Christmas gift so I thought it best to give it a go. It is based on the 300 Spartans, and I do really enjoy the film, so wanted to see if it’s any resemblance to that.
This Is Sparta
300: Earth And Water comes in a book sized box almost, so can just slot on the shelf. It’s one of this neat magnetic opening boxes too so that works quite well. And designed to be part of a series, this is the 1st game as told by the number 1 on the side, I already have the second and I know there’s two more on the way. Inside you get a game board, stack of cards and a bag full of wooden pieces, nothing complicated about the design and does everything you need. Don’t forget to check inside the rule book, not only does it cover everything for how to play the game but if you flip to the back it breaks down all the cards from the game and the actual historical significance behind each.
So this game isn’t my normal thing I’d pick up, being 2 player only which doesn’t fit into my usual gaming nights, but I received it as a Christmas gift so I thought it best to give it a go. It is based on the 300 Spartans, and I do really enjoy the film, so wanted to see if it’s any resemblance to that.
This Is Sparta
300: Earth And Water comes in a book sized box almost, so can just slot on the shelf. It’s one of this neat magnetic opening boxes too so that works quite well. And designed to be part of a series, this is the 1st game as told by the number 1 on the side, I already have the second and I know there’s two more on the way. Inside you get a game board, stack of cards and a bag full of wooden pieces, nothing complicated about the design and does everything you need. Don’t forget to check inside the rule book, not only does it cover everything for how to play the game but if you flip to the back it breaks down all the cards from the game and the actual historical significance behind each.
We Will Fight In The Shade
In this 1v1 match you can play as either the attacking Persian or the defending Spartan armies. Whichever side you pick will have a different distribution of resources and skills but the gameplay is still basically the same. You have 5 campaigns to determine who takes control of the map. Before the first campaign each side will set up their starting troops and boats around their major cities.
Each campaign begins with the sides gathering and spending resources (Talons) in a particular order. The Persians begin by spending their Talons to purchase cards from the deck, then using the remaining to recruit troops, boats or build a bridge to the mainland. After this the Spartan side gets to do the same, although they don’t have the bridge option. Then you proceed to the action part of the campaign, again with the Persians leading first. Each action requires you to spend a card, then either do what it says on the card for your side or just disregard the text and perform a basic move action. If you move any troops or boats into the same location as your opponent then there will be some dice chucking combat until one side is eliminated or decides to retreat, if possible.
A player can choose to pass if they don’t want to play a card, or must pass if they have no cards, and the campaign continues until both sides pass in succession. Then final steps of the round check that units are supplied, any out of supply are removed, and compares control points between the two armies, whoever has majority moves the point slider towards them by the difference. Then move to the next campaign, and both sides keep doing this until either the end of the 5th campaign or you can control both your opponent’s major cities. At the game end whoever has the points in their favour wins, except in the case that you control your opponent’s major cities in which case you get an automatic victory regardless of points.
Even A God King Can Bleed
The main thing to take note of about playing 300: Earth And Water is how the two sides differ in their asymmetry. The Persians combat strategy is strength in numbers, they use up to 12 Talons per round to buy cards, troops and boats, but boats are more expensive for them costing two Talons each. There’s a limit to how many units they can ship by boat so ideally they want to build the bridge, but this costs 6 Talons to do so. The Spartans only get 6 Talons each round, but it only costs them 1 to buy anything. Their strength is in their combat superiority. When the two sides engage in combat, land or sea, they roll a dice for each unit involved, up to a maximum of three. The Spartan units will use whatever they roll on the dice, but the Persian units have their attack rolls capped at a maximum of 4. The result of combat just compares the highest dice from each side with the lowest losing one unit, or both sides in the result of a tie, meaning that the Spartan side should win the majority of the time when rolling equal dice. Hence why the Persian army wants to outnumber them for the sheer odds of probability to work in their favour. Although when on Persian soil their attacks are slightly better so only capped at a 5, meaning the Spartans can’t just go all out offensive to destroy them.
The game having two different sets of win conditions is a good style to have, regardless of how dominating one side has been over the other, there will always be a chance for them to bring it back and go for a domination victory rather than just winning through points, although very likely the winning player will aim to defend this strategy, but then the question becomes does this weaken them from holding cities for the main objective or not? Players will need to use their resources wisely, each campaign there’s a need to balance buying cards and buying units, not enough cards and you’ll run out of actions to move your troops into position, too many cards and you may not have the troops you need that turn to complete your aims, although this tends to be more of a Spartan problem than a Persian problem.
There is also a decision to be made in how the sides go about attacking each other. The Persian’s can build the bridge to make land attacks possible, but this takes up most of their resources, meaning that whichever campaign they choose to do this in will be slower than normal, allowing the Spartans an easy chance to expand for control points. The other way is to attack through the navy, you can use the boats to move your troops straight into any empty cities, or you can move them into occupied ones, but you’ll have to take on any opposing ships there first before then landing for combat with your infantry. Ship combat is extra dangerous for the attackers, any time you lose a ship all units it’s carrying are lost too, so make sure you’re committed to this route! Ships play another vital role too, supplying units. At the end of each campaign you check that units are in supply, land units need to be able to trace a path through controlled cities to the capital, if you cannot then the units are lost, unless they are in a port city with a boat in the harbour, in which case the ships keep them in supply. So you can use the navy to keep forward units in place or to control any of the island cities, as well as keeping them in port to deter opponent ships from approaching.
A final gameplay point to discuss is the cards, the game only comes with 16 cards in the deck, so you can go through them a couple of times over the game. Each has two halves of text, the top half for the Spartans and the bottom for the Persians, and you use whichever half applies for the army you control. These can have a fair few powerful effects, like bringing out more units, removing enemy ones from the map or even bypassing combat restrictions. One very important card though is The Death Of The King, this card has a unique effect on the Persian half, so if the Spartans get it then nothing happens, but if the Persian player draws it then the campaign instantly ends for the death of the king. There is no point scoring and all cards the Persian player already drew are discarded. So the game could only actually be three campaigns long depending on the card draws!
Tonight We Dine In Hell
When playing this I found something different the anticipated. It’s clearly a wargame and I expected something akin to the older ones with lots of dice rolling and table consulting and was pleasantly surprised to find something different. Not completely different, there’s still dice rolling to determine combat in the old Risk style of chuck a few dice each and highest wins. But with only one unit lost per combat it means even super rolls from one side won’t decimate the other. There are still times when one lone unit takes out a whole army by themselves, but not often as the Persian capped roll but more troops helps to balance it out. This feels like a much more modern style of conflict, including the double use of cards where you either have effects or burn them to move troops. Also, this card use of pass gives a new layer of strategy, if you don’t want to play any cards then pass your turn, but if you’re ahead on points then your opponent can’t afford to pass back otherwise they’ll lose ground on this campaign. Add in that at the end of the round the Spartan player can keep up to 4 cards, while the Persian can only keep 1 at most, so the Persians are in much more need to offload their cards every turn.
Speaking of the cards, as said the deck is only 16 cards deep, so it’s possible to know what sort of cards are expected to come out, this means experienced players will have advantage over newer or more inexperienced ones. In the last game I played as the Persians when it came around to campaign 4 there was only one card left in the deck and we both had empty hands, as I hadn’t seen The Death Of The King I knew it was there, so I purchased no cards and used all my Talons to buy troops, my opponent purchased some cards and picked it up, so I managed to play out the full 5 campaigns which my side needed.
It’s a nice length too, most plays with new players take about an hour to explain the rules and get the whole game through. I would expect repeated plays to go faster, especially if you don’t need to playout the full 5 campaigns.
Overall I think 300: Earth And Water is quite a neat game, not too long for what it does, and the experience feels well balanced, I’ve seen both sides win roughly equal amounts of times, although player experience may have been a factor into this. Sure it does suffer from dice luck with minimal mitigation, but more often than not the expected winner will triumph in combat. I enjoy that it gives several options each turn for how to attack your opponent. The Spartans have access to cheaper boats to easily move onto the island cities for point majority over the Persians. The cards drawn and played matter too, some key ones at crucial timings can really swing the game, which again means experienced players will have the advantage knowing what to look for, or where to place units, one such card allows the Persian player to lockdown Sparta for the campaign stopping them from moving troops or playing Sparta events. The good thing is with such a small deck you’ll always see the cards multiple times, so don’t end up with any locked away that don’t show up, and I would recommend players check both halves of the cards when drawn just so they know what could be out there after the card has been played. And whilst I haven’t seen it yet, the option of taking your opponent’s major cities to win outright means regardless of how badly you’re doing, there’s always a chance, no matter how slight, to pull back a victory. “Remember this day, men, for it will be your for all time.”
