I managed to get Successors onto the table last night along with three friends (the friends were around the table, not on it), and after about 5 hours with an extended tea break interrupting things, we managed to finish the game halfway through the third turn. The good news is that we should go a *lot* quicker next time.
So, what's Successors? Well, perhaps I should use the Greek name for it: Diadochoi. No better? Perhaps some history is in order...
Once upon a time, there was this brilliant general called Alexander. He came from Macedonia and, as one does when you're a brilliant general in the Ancient world, he went winning battles and conquering nations. At that time, the great threat to the classical (Greek) world was that of Persia, and Alexander defeated them - and just kept going east and winning battles, bringing the lands once ruled by Persia under his dominion. Eventually, he reached India, fought a battle there, and turned back. Unfortunately for Alexander, he died on the way back - in Babylon. And it is there that our story starts.
You see, Alexander had no heir to his throne. He had an infant son, an illegitimate son, and an idiot half-brother. And he had a lot of influential generals who wanted to rule his kingdom, and that's where the problem started. The wars of the Diadochoi lasted for the next few decades with the great empire of Alexander becoming more and more splintered...
In Successors, you get to play some of the generals. At the beginning of the game, each of us were dealt out two generals which are placed in the lands they control along with some starting troops.
I had control of Leonnatus (in Syria) and Ptolomy (in Egypt). That put me at a nice position in terms of my legitimacy to be considered to represent the heir of Alexander, but it also put me in the lead for victory points. And that was a problem...
You see, at the beginning of the game, everyone is considered a Champion of Alexander's legacy. That gives us 3 Legitimacy Points (LP), and discourages civil war: if you attack someone else, you lose your champion status and anyone can attack you without penalty. There's one person who doesn't have that protection: the Usurper, or person who had the most VPs at the beginning of the game. Hmm.
The good news was that I wasn't going to be attacked much in the first turn, because we were all claiming territory and learning the rules.
Nash, with control of Perdiccas and Lysdiachus, had control of Babylon and Alexander's body. One of the big ways of winning the game is by getting enough Legitimacy points: 18. If you can bring Alexander's body back to Pella and bury it, you get ten. Nash was already in a good position. Would he be able to keep the body?
We got a lot of rules wrong in this game. Does it count as attacking someone to convert their territory? No, it doesn't - unless you're converting a major city. We thought it did for the first turn, so there were some strange movements going on when it would have made a lot more sense to convert someone's terrain.
Randy, meanwhile, just wandered around picking up colonies. He was scarily quiet.
Sarah was quiet for the first turn, and then - in the second turn - went on a rampage of conquest. It started innocently enough, and then she had control of Greece and a lot of the centre of the map... and was 2 VPs away from victory! At this point, we reread the rules, got a few more of them right, and started taking territory from her, but she was still dangerously close to victory.
Nash spent the second turn taking some territory, and then finally getting Alexander's body on the move, with Randy following not that far behind...
The third turn saw the game end. Sarah was now the Usurper, and my long game of gaining troops paid off as I smashed her army and gained control of Heracles, next in line for the throne. If I could survive to the end of the turn, my combined Legitimacy and VPs would give me the game. Sarah was smashed by everyone this turn, and found herself slipping away from victory.
Randy started attacking me in Egypt, which distracted me from the chase of Nash and the funeral cart. To preserve my end-of-turn win, I neglected Nash. Nash moved two armies up to the doorstep of Pella - the first attacked Sarah and lost, but the second (with the funeral cart) attacked and won. Alexander's body was buried... and Nash won the Legitimacy Victory!
All of us came pretty close to winning, even Randy (who was about to gain a lot of VPs in Egypt). The different ways of winning this game really work, and it made it a very enjoyable 4-player game.
Cheers!
So, what's Successors? Well, perhaps I should use the Greek name for it: Diadochoi. No better? Perhaps some history is in order...
Once upon a time, there was this brilliant general called Alexander. He came from Macedonia and, as one does when you're a brilliant general in the Ancient world, he went winning battles and conquering nations. At that time, the great threat to the classical (Greek) world was that of Persia, and Alexander defeated them - and just kept going east and winning battles, bringing the lands once ruled by Persia under his dominion. Eventually, he reached India, fought a battle there, and turned back. Unfortunately for Alexander, he died on the way back - in Babylon. And it is there that our story starts.
You see, Alexander had no heir to his throne. He had an infant son, an illegitimate son, and an idiot half-brother. And he had a lot of influential generals who wanted to rule his kingdom, and that's where the problem started. The wars of the Diadochoi lasted for the next few decades with the great empire of Alexander becoming more and more splintered...
In Successors, you get to play some of the generals. At the beginning of the game, each of us were dealt out two generals which are placed in the lands they control along with some starting troops.
I had control of Leonnatus (in Syria) and Ptolomy (in Egypt). That put me at a nice position in terms of my legitimacy to be considered to represent the heir of Alexander, but it also put me in the lead for victory points. And that was a problem...
You see, at the beginning of the game, everyone is considered a Champion of Alexander's legacy. That gives us 3 Legitimacy Points (LP), and discourages civil war: if you attack someone else, you lose your champion status and anyone can attack you without penalty. There's one person who doesn't have that protection: the Usurper, or person who had the most VPs at the beginning of the game. Hmm.
The good news was that I wasn't going to be attacked much in the first turn, because we were all claiming territory and learning the rules.
Nash, with control of Perdiccas and Lysdiachus, had control of Babylon and Alexander's body. One of the big ways of winning the game is by getting enough Legitimacy points: 18. If you can bring Alexander's body back to Pella and bury it, you get ten. Nash was already in a good position. Would he be able to keep the body?
We got a lot of rules wrong in this game. Does it count as attacking someone to convert their territory? No, it doesn't - unless you're converting a major city. We thought it did for the first turn, so there were some strange movements going on when it would have made a lot more sense to convert someone's terrain.
Randy, meanwhile, just wandered around picking up colonies. He was scarily quiet.
Sarah was quiet for the first turn, and then - in the second turn - went on a rampage of conquest. It started innocently enough, and then she had control of Greece and a lot of the centre of the map... and was 2 VPs away from victory! At this point, we reread the rules, got a few more of them right, and started taking territory from her, but she was still dangerously close to victory.
Nash spent the second turn taking some territory, and then finally getting Alexander's body on the move, with Randy following not that far behind...
The third turn saw the game end. Sarah was now the Usurper, and my long game of gaining troops paid off as I smashed her army and gained control of Heracles, next in line for the throne. If I could survive to the end of the turn, my combined Legitimacy and VPs would give me the game. Sarah was smashed by everyone this turn, and found herself slipping away from victory.
Randy started attacking me in Egypt, which distracted me from the chase of Nash and the funeral cart. To preserve my end-of-turn win, I neglected Nash. Nash moved two armies up to the doorstep of Pella - the first attacked Sarah and lost, but the second (with the funeral cart) attacked and won. Alexander's body was buried... and Nash won the Legitimacy Victory!
All of us came pretty close to winning, even Randy (who was about to gain a lot of VPs in Egypt). The different ways of winning this game really work, and it made it a very enjoyable 4-player game.
Cheers!
