Persian Wars (2010)

Persian Wars is a game depicting the war between the Persian Empire and Ancient Greece. The players take the roles of the Persian and Greek armies and fight for the control of key areas in a map depicting Greece during that period.

The game includes 4 scenarios for the players to play, each of them based on actual historic events. Each scenario lasts 14 rounds with each round representing a year between 492 BC and 479 BC. Most of the scenarios require one of the two sides to have control of some specific areas at the end of the last round.

The game also includes an educational leaflet with a brief description of the actual events that took place during that period and on which the scenarios are based.

Components:

• 1 Gameboard 52x46cm (Ancient Greece - Minor Asia)
• 9 Cards of yearly event
• 1 Notepad (Chronology 492-479bc, Campaing Cards)
• 92 Plastic pawns
• 12 Plastic flags
• 1 Special 6sided dice (0,1,1,2,2,3)
• Historical and educational leaflet
• Rulles

Description in Greek, taken from the game's back cover:
Στο απόγειο της δόξας της, η Περσική Αυτοκρατορία ήταν η μεγαλύτερη που είχε δει η ανθρωπότητα μέχρι τότε. Τα 2/3 του παγκόσμιου πληθυσμού, του τότε γνωστού κόσμου, ζούσε και πέθαινε, υπό την εξουσία της δυναστείας των Αχαιμενιδών. Βαβυλώνιοι, Αιγύπτιοι, Φοίνικες, Ινδοί και δεκάδες άλλοι λάοι, έδωσαν στους Πέρσες "γη και ύδωρ", κάποιοι όμως τους είπαν ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ !!!

Οι Περσικοί Πόλεμοι ακόμα και σήμερα προκαλούν δέος, ενώ οι μάχες του Μαραθώνα, των Θερμοπυλών, της Σαλαμίνας και των Πλαταιών, καθόρισαν το μέλλον της ανθρωπότητας.

Ζήστε τώρα το έπος των προγόνων μας, μέσα από ένα επιτραπέζιο παιχνίδι στρατηγικής, και γράψτε τη δική σας ιστορία !!!

1st Scenario
Mardonius campaign
In 492 BC, was led by Darius's son-in-law Mardonius, who re-subjugated Thrace, which had nominally been part of the Persian empire since 513 BC by the general Megavazos.Mardonius was also able to force Macedon to vassalage to kingdom of Persia. However, further progress in this campaign was prevented when Mardonius's fleet was wrecked in a storm off the coast of Mount Athos. Mardonius himself was then injured in a raid on his camp by a Thracian tribe Vriges, and after this he returned with the remainder of the expedition to Asia.

2nd Scenario
Datis and Artaphernes campaign
In 490 BC Datis and Artaphernes were given command of an amphibious invasion force, and set sail from Cilicia.The Persian force sailed from Cilicia firstly to the island of Rhodes, where a Lindian Temple Chronicle records that Datis besieged the city of Lindos, but was unsuccessful.The fleet sailed next to Naxos, in order to punish the Naxians for their resistance to the failed expedition that the Persians had mounted there a decade earlier. Many of the inhabitants fled to the mountains. The force sailed on to Euboea, and to the first major target, Eretria. The Eretrians made no attempt to stop the Persians landing or advancing, and thus allowed themselves to be besieged. For six days the Persians attacked the walls, with losses on both sides, on the seventh day two reputable Eretrians opened the gates and betrayed the city to the Persians. The city was razed, and temples and shrines were looted and burned. Furthermore, according to Darius's commands, the Persians enslaved all the remaining townspeople.
The Persian fleet next headed south down the coast of Attica, landing at the bay of Marathon, roughly 25 miles from Athens. Under the guidance of Miltiades, the general with the greatest experience of fighting the Persians, the 9.000 Athenian army marched to block the two exits from the plain of Marathon. Stalemate ensued for five days, before the Atheneans and 1.000 Plataeans, decided to attack the 40.000 Persians. Despite the numerical advantage of the Persians, the hoplites proved devastatingly effective against the more lightly armed Persian infantry, routing the wings before turning in on the centre of the Persian line. The remnants of the Persian army fled to their ships and left the battle.Herodotus records that 6,400 Persian bodies were counted on the battlefield, the Athenians lost only 192 men.

3rd Scenario
Xerxes campaing
Having crossed into Europe in April 480 BC, the Persian army began its march to Greece, taking 3 months to travel unopposed from the Hellespont to Therme. It paused at Doriskos where it was joined by the fleet. Xerxes reorganized the troops into tactical units replacing the national formations used earlier for the march.
Xerxes's estimated time of arrival at Thermopylae coincided the festival of Carneia. For the Spartans, warfare during this period was considered sacrilegious. Despite the uncomfortable timing, the Spartans considered the threat so grave that they dispatched their king Leonidas I with his personal bodyguard of 300 men. Leonidas was supported by contingents from the Allied Peloponnesian cities, and other forces that the Allies picked up en route to Thermopylae. The Allies proceeded to occupy the pass, rebuilt the wall the Phocians had built at the narrowest point of the pass, and waited for Xerxes's arrival.
Simultaneous with the battle at Thermopylae, an Allied naval force of 271 triremes defended the Straits of Artemisium against the Persians, thus protecting the flank of the forces at Thermopylae. Here the Allied fleet held off the Persians for three days, however, on the third evening the Allies received news of the fate of Leonidas and the Allied troops at Thermopylae. Since the Allied fleet was badly damaged, and since it no longer needed to defend the flank of Thermopylae, the Allies retreated from Artemisium to the island of Salamis.

4th Scenario
Greek's campaing
After the battle of Plataea, the Greek Allies' navy, deside to free all the Greek cities in Minor Asia. Their morale boosted, the Allied marines fought and won a decisive victory at the Battle of Mycale that same day, destroying the remnants of the Persian fleet, crippling Xerxes' sea power. Mycale was, in many ways, the beginning of a new phase in the conflict, in which the Greeks would go on the offensive against the Persians. The most immediate result of the victory at Mycale was to trigger a second revolt amongst the Greek cities of Asia Minor. The Samians and Milesians had actively fought against the Persians at Mycale, thus openly declaring their rebellion, and the other cities followed in their example.

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