300: Earth & Water

The Game

300 is a game from Japanese designer Yasushi Nakaguro. He is the editor of a Japanese wargame magazine, and has designed many wargames. 300 is a historical wargame based on the Persian invasion of Greece. Persia is rich and can bring many resources to bear. Greece has capable leaders and excellent fighting tactics. The game is played over only 5 rounds. It is highly condensed. Among wargames, you'd consider this a filler. However this is a game with some depth. You don't get many actions, but you must think through every action carefully. 

This is the game board, small and simple. It shows most of Greece and a corner of Persia. Blue is Persia and Red is Greece. Cubes are armies and discs are navies. Persia has more money and can afford to buy more armies, navies and cards every round. However Greece has better fighting abilities. When rolling dice, any Persian roll of 5 or 6 is treated as a 4. So the Persians are at a disadvantage in battle. The Persians need to overwhelm the Greek by numbers. 

Armies need to be kept supplied. Every city provides supplies. You need to capture cities to be able to support more armies on the board. A supply check is done at the end of every round. Armies you can't supply are disbanded. This is a tricky thing to manage. There is no use having a huge army when you can't supply them. You'll lose them at the end of the round. Orchestrating any extended offensive is not easy because of the supply checks happening every round. 

There is a small shared deck of cards. Many historical elements are included. A card has two halves, one meant for the Greek and the other for the Persians. Some events only occur once. When such an event occurs, the relevant side must spend one token to mark the event on the board. This handicaps the Greek more than the Persians, because the Greek have a much smaller number of game components. 

These three characters represent the three Persian events. At this point one event has occurred, thus the blue cube. Two of the Persian events are the king dying. Whenever the king dies, that whole round is cancelled. This is usually very bad for the Persians, because it means one round wasted and not being able to attack. In this game the onus is on the Persians to invade. In the worst case, the Persians may only have three rounds. Your king dying on you is a major headache. Every round you decide how many cards to buy at the start of the round. Card are needed to perform actions, e.g. to march, to sail, to attack. You can also play cards for their effects. If you want to do more, you have to buy more cards. The dilemma for the Persians is if among the cards you buy is the event for the king dying, you must show it immediately and the round also ends immediately. If you have spent a lot of money buying cards, you've just wasted not only the money but also your whole round. 

Scoring is done at the end of every round. You count the number of cities you control. You score points if you control more than your opponent. You only keep track of one score, which is the score difference between the players. If the trailing player scores points, he doesn't actually gain points. You just deduct points from the leading player. When the game ends, whoever has points wins. The game can end in a tie. That's when neither player has points. 

 

Greece has two major cities. If Persia manages to capture both, the game ends in an instant victory for Persia. This, of course, is not easy to do, but it is still something you have to watch out for. 

Persia has two major cities too. If Greece manages to capture both, it is game over too for the Persians. 

The Play

At first glance, 300: Earth and Water gave me a wrong impression. It looks like a microgame, because the box is small, the board is small. There aren't many rules and they are straight-forward. There aren't many components. The number of actions you can take is low. This is a short game. Compared to regular wargames, this is a microgame. However this is in no way a simplistic game. This is not a light game. You don't get many actions, but you need to think through carefully how to utilise your actions. You don't want to waste any action. Much thought needs to go into every small decision. The cards contain many historical events and characters, which bring out much flavour. There are many powerful cards. Since the deck is shared, there is no guarantee that you will draw a powerful card for your side. You will likely go through the deck several times, since it's a small deck, but still there is no guarantee you'll see every card. How aggressive the players are in buying cards affect how quickly the deck runs out and gets reshuffled. This is a consideration when you play. 

I played Persia. That meant I could splurge on armies and navies. However their poor fighting ability was a major pain in the neck for me. As long as Greece rolled a 5 or 6, I would lose. I had to fight using numbers. I had to fight wars of attrition and try to wear the Greek down. 

Supply is critical. A supply line being cut can mean severe losses. There are two cities on islands in the game. Even if you capture the city, the port can become blockaded by your opponent. If you can't lift the blockade by the end of round, you will lose control of that city. This is something to watch out for. Navies have great movement range. They can attack any coastal city. You can't defend against that. The best you can do is build your own navies so that you can reinforce and counter attack. Yet navies by themselves cannot capture cities. You still need armies for that. That's another conundrum. 

Every round you don't score many points. Every point is precious. There is uncertainty in how soon the game ends, because depending on how frequently the Persian king dies, the game ranges between 3 to 5 rounds of play. There is always a sense of urgency. 

Other than the home bases, both sides have captured 3 other cities.

Major Persian invasion through land. 

This card is very helpful to the Persians. For one battle, their die roll is not capped at 4. 

Some cards are response cards which cancel other cards. 

Persia attempts an amphibious landing at Athens, defended by just one navy.

By the end of the game, neither Greek major cities had garrisons, but the Greek score was comfortably ahead. 

The Thoughts

300: Earth and Water is a compact and short game. This is not a casual player's game by any means. It is an entry level wargame. It is short, but not simple. There is luck in the die rolling and in the card draw. You need to be able to accept that. Life is unpredictable. You do your best to manage what life deals you. You take the macro view and do not fixate on any specific battle or event. Luck averages out somewhat. You do what you can to improve your odds. I like that the card draw makes each game a little different. Not all of your events will occur, because some would be drawn by your opponent. When you get more familiar with the cards, you advance to a higher level of play, planning for what may come and also using your opponent's knowledge of that to bluff. 300 is a succinct and flavourful game with good strategic depth.