peloponnesian war [Updated August 2001]

PPW   Trial Beginners Single Elim Continuous 
 
   
 Demo 9   10 Round 2 14 Round 3 17 Round 4 21 Final  

  Hunt

Steve Cuccaro, MD

2001 Champion

2nd: Graham Cosmas, VA

3rd: Chris Roginsky, PA

4th: Michael Mullins, MD

5th: -

6th: -
Event History
1991    Frank Hamrick       8
1992    None      -
1993    Mark Giddings      10
1994    Kevin McCarthy      10
1995    Frank Hamrick      10
1996    Evan Davis       9
1997    Kevin McCarthy      10
1998    Brian Mountford       8
1999    Chris Roginsky      9
2000    Brian Mountford      8
2001    Steve Cuccaro      8

AREA Ratings:

GM: Michael Mullins

The Peloponnesian War 431 - 404 B.C.

As one of the classical examples of warfare wherein a sea power (Athens) versus a land power (Sparta), the National War College requested the company for which Mark Herman works to computerize his original design of PPW. The demonstrations at WBC 2001 were very intriguing, and we hope the release of this computer version will stimulate new interest in this Victory Games classic. The PPW rules revision group will look at the revisions made to see if we could incorporate these into the board game. This was the first year we played with the revised rules - most changes were incremental rule
clarifications and an attempt to refine them for two-player use. As originally designed, PPW was primarily a solitaire game. We toyed with the idea of having the players change sides as per the solitaire game, but did not have time to playtest for two-player use. Overall, we think our revisions have maintained the balance of the game and either side can win. Pleasantly, a number of new people volunteered to help us with the rules revision project. However, one of the problems with all the older classic
games is having enough copies for all who are interested in playing. We have to encourage those with copies to come back to our portion of WBC.

The gods again smiled mostly on Sparta, but some of the games were extremely close. In one, both sides had equal negative victory points, but Sparta won because its bellicosity was slightly higher than that of Athens. At times, the auguries die roll stopped both sides after only one operation per turn. This seemed to haunt the Athenians more than the Spartans this year - oh, the fickleness of the gods. More successful was the renewed interest by the Spartans in disrupting the Athenian supply lines from the Black Sea on one side and Epidamnos on the other, while continuing the devastating ravaging around the Aegean Sea and down the Asian coast and assaulting the towns of Attica. For Athens, the most successful tactics remained the naval assault on Corinth, the ravaging of the Peloponnesian coast, and protecting its supply lines. Rebellion in the Delian League cities did force Athens to surrender in a couple of games. This year. Athens did avoid attempting the infamous attack on Syracuse.

Several close games led to the final between two newcomers, Graham Cosmas and Steve Cuccaro. Past champion Chris Roginsky tied with Graham for victory points in their semi-final, but lost with lower bellicosity at the time limit. In the first turn of the final, Sparta had one operation and Athens had two before ceasing operations because of unfavorable omens from the gods (an auguries '6' die roll). However, this did allow Sparta to win a battle at Cyme, while Athens won at Potidaea and made money from a couple of successful sieges (always good for a few victory points and money from the sale of the populace into slavery). The second turn opened with Delian League revolts against Athens in Samos and Ephesus (which the Spartans reinforced) and at the end by Telos. Athens only got to ravage the Peloponnesian coast before again failing the auguries die roll. Thus Sparta was able to win a siege at Epidamnos (denying Athens this important income source) and to send forces to Cyllene and Naupactus. The third turn opened with the revolt against Athens spreading to Olynthus. In an unusual move, Sparta sent a leader to Ephesus, who then took the Army that remained there ravaging northward and into Pela, where they later won the siege thereof. Except for the rebellion again spreading to Colophon, Athens had a pretty good turn. It ravaged the coast to Cyllene and then to Anactorium (later it did fail in the siege attempt), destroyed the rest of the Spartan fleet at Gythium, and won the siege at Oeniadae. An armistice of three turns then occurred. Athens built up a huge treasury and spread its builds between fleets and land troops. Sparta rebuilt its navy and replaced land troops. Turn seven at the end of the armistice proved disastrous for the Athenians. The Delian League revolt spread early to Mytilene and later to Smyrna. They again got only one ravaging turn before failing their auguries die roll. This time the Spartans were able to take full advantage, although they did lose the land battle in Attica at Decelea (next to Athens). They won land battles at Magnesia and Corcyra, won sieges at Iasus and Byzantium (goodbye Athenian grain supply), and won a naval battle at Astacus. This time they failed in the siege of Epidamnos. However, by this time Athenian bellicosity was down to zero. So even with all their money they were just too downtrodden and exhausted to continue the war. Thus did Steve Cuccaro become the new champion of PPW.

All kinds of house rules in effect here ... get the latest from http://mountford.net/ppw

 GM      Michael Mullins  [3rd Year]   12136 Suffolk Terrace, Gaithersburg, MD 20878-2028
    mullinsm@msn.com   NA

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