Polis (board game)

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Polis: power struggle for supremacy
Game data
author Fran Diaz
graphic Hans-Georg Schneider,
Walter Velez,
Ivan Escuder,
Marek Rutkowski
publishing company Asylum Games
Publishing year 2012
Art Board game
Teammates 2
Duration 100-150 minutes
Age from 12 years

Polis: Power struggle for supremacy (English title: Polis: Fight for the Hegemony ) is a board and strategy game by the American game designer Fran Diaz . The game is for two people aged twelve and over. Polis was originally offered in a printable version in 2010, but was released in 2012 by the publishers Asylum Games, Mercury Games and Pegasus Spiele in a professional version, initially in English and Spanish, later also in German.

Playing style and equipment

The game is about the Poleis, the Greek city-states, in the 5th century BC. The two largest Greek poleis, Athens and Sparta, fought for supremacy in the Peloponnesian Wars. In the game, one player plays the Athens side, the other Sparta, it is about trade, resources, expansion through military strength or diplomacy, but above all prestige.

In addition to the instructions, the game material consists of:

  • 1 game board
  • 40 event cards
  • 18 Polis tiles
  • 14 project tiles
  • 24 battle cards
  • 1 four sided die
  • 45 wooden blocks in blue
  • 45 wooden blocks in red
  • 20 wooden discs each in blue
  • 20 wooden discs each in red
  • 5 black wooden blocks
  • 8 wooden ships in blue
  • 8 wooden ships in red
  • 1 blue proxenos
  • 1 red proxenos
  • 1 Athens player board
  • 1 Sparta player board
  • 2 player aids
  • 1 instruction

Preparations

Each player gets a fraction to be drawn, each receives three poleis at the start, including citizens, hoplites, galleys, merchant ships and resources, wine, olives, wood, iron, silver, wheat and prestige points.

Course of the game

The game is played alternately on a game board showing Greece. At the beginning of a round there is always an event that is played out individually for each faction. The players each own three cities and have to bring further cities into their network, either through conquest or through diplomacy, collect resources in the regions and trade with them. The more cities, citizens, and completed projects, the more prestige you get. Each player plays two actions one after the other, from a choice of 12 actions, but has to take two different actions in his turn or pass one of his actions. If both players pass, one of 4 rounds is over.

The following actions are available:

Development actions Military actions Political Actions
Train hoplites Move hoplites trade
Build galleys Moving galleys Trigger proxenos
Build merchant ships Move proxenos
build a project Start civil war
Besieging the city
Claim tribute

Playing

The game ends prematurely as soon as a player no longer has any prestige at the end of a round, or can no longer feed his capital. After the fourth round, the game ends normally. The player with the most prestige points wins.

rating

reviews
Meta page rating
BoardGameGeek 7.8 out of 10 points
Spielkult.de 7 out of 10 points
Hal9000.de 5.9 out of 6 reader rating
brettspiele-report.de 15 out of 20 points

The review site hall9000.de writes about the game: “Polis is a challenging, thematically coherent game. Despite conquest and a combat system, it is not a typical war game, but with the elements of population and culture structure, movement on a map, and trade, a strategic and tactical masterpiece. The different projects as well as the event cards and the different scenarios ensure variety. "

Awards and honors

The game Polis has been nominated for several awards and has won several of these awards:

  • 2012 Malacitano - Game of the Year
  • 2012 Interblogs Award - Discovery of the Year
  • 2013 Premio Jugamos Tod @ s Winner
  • 2013 Jugamos Tod @ s - Best Spanish Game of the Year
  • 2013 International Gamers Awards - General Strategy 2-Player Category Nominee
  • 2013 Golden Geek Awards - 2-Player Category Nominee
  • 2013 H @ LL9000 - Favorite 2-Player Game 3rd Place

Digital version

Polis can also be played digitally on the following platforms:

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b Polis at Hall9000.de; accessed on December 15, 2017.

Web links