300: Earth and Water

The box lid….

….and the rear

Lurking away in the dim and dusty recesses of my mental project list is an urge to fight the Greek and Persian Wars in some way. The way I had in mind was very much inspired by the campaign set up in Richard Nelson’s book on the battle of Salamis - obviously I was looking at the naval angle. A short while ago I was ready to abandon this project, despite having acquired a pile of 3D printed galleys, as for some reason I could not get the idea properly formed. I put this down to focussing on the ACW ships and the book! Anyways, now that the latter is out in the real world and the former is very close to having this phase completed, I have had rather more thinking space to look at a few things with a clearer head.

Two rather good resources for the naval side of the campaign

Suffice it to say that there are moves afoot to tackle something Greek and Persian war related but I am waiting on something to arrive first of all.

The contents of the box - wooden tokens for the armies and fleets and the Persian pontoon bridge

I saw mention of the game you see above on one of the board game facebook groups I belong to and it is a little belter! Essentially it is a two player refight of the Persian invasion of the 5th century BC - the period that captures Thermopylae, Salamis and Plataea - that is card driven and takes around 45 minutes to play! The game is produced by Nuts! Publishing and the components are top quality. Wooden game tokens, sixteen cards to drive the game (each with a Greek and a Persian section) and an A3 sized mounted map board complete the package (along with the D6 required).

The A3 sized map board. My wargaming gene for the land side is thinking “DBA, DBA, Portable Wargame, Portable Wargame!” At this stage I will not divulge my naval thoughts…. 

I can say little more about other than to quote the blurb on the back of the box:

“300: Earth and Water is a strategy game for two players, lasting 30 to 40 minutes. Take the side of the Greeks with Athens and Sparta at their head, or play the Persian Empire led by the King of Kings to see who will control the Eastern Mediterranean. Over the course of five expeditions each player must try to control more cities than their opponent.

Every decision is crucially important, from the choice of the right card to play to the moves you make with your troops on the map.

Be the master of land and sea!”

I have a plan for this game in that given that it is in a small box, takes a short time to play and touches on a subject that I know is dear to at least one of my immediate circle, means that it can travel easily and be played with a beer or two to hand.

He knows who is is….