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Hector & Achilles

	Author: Brant Guillory Article Type: Card Game Review Publication Date: 12/30/2005 Developer: Phalanx Games Publisher: Mayfair Games Related Categories: Great Civilizations / Ancients, Turn-based, Tactical

Introduction

Hector & Achilles is a card-based game of the Trojan War made by the Dutch game company Phalanx Games and distributed in the United States by Mayfair Games. The game simulates the battles between the Greeks and Trojans outside of the city of Troy. Scale, time, and most combat are abstracted into a challenging game of resource management with a tactical twist.

Although not a wargame of maneuver and battle, Hector & Achilles nevertheless offers gamers several interesting analytical challenges in a compact game. Managing army stacks, heroes, and deployment of key combatants combine into a multi-faceted battle that will challenge gamers to out-think their opponents in a battle lasting about 30 minutes.

Plot & Presentation

Anyone who doesn't know about the Trojan War, raise your hand. Okay, you - the one guy in the back - read this next paragraph. Everyone else, skip ahead.

The central story behind the Trojan War begins with the prince of Troy, Paris, absconding with Helen, the wife of a Greek king Menelaus. Menelaus appealed to his brother Agamemnon to assist in retrieving Helen and avenging his honor. Agamemnon was all too happy to take a shot at conquering Troy, as such a war fit neatly into his plans for reigning over the entire known world. In the end, the people of Troy held tens of thousands of Greeks at bay for years, until the Greeks snuck into the city inside the Trojan Horse. (As a side note, one of the funniest depictions of this was in the “Simpsons”, when Ned Flanders, as Priam, proudly proclaimed as he observed the Trojan Horse "Whenever people think of wood, they'll think of Trojans!")

There are different versions of the story, with varying degrees of divine intervention. The recent movie Troy, starring Brad Pitt as Achilles, was widely panned as an overbearing attempt at a great epic, but I actually found it to be an entertaining look at the Trojan War that focused on the personalities of the heroes throughout the conflict. The movie plays down the interventions of the Gods - such as Achilles' invulnerability - in favor of a more "realistic" depiction of the heroes. Homer’s Iliad, the source from which virtually all Trojan War myths derive, portrays the Gods in a more active role. 

The Hector & Achilles card game walks the fine line between generic "divine favor" and specific divine intervention on behalf of a specific hero or faction. Notably absent from the card game, however, is any mention of the Trojan Horse itself.

Setup, Graphics, and Documentation

Hector & Achilles comes in an attractive and sturdy box of an obnoxious orange color, with art that looks like it was taken straight off the side of a Grecian urn. The typography is a sharp-edged, Greek-inspired font that helps in establishing the feel of the game. The box is approximately 7.5 x 10.5 x 2, so it is an in-between size; not quite a bookcase game, but larger than Avalanche’s smaller games like Gazalla or Defiant Russia.

The game box and contents.