Thanks for taking the time to do such a thoughtful review. I guess if I was going to one last design on the Peloponnesian War it had to be this one. Sorry it broke your complexity threshold, but I appreciate the endorsement. I can assure you that Fort Sumter is way below your complexity threshold, so hopefully more to your liking. All the best in getting your PhD, Mark

This is one of my favorite games. It is not a highly complex game at all, despite appearing daunting the first few outings. It does need a few sessions to get your head around how it plays, but the investment is well worth it. If you are one of those gamers that has little patience to persevere with a game, and prefer a quicker fix, all I can say is you are missing out on a gem of a game.

Agreed, at first take, this a very different beast of a game and can be intimidating in terms of the complex dynamics involved. But trust me, once you play through the Comprehensive Example of Play and all of the training scenarios in the recommended order, the system and the game as a whole becomes more and more clear. It also becomes clearer how you approach a game like this compared to any typical "cardboard pushing" wargames. It demands a very different take on wargaming and full-concept strategy. I think that's what I love the most about this game.

Always Great Cody your reviews never get old keep up the good work

An excellent (and thoughtful, as Mr. Herman notes) review. As someone with great interest in the topic but increasingly limited time for gaming, I appreciate you considering not just the game's merits but also the demands it would make on our time and our shelf-space, and whether it's likely to justify those.

I feel like as long as you're okay with the complexity it's an amazing game. What others games fill the itch? (Teams with only one winner and some similar mechanics)

I enjoyed your review, as usual. But your comments at 12:00 has me wondering if you perceive Churchill as a wargame? You discussed how Pericles trumped Churchill due to how the Pericles players have more agency in how the war portion of the game plays out. (Summarizing your thoughts, there. Please correct me if I got it wrong). But in Churchill, the players are never meant to have agency in how the war plays out. The "war" part of Churchill is only meant to represent the environment by which the players have to react to, and in turn to influence. The conferences react to the current war situation and thus implement measures to influence that situation to meet each player's national goals. But influence is all they can do, just as that's all Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin could do in real life. The actual conduct of the war was out of their hands. And that's what Churchill models perfectly. Thus I disagree that Pericles does it better than Churchill. But rather that they're two different games that really can't be compared despite their similarity with the debating mechanisms.

18:35 - Get it together, Carlson.

came across this review after looking for solo games to play while sheltering in place. have you ever tried a solo run? how well suited do you think this game would be for playing in that style?

Just got this one; was a tad nervous about its complexity!

I hope your experience with Pericles will not deter you from trying For the People and Empire of the Sun at some point. Strangely enough I find them both slightly more complex but much more approachable than Pericles, probably because they feel less abstract (so it's easier to see what the rules simulate).

This is the problem with most GMT games. Getting them to the table is a massive challenge as teaching one takes far too long for me. Liberty or Death, Virgin Queen, Fields of Despair are part of my collection and all fall into this category. I'm with you on this game too and I'll skip it.

0:00 to 11:00 the review. 11:00 to 12:45 comparison to Churchill game. After that, six mins of rambling about liking it, awesome designer...err...too complex...err but try it.... So I really liked the on point portion of the video, it persuaded me to buy, but...err... it was six minutes too long. ;)

Whenever I hear Aristophanes, I think of the Odd Couple: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ecdjn8WJrKrYn2Q.htmlm20s

Don't worry Cody, you didn't slaughter the names. We use letters you don't, so you can't pronounce them. :)

I wish someone at GMT gave a shit about aesthetics. I mean, I get what they're going for and who their audience is (I like a few of their games), but it is almost like their brand arbitrarily includes eyesore art.