Age of Athena

It is an age of chaos. The once mighty city-states of Greece have become isolated refuges, sanctuaries against the monsters and creatures and bandits and undead that roam beyond their walls, preying upon the weak and ravaging the land. In response, the people cry out for help and beseech the gods of Olympus. Yet only one of their number hears their cries and only a handful of men and women answers her appeal for heroes. She is Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, strategic war, handicraft, and the city, the daughter of Zeus who sprang from his head fully formed. They are the Demigods, born of divine and mortal parentage and so granted some of the gifts of the gods and they stand fast, ready to answer the hollering for help, the need to fight the legendary monsters of the age, to protect the innocent and the helpless, and to seek out adventure. This is the set-up for Warriors of Athena, a skirmish scale miniatures wargame from Osprey Games. Written by the designer of the highly regarded Frostgrave: Fantasy Wargames in the Frozen City, it is a game in which a player creates a Warband, consisting of a Hero and several Companions, the number ranging between one and seven (depending upon the number of players, the more players, the fewer the number of Companions in a Warband), and takes them on quests set by Athena. What is notable about Warriors of Athena is that it is not designed to be adversarial, that is, one player or more players playing against each other as is traditional in miniature wargames. Instead, it can be played in one of four modes. First, it can be played in Solo mode against the game itself, with the player controlling his miniatures and the actions of the monsters and other threats as well as when random events taking place being determined by the rules. Second, it can be played co-operatively, with two or more players and their Heroes and Warbands working together to complete a quest. Third, it can be played with an Oracle. This is another player who will control the actions and movement of any threats as a referee. Fourth, the Oracle not only controls the actions and movement of any threats as normal, but also runs scenes in between which do not take place on the table of terrain where all the action happens. Instead, they are run in the theatre of the mind in the same way that a roleplaying game would be run. In the latter mode, Warriors of Athena develops one of the particular aspects of skirmish level miniatures wargaming, which is the strong identification that a player will develop with the members of his Warband. The Hero and his Companions will grow and change as result of their successfully fulfilling Quests and so will a player’s investment in them.

At the core of the game are two books, both needed to play. Warriors of Athena: Heroes gives the core rules for the game, including how to create a Warband consisting of the Hero and his Companions, running combats, and handling campaigns and rewards. Warriors of Athena: Quests explains how to create and run Quests, a bestiary of threats, and four ready-to-play multi-scenario campaigns. In addition to the rules, a player requires miniatures, both to represent his Warband and monsters and creatures, some terrain and buildings such as temples, a pack of ordinary playing cards, a twenty-sided die, and a play area, roughly thirty inches square. Warriors of Athena can be played using any scale miniatures and miniatures from any manufacturer (though North Star Military Figures does manufacture a range of miniatures to support the rules). If a player is new to wargaming as a hobby, the advice on the set-up and play area might be a bit light, but an experienced player will have no problems.

A Hero has six stats—‘Move’, Fight’, ‘Shoot’, ‘Armour’, ‘Will’, and ‘Health’. He will also have a Parentage, which will determine who his divine parent is and what his Gifts are, as well as potential Weaknesses. Gifts can a Heroic Ability, such as ‘Call Curse’, ‘Limited Flight’, or ‘Lunge’, bonuses to Stats or skills, or a mixture of all three. A Weakness can be an Enemy, Madness, Inhuman Appearance, and so on. Many of the Gods provide multiple different Gifts and Weakness. In Co-operative mode, this means that different Heroes can be half-brothers and sisters as they share the same divine parent, but a different mortal parent means different Gifts. Given the philandering ways of many of the gods, this is perfectly in keeping with Greek myth. All Heroes start off with same values for their stats, a player increasing his Hero’s Fight or Shoot and Will or Health by one each. He then rolls on the ‘Hero Parentage Tables’ to determine his Parentage, Gifts, and possible Weaknesses. He selects another five Gifts (the option is given to roll for them and in-keeping with the setting, let fate decide) and then divides fifteen points between eight skills—Artistry, Athletics, Diplomacy, Hunt, Navigation, Perception, Strength, and Trickery. A player also has some Wealth with which to equip his Hero. Lastly, a Hero has a Fate Pool of Threads which lets his player to reroll any die roll. He starts with two Threads.

A player has a pool of Recruitment Points to spend on purchasing Companions to complete his Hero’s Warband. A Companion has the same Stats as a Hero, though their values will vary wildly. They include warriors such as Archers, Barbarians, and Slingers, other Companions like Hunters, Thieves, and Songmasters, members of uncivilized species such as Centaurs and Satyrs, and even animals like Boars, Raptors, and Weasels!* Not all of a Hero’s Companions are going to accompany him on a Quest, but a player is free to choose which ones he wants to accompany his Hero. This allows a player to build up a stable of Companions he can choose from each time his Hero undertakes a Quest.

* Sorry, but I just want to shout, “Go! Go! Battle-Weasel!”

Name: Dionysodoros
Parentage: Dionysus
Gifts: Burning Eyes, Deadeye, Command Undead, Backswing, Ironskin, Waterlung
Weaknesses: Beauty

STATS
Move 6 Fight +4 Shoot +1 Armour 9 Will +3 Health 19

SKILLS
Artistry +4 Athletics +4 Diplomacy +1 Hunt +1 Navigation +0 Perception +1 Strength +4 Trickery +0

Once a scenario has been set up—and Warriors of Athena: Quests covers that in more detail—a game is played as series of turns. A turn consists of four phases. These are the ‘Hero Phase’, the ‘Creature Phase’, the ‘Companion Phase’, and the ‘Event Phase’. When activated, a miniature can take two actions, a standard action and a simple action. A simple action typically involves movement, whilst standard actions include attacking and any other thing that a Hero might want to do when activated. There are no hard or fast rules on this. Stat or skill checks are made by rolling a twenty-sided die and adding the appropriate Stat or skill, the aim being to roll equal or exceed a given Target Number. A roll of a one is always a failure, whilst a roll of twenty is always a success.

Combat is handled as a series of opposed rolls. Both combatants roll the die and add their Fight Stats, plus any other bonuses, whether from magic, reach, and so on. The combatant who rolls the highest Combat Score is the winner. Damage modifiers, typically from weapons, are added to the winner’s Combat Score and the defender’s Armour value is deducted from it. The resulting value indicates how much damage is inflicted and deducted from the defender’s Health. Some weapons and monsters will multiply this value two or three times. The combat rules also allow for critical hits which do more damage, weapon reach, breaking weapons, and more. Ranged attacks work the same way, but use the Shoot Stat.

One important action that a Hero can do is to activate a Heroic Ability. Every Heroic Ability has a Utilisation score, which a player rolls against to activate the Heroic Ability. Successfully activating a Heroic Ability costs Strain, typically a single point, which is deducted from a Hero’s Health.

If Warriors of Athena is being played with an Oracle, then that player controls the actions of the evil creatures in the scenario. Otherwise, there is a simple chart for determining their actions, typically either to try to attack or move to a target point representing some kind of objective. The advantage of the solo and co-operative modes is that they are easy to set up and play, but the disadvantage is that the player or players will know what the scenario involves and who the enemy are. However, the advantage of playing with an Oracle is that the player or players have no idea what their Warbands are going to be facing. The other advantage is that if the players want to—and Warriors of Athena: Heroes makes it clear that it completely optional—the Oracle can run Scenes in which the players can roleplay their Heroes.

Warriors of Athena: Heroes also covers injury and death—Heroes can suffer permanent injuries, and Experience rewards gains for completing objectives within a scenario. These can apply to both Heroes and Companions, but in terms of Experience, progression and benefits accrue at a slower rate for Companions. During play, a Hero may be searching for and find various types of tokens. These are Food Tokens, Clue Tokens, and Treasure Tokens. Clue Tokens will help progress the scenario, but treasure Tokens allow for a roll for treasure at the end of the scenario. This will typically result in wealth, but magical items, including potions, talismans, arms, armour, and more can be found. Another way gaining a magical item, invariably a talisman of a god, is by making a sacrifice to the gods. Fans of Jason and the Argonauts will be pleased to find included is the Dragon’s Tooth, which can be thrown to the ground and sown to have a warrior grow on the spot!

Physically, Warriors of Athena: Heroes is cleanly and tidily presented. It is an easy read, and everything is well explained. There are surprisingly few shots of the game in play, that is, photographs of miniatures on the table, in the book, in comparison to normal artwork. That artwork is excellent though, often depicting scenes of action and combat that you would want to see enacted on the table.

Warriors of Athena: Heroes is only one half of Warriors of Athena, but the rules its presents are simple, fast-playing, and easy to understand. Its skirmish scale makes it all the more accessible, as does the fact that it draws upon the familiar Greek mythology. Its scale allows for greater investment in the adventures and successes and failures of a player’s Hero and his Warband, but also allows for the possibility of some roleplaying too with the addition of an Oracle. Warriors of Athena can be played a simple skirmish scale miniatures wargame, but with the presence of the Oracle, it becomes a wargame with light roleplaying elements or a very light roleplaying game with strong wargaming elements. Effectively, a roleplaying/war game hybrid.