Age of Athena II

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, and provides 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). The introduction explains all of this and a bit more, gently pushing players to play the game with an Oracle to the full effect, whilst still acknowledging that playing Age of Athena as a straightforward wargame without the roleplaying element is perfectly fine too.

Each Quest follows the same format. This includes a summary that gives an overview and lays out what the Heroes are attempting to do, how many scenes there are, a list of the miniatures required and set-up needed, a short narrative passage to be read out by the Oracle, actions that the Heroes can take before the scenario starts, special rules involved, the Challenge Level that be adjusted to make the scenario more difficult, the rewards to be gained if the Heroes are successful, and a narrative in the epilogue if the Heroes are successful. There are also scenes that the Oracle can insert into the scenario to enhance the narrative elements of play. These are of course optional, much more like those in a roleplaying game, and do not actually require the miniatures. The special rules typically involve seeding the playing area with clue markers and then the possible results that can be drawn when a hero moves adjacent and can examine them.

The quests open with ‘The Golden Hives’, designed for beginning Heroes. It introduces them and their players to Athena when she asks the former to exact her revenge against a trio of murderous cyclops, who have killed their father and eaten the honey that would have been paid as tribute to the gods of Olympus. The Heroes will fight through a field of aggressive mythic bees and then face the trio of cyclops. If they find a bloodied stone axe in the first scenario, this can be carried over into the second and will give the hero wielding it an advantage against the cyclops as it was the one they used to kill their father. This adds a nice narrative element to the paythrough of ‘The Golden Hives’, but there is only a small chance of this happening. So, the Oracle might want to increase the chance of the Heroes finding the weapon to enhance the narrative—and if they want to carry on to the next scenarios, perhaps provide it with a permanent ability. If the Heroes fail the first time, the quest allows for a second attempt—as do the other quests—though the Heroes will only earn a limited amount of Experience Points.

In the second quest, ‘The Imprisoned Oceanid’, the Heroes are directed to rescue an Oceanid who has been kidnapped by an evil cult called the Sons of Poseidon. Over the course of three scenarios, the Heroes will fight their way up a steep cliff under a hail of arrows from the cult’s archers and into the flooding caves where is being kept prisoner. The Heroes discover a defiled and pillaged temple dedicated to their patron, Athena, in the third quest, ‘The Rampage’, and chase down the group of marauding centaurs and satyrs. The number of scenarios is increased from three to four and which of the centaur ringleaders appear in which scenario is randomly determined. Those that do not appear in the first three, will all appear in the fourth and final part. The Heroes will chase the marauders over rocky hills, encountering signs of their activity as they cut a swathe of bloody horror across the countryside, ultimately to face the sorceress they serve, deep in the forest, at night, at the witching hour. There a chance that Ares, the God of War, will be attracted to the series of running battles in this quest and the Heroes will have to fight him! The last quest, ‘Tartarus Unbound’, is designed for experienced Heroes. The number of scenarios increases to five and takes the Heroes to the city of Aketra, recently split asunder in anger by the god, Hades, because its king refused honour after the death of his wife. As the city burns, a dragon has slithered up out of the ground and hatched a clutch of eggs and if neither of these are destroyed, it does not bode well for the nearby cities. The Heroes have to fight their way into the city, across a narrow bridge, and through its burning ruins, facing undead along the way (including the king who rejected Hades), to finally face-off against a fire-breathing dragon across building divided by streets flowing with lava! It is a great climatic scene for the end battle and if they do manage to defeat the dragon, the Heroes will be truly worthy of that title.

The last third of Warriors of Athena: Quests consists of advice and content supporting the player (or Oracle) who wants to create his own Quests. This breaks down the elements of a quest and a scenario, examining them in turn in terms of design rather than play. In turn, it discusses the goal of the quest and its structure, scenarios and their structure, but it also talks about the role of recurring characters, how to create an event table, design skill and stat rolls, and more. For the group that wants them, it discusses how to design and create scenes too. The advice is good and worth reading through even if the players have experience of writing content for games like this. Certainly, it will help if they have experience with roleplaying games, but is not wholly necessary.

Mechanically, the support includes a bestiary that covers animals, uncivilised races, undead, gods and goddesses, and monsters. So, boars and bulls, Amazons and Satyrs, skeletal archers and champions, Apollo and Artemis, and Gorgons and Minotaurs. The bestiary includes a list of creature traits too. The book comes to a close with a reference sheet for use during play.

Physically, Warriors of Athena: Quests is much like Warriors of Athena: Heroes. It is an easy read, but there are relatively few shots of the game being played, 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. The four quests are well written and easy to understand.

Of course, Warriors of Athena: Quests is only half of Warriors of Athena, that half being the rules in Warriors of Athena: Heroes. If the latter tells you how to play, then Warriors of Athena: Quests shows you not only how to play, but also how to design what you play. Each of the four quests is a mini-campaign in itself, but they are intended to be played in order, the Heroes gaining in experience to face ever tougher foe and more challenging situations. This is more like a roleplaying game than a traditional wargame—even a skirmish one. Whilst the optional addition of scenes and narrative also make the wargame much more like a roleplaying game, even if they are ignored, Warriors of Athena still feels like a roleplaying game in its focus upon individual characters, their growth from scenario to scenario, and in the multi-part structure of the quests. In fact, it would actually be possible to run the quests in Warriors of Athena: Quests without the miniatures as the theatre of the mind of a roleplaying game. That though, is not the point of Warriors of Athena. The point of Warriors of Athena is to present a skirmish wargame with roleplaying elements set in an age of Greek myth and legend when the heroes can become great warriors and figures of the age, and this it does well with rules and content that support both styles of play—wargaming with roleplaying or roleplaying with wargaming.