Greeks

## **Historical brief**

**Ancient Greece** was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (c. 600 AD), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically related city-states and other territories. Most of these regions were officially unified only once, for 13 years, under Alexander the Great's empire from 336 to 323 BC (though this excludes a number of Greek city-states free from Alexander's jurisdiction in the western Mediterranean, around the Black Sea, Cyprus, and Cyrenaica). In Western history, the era of classical antiquity was immediately followed by the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine period.

## Rulebook entry

Difficulty: ★★★★☆

As the Greeks, your main advantages are your cities and technology, and you will want to lean into those strengths. In the early game, your settlers and Greek mercenaries are powerful cards of expansion, while as an empire science will enable you to continue to advance and the Olympic Games will keep your nation manageable. Your lighthouse will let you manipulate exiled cards, so it may be worth bearing in mind which cards you exile during the game.

## Civilization spotlight

Archaic Greek and Classical Greek periods (from the 8th to the 4th Century BCE) are reffered to in the game. These periods cover a massive change within Greece and its influence across the entire Mediterranean.

We consider the Greeks the trickiest civilisation to play in the Classics box (difficulty rating 4 out of 5), and this is because of the large number of different strategies that are available when you play them.

The Greek power card gives you victory points for cards you possess at the end of the game (in play, in your deck, in your hand and in your History), but the Greeks are about more than just collecting cards. The A side of the Greek power card gives you the first challenging tool to wield, allowing you to spend 2 actions to break through for a civilised or uncivilised card. This is an indication of what the Greek deck excels at - acquiring cards in the market, building a dominant tableau, and utilising powerful action cards. As you can guess, buying any old card won’t help you. You’ll want cards you can either pin, or use as free actions, or that give you secondary ways to score.

The early Greek cards represent the start of the Greek dominance of the Mediterranean. The City of Sparta, Greek Mercenaries and Settlers can generate the resources you need, and help you acquire territory, though you can also use the usual Advance and Conquer cards. However, you do not start with a prosperity card. You have to wait to become an empire and develop Greek Prosperity to get access to that effect. In the meantime, you’ll rely on your supply of Cities (Sparta, Athens, and later Corinth) to cycle through your deck. Of course, using your cities to draw cards denies you the other resources they could supply.

The Olympic games is the Greek accession card, and you are likely to want to make significant use of this card to remove the cards you do not need from your deck and help you cycle through it efficiently.

Once you become an empire there are a number of different strategies you can follow, depending on what cards you have already acquired from the market. You can continue to gain cards by developing Science, which then allows you to keep using your Advance card, or you could try Philosophy instead. Alternatively, you could be more aggressive, using Greek Innovation to give you more flexibility over the cards you gain from the market, and disrupt your opponent’s tableaus.

The key to success with the Greeks is recognising the crucial cards in the market, and utilising your more readily available means of acquiring them before your opponents can. Then, you need to establish a strategy that incorporates your new cards so that you can continue to draw cards, gain resources, and develop. To help boost the effect of your own cities, you will be on the lookout for more cities and Metropolis, or any card that will help your Cities be more efficient, like Urban Development. You also will want to acquire or exile the dreaded Onager, as you are particularly vulnerable to that attack card. If you are combining games and using the common deck from Legends then Masonry is a great card for you.

## Strategy

### Barbarian

The Greeks only really start to shine as an empire, so you should try to rush through your dynasty deck as fast as possible. Even though you don't have any Prosperity, don't make the mistake to use Glory early on, as this would slow down your accession to the empire status. Better to garrison cards and keep your deck as slim as possible. Use City of Spartha and City of Athens to start generating the ressources you'll soon need for your developments, as you don't have many other options to generate them (especially population). Keep an eye out for any interesting purchases from the market using your ability, including civilised cards which you can always garrison early on.

### Empire

You should look to buy as many cards as possible from the market, and put the less useful ones into your history to keep your deck as efficient as possible. Greek prosperity is a good first development to generate the ressources you'll need for the next ones (if you've already found a reliable engine to generate ressources you can skip it). After that, Direct democracy and Greek innovation (in that order) gives you a nice reliable way to keep acquiring cards on the cheap while slowing down your opponents and keeping your unrest low.

### Best common cards

You'll want to prioritise any cards that let you put cards in your history, such as Leadership and Education. Your deck already includes 2 cities and you'll want to grab any extra you see in the market, so Urban development is especially precious. Mercenaries is also a very strong card for you if you're using side A, as you can always use the extra actions with your ability even if you don't have playable cards in hand. For the same reason, cards that ask you to discard cards for a benefit, such as Temple, are also very good.

## Epic matchups

Your nemesis are the Persians. They have their mighty Battering Ram and they can easily take the tributaries they need from the market, somewhat nullifying your market advantage. You can recreate this ancient history match up in *Imperium: Classics* !

## References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient\_Greece
2. ↑ https://cdn.1j1ju.com/medias/d0/43/15-imperium-classics-rulebook.pdf
3. ↑ https://ospreypublishing.com/us/osprey-blog/2021/imperium-civilisation-spotlight-the-greeks/
4. ↑ https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2691786/advanced-strategic-tips-each-nation
5. ↑ https://ospreypublishing.com/us/osprey-blog/2021/imperium-civilisation-spotlight-the-greeks/