3. Operations Phase
0. component changes
1. introduction
2. diplomatic phase
3. operations phase
4. movement
5. combat
6. political phase
7. economic phase
8. leaders
9. peloponnesian war scenario
3. Operations Phase
The operations phase is the main phase of the turn, where armies move and battles are fought.
The operations phase is conducted as a succession of rounds of operations by major city-states. A round proceeds in alphabetical order (e.g. usually Athens first), with each major city-state in turn conducting and operation or passing. A second round of operations follows in the same order, then a third, and so on. The phase ends when all major city-states pass in immediate succession.
Each operation has an objective space. During the operation, a city-state can do one of four things:
The city-state conducting the operation is the active city-state for the duration of the operation, and the army conducting the operation is the active army.
Junior coalition partners (2.1.2) do not conduct their own operations; instead, the leader of the coalition may use their forces and treasuries as part of a joint operation.
A city-state may choose to pass instead of conducting an operation. Passing does not prevent a city-state from conducting an operation later in the same turn. However, once all city-states pass in immediate succession, the operations phase ends immediately.
If a city-state has SPs on the board which have not yet returned home, and have not been assigned to year-round station, the city-state may not pass, but must conduct some form of operation. Once all SPs have been brought home, assigned to year-round station, or eliminated, the city-state may pass.
Garrisons do not prevent the city-state from passing. This is one of their advantages; they stay on location at the end of the turn without cost.
A city-state may abort an operation at any point. The active army is left on the map in its current location. Any talents spent are lost.
If a minor city-state is sympathetic to the active city-state or any of its junior coalition partners, the active city-state may elect to conduct an operation using the minor's forces in place of its normal operation. This counts as having conducted an operation for all purposes. Any type of operation is allowed, using the major city-state's treasury and leaders (including borrowed Spartan leaders).
When conducting a moving operation with a sympathetic minor, the major city-state may activate one of its own SPs as an expeditionary force sent to support the minor. The leader and any expeditionary force may participate in battles alongside the minor's forces, and are considered to have the same friends and enemies as the minor city-state from the time they are activated until they return home. This means, among other things, that they may do battle with and be intercepted by units of any city-states unfriendly to the sympathetic minor.
During an operation, if the objective space contains a fortress, troops may be detached to form a garrison.
To create a garrison, remove a friendly hoplite SP (with permission of its controller) from the objective space and place a garrison marker of the same nationality in the space. The garrison may not be converted back into an SP later. A space may contain only one garrison. When the garrison is placed, any unfriendly rebellion marker is removed.
Minor city-state SPs may only be used to create garrisons in their home area. SPs of tributaries may not be used to create garrisons. The counter mix limits the number of garrisons which each city-state can place.
If, at the end of an operation, a city-state's home space is controlled by an unfriendly city-state, it surrenders to that city-state, with the effects described in 6.3.
If, at the end of any Spartan operation (or if Sparta passes), there are any Spartan hoplite or cavalry SPs outside Laconia and Messenia, and the total of all SPs and garrisons unfriendly to Sparta in Laconia and Messenia exceeds the total of all friendly SPs and garrisons in Laconia and Messenia (not including the Spartan home guard) , a helot rebellion occurs. One Spartan hoplite SP is immediately lost, Spartan bellicosity is reduced by two, and the Spartans receive no tribute income this turn. A helot rebellion can occur once per turn. If Sparta is a junior coalition partner, the rebellion check is made at the end of the dominant power's turn.
A moving operation consists of four steps:
Step 1: Select a leader and place him in the initial assembly space, which can be any friendly space on the map.
Step 2: Designate the objective space, the destination space of the leader and his army (place the objective marker as a reminder).
Step 3: Assemble the army by moving the leader to one or more assembly spaces and picking up any desired SPs in each assembly space at a cost of 100 talents per SP.
Step 4: From the last assembly space, move the army to the objective space by the shortest legal route, ravaging unfriendly spaces along the way. When the army reaches the objective space, the operation is complete.
Example: Sparta leads a coalition including Corinth. The Spartans choose Gylippus to lead the army, place him in Sparta, and designate Corcyra as the objective space. Gylippus activates two Spartan hoplite SPs in Sparta at a cost of 200 talents, then moves to Corinth where he activates four Corinthian naval SPs at a cost of 400 talents. From Corinth the army moves to Corcyra using naval transport, ravaging Athenian territory as it goes. After reaching Corcyra, the operation ends. Gylippus and his army remain in Corcyra until later in the turn.
To perform a moving operation, the city-state must select one of its leaders who has not been used yet this turn. If no leaders are available, moving operations may not be conducted for the rest of the turn.
Athenian direct democracy made selection of leaders for military expeditions quite unpredictable. Athens must select a leader by choosing at random from among the Athenian leaders not yet used during this turn (unless using a Spartan leader, as described below). The objective space is chosen after seeing which leader the people have selected. Other city-states may select any leader not yet used during the turn.
As the preeminent military society in Greece, Sparta often sent its citizens to lead the armies of others. Any city-state which is friendly or neutral toward Sparta may, with Spartan consent, select a Spartan leader of Sparta's choosing to lead an operation. Dominant city-states (2.1.2) may not use Spartan leaders in this way.
Once the leader is selected, he may be placed in any friendly space on the map, even a space containing enemy units. Some leaders have special restrictions on their selection and use (8.).
Every operation has an objective space, the destination of the active army. This space must be specified before the leader begins movement. Any space on the map may be selected as the objective space, except a neutral city-state.
The leader assembles his army by "picking up" SPs from his initial starting space and, if desired, from any number of other spaces. Each such space, including the starting space, is called an assembly space. Any space containing friendly SPs, even SPs used in previous operations, may be chosen as an assembly space. A space may serve as an assembly space twice in the same operation.
In the initial assembly space, and in each subsequent assembly space visited, the leader may activate friendly SPs by paying 100 talents per SP, unless this is a free operation (3.2.6). Once an SP is activated, it is moved with the leader as part of the army. Activation costs are paid at the instant the leader activates the SPs. If the operation is subsequently aborted, all activation costs are lost. Even if the SP was activated earlier in the turn, the activation cost must be paid again to add the SP to the active army.
The leader may activate any number of SPs in each assembly space, limited only by the available treasury. The leader is not required to activate any SPs in an assembly space.
A dominant city-state may activate SPs of junior coalition partners, with the partner's consent. Once activated, such SPs are moved with the army for the rest of the turn, and fight along with it.
There are restrictions on the SPs which can be activated from a single minor city-state. Only one SP from the city-state can be outside the city-state's home area at one time, except as noted in the scenario rules. A player may not move the last of a minor city-state's SPs of a given type (hoplite, cavalry or naval) out of the home (or port) space.
Armies must move from one assembly space to the next by the shortest legal route. Armies may not ravage or attempt to cause rebellions while moving from one assembly space to another, but are subject to interception in unfriendly spaces.
Once the army has been assembled, it moves by the shortest legal route to the objective space. In each space entered (including the objective space), the following things can happen, in order:
When an army enters a unfriendly tributary's home space which does not contain any SPs of an unfriendly major city-state, the army may attempt to instigate a revolt. Roll a die and modify it as follows (all cumulative):
If the modified result is greater than the current bellicosity level of the tributary's controller, a rebellion breaks out. Place a rebellion marker in the space. Any controlling garrison is eliminated. Any controlling leader is killed. The tributary and its forces become unfriendly to the former controller, and friendly to those unfriendly to the former controller.
An army may also attempt to start a revolt if intercepted by a force consisting only of SPs of unfriendly tributaries. If a revolt occurs, no interception combat occurs, and the active army may activate any SPs from the intercepting force free of charge. Ships may not be burnt (5.1.2) to prevent them from falling into the hands of the rebellion.
Greek warfare was traditionally conducted by assembling the citizens of the state, marching into the enemy's territory and defeating him in battle. Even poor cities such as Thebes could put together sizeable armies for such short-term expeditions.
A city-state may conduct one free moving operation per turn. All normal rules apply, except that no activation costs are paid. Naval SPs may not be activated during a free operation.
After selecting a leader and placing him on the map, a city-state can designate the leader's space as the objective, not activate any SPs, and declare the operation complete. This might happen if the leader is arriving to lead existing forces, or an undesirable leader is randomly selected, or the city-state simply wants to avoid passing. However, since a leader must be drawn, there is a limit to the number of times this can be done.
A city-state uses a combat operation to conduct a battle and/or siege in a space containing friendly SPs. No activation cost is required to fight the battle, but the city-state must pay to conduct a siege, if any.
The two sides in the combat are:
Other city-states are ignored for purposes of the combat. Combat is resolved according to the rules of section 4. If a side loses a battle or skirmish, it may retreat. All friendly SPs in the combat space are moved to any one adjacent space which does not contain unfriendly SPs, and to which the forces could legally and directly move.
At the conclusion of a combat operation, all SPs of the active city-state and its allies in the objective space (or the space retreated to) may, if desired, return home using the rules for a returning operation (3.4). The SPs must return home if no battles were fought and no sieges were conducted in the objective space during the operation. SPs in other spaces are not affected. Forces which participated in a battle or skirmish during the operation may not intercept the returning force, nor participate in a resulting interception combat, as they are too exhausted.
In a returning operation, forces which moved earlier in the turn, or in a previous turn, return home. No activation costs are required. All SPs and leaders in the objective space must return home. Only SPs already assigned to year-round station may be left in the space.
The army returns home by visiting in any order the home city-states (or port spaces for naval SPs) of the various SPs in the army and dropping them off. When the last SP is dropped off, any leaders which moved with the army are removed from the map until the end of the turn.
As always, the army must move to each destination space by the shortest legal route. Armies may not ravage or start rebellions while returning home, but are subject to interception in unfriendly spaces. A garrison may only be placed before the army begins movement.
On occasion, it may be impossible to visit all the necessary home space in one move (if, for instance, there are both land SPs with an inland home and naval SPs). In this case, the SPs must be split into separate groups, and each group sent home in succession. All groups return home as part of a single operation.
If an SP must be dropped off in an unfriendly space, it is eliminated.
Ordinarily, all armies must return home at the end of the turn. Under certain circumstances (usually either to gain advantages in the diplomatic phase or to exert naval ZOIs during the economic phase), a city-state may wish to leave an army on permanent station. This is accomplished by announcing a special operation, selecting an objective space, and assigning any desired SPs in the space to year-round station in that space. The objective space must be a friendly fortress space. 400 talents per SP must be paid to maintain the army in the field for an extended period. If the space is a city-state in rebellion, the grateful townspeople foot the bill for up to two SPs.
Once SPs have been assigned to year-round station, the city-state may pass even if those SPs have not returned home (although they may later return home if desired). If the space is captured, or the SPs move or avoid battle at any point later in the turn, they lose their year-round station status.
Example: Phormio and 2 naval SPs move to Naupactus. Later, Athens may assign the army to year-round station by paying 800 talents for the 2 SPs. The army may then be left on the map for the rest of the turn. If the Corinthian navy sails to Naupactus in force, and Phormio avoids battle, his special status is lost, and Athens must either bring him home before the end of the operations phase or pay another 800 talents to reestablish year-round station.
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