This issue’s Funny is one of a rare and select group of games: the one-page game.
Summary:
Unlike other one-page games, The Ides of March (TIoM) is truly one page and only one page. Some one-page games stretch the definition by printing on both sides of the paper, but not TIoM. In fact, with a healthy one-inch margin all round, and almost complete usage of a ten point unispaced font, an argument could be made for the fact that TIoM is less than one page and is in fact, according to my calculations, less than 81.61803398875% of a page.
Title
The Ides of March
Designer Neil Zimmerer
Publisher Mayfair Games Inc.
Publication Date: undated, but circa 1981
Number of Players: 2
Playing Time: Unlimited
Scale Tactical
Time Scale: Unstated, but one turn would appear to be 10 seconds or less
Distance Scale: Unstated, but one hex would appear to be three to six feet
Unit Scale: Each unit represents one historical individual
Components:
1 8 1.2"x11" sheet of standard white paper, containing the following printed in black ink:
- 1 Ruleset containing nine sentences
1 mapboard, seven hexes by six hexes
1 Combat Results Table
10 Uncut, one color, single-sided counters
Counter Manifest:
The Good Guys
2: Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony
The Bad Guys
8: Brutus; Cassius; Casca; Trebonius; Ligarius; Decius; Metellus; and Cinna
What Mayfair says:
“The game tests whether Mark Anthony is able to come to the rescue of Julius Caesar.”
What the reviewer says:
The reviewers were all found to be alarmingly silent about this title. After all, I suppose there’s no point writing a one-page review of a game when the game itself could be printed in the same space. In any event, it is well established now that the Ancients period is clearly not a favourite with reviewers.
Comments:
The turn sequence is as follows:
- 1. Conspirators may move
2. Conspirators combat
3. Caesar & Anthony may move
4. Anthony’s combat
5. Repeat until victory conditions have been met
The game starts with Casca being adjacent to Caesar, Trebonius being adjacent to Anthony, and all other Bad Guys Conspirators at least one hex away from either Caesar or Anthony. Play begins at step 2 (Conspirators combat), and Trebonius may not stab Anthony on turn 1. Casca will get one stab (the Conspirators have only daggers to Mark Anthony’s sword) at Caesar before Caesar can move away.
A character who takes 50 hits is killed.
The average 2d6 roll on the Conspirators’ CRT is 2 hits, so it will take 25 hits on average to kill Caesar, which is the Conspirators’ victory condition. The average 2d6 roll on Anthony’s CRT is 10 hits, so it will take 5 hits on average for Anthony to kill a Conspirator or 40 hits to kill them all. It may be easier for Anthony to help Caesar exit the board, which is Caesar and Anthony’s other victory condition.
Collector’s Value:
Boone lists no prices at auction, and indicates that one copy was sold for $25.
Other games by this designer:
Naval War and Russian Front (Avalon Hill); Cuban-Mexican War (Chicago Wargamers Assoc.); The Castle and Transylvania (Mayfair); Attack of the Mutants; Barbarians; Fast Attack Boats; and Fall of South Vietnam (Yaquinto).
Other one-page games:
One Page Bulge (Steve Jackson) the One Page Submarine Warfare Game (B. McCue)
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