Iliad, The Most Renowned War Legend
International Team (1979, $34.95)
Designer unattributed
Players 2 or more
Playing Time 2-3 hours
Period Ancients
Scale Operational/Abstract
Turn approximately 1 hour
Map not stated
Unit Heroes (and followers?)

Components
1 Box 19 1/2" x 13 3/4" flatbox
1 26 1/2" x 38 1/2" mapboard (consisting of 5 irregularly shaped puzzle pieces on thick cardboard)
51 die-cut 3/4" counters
1 12 page illustrated rulebook in four languages
2 identical laminated Calendar record cards
1 green plastic counter tray
1 six-sided die
Counters 28 blue, 23 orange

I Team’s translator says

“Paris kidnapped beautiful Helen from Sparta, where her husband Menelaus was king. This offence against Menelaus aroused all the Greek Princes’ anger, who gathered their armies and sailed to Troy to take revenge. But after nine year battles, the citadel of Troy still resisted.

The Greek situation was aggravated by the dispute aroused between two of the most important Greek Chiefs, Agamemnon and Achilles, because of a slave. In the end Achilles, indignant, left the battle. At this point Homer’s poem and our game begin.”

The reviewer says:

“I would recommend its purchase only to a very select audience, and even that, only conditionally. Because of its simplicity, Iliad is only useful as an introductory game. Its strong point is its superlative appearance, among the most striking of all wargames ... the game is relatively long — four to five hours ...

Another drawback is that although the rules are short and unsophisticated, they are riddled with ambiguities ... One of the key ambiguities concerns Achilles’ possible entry in an emergency: ‘He could not enter the game anymore only if all the other pieces were eliminated during the period of his withdrawal’ ...

This game is interesting as an example of the ‘state of the art’ in Italy, not for purchase and repeated play. If I were stranded on a desert island with Iliad, I’m sure I could play it many times with enjoyment — but it certainly wouldn’t be on my list of games to take with me to that island, even if the list had 100 places.” Tom Oleson in F&M 22.

Comments

The lavish International Team games were made in Italy. While the IT games are notable for their polished components many of them also became notorious (to English readers) on account of their rulebooks written in Italian, English, French and German. The English translations are renowned for being poorly done (although I have heard that the French and German translations are supposed to be somewhat better).

Collector’s Notes

Iliad did not offer much gameplay for your dollar -- especially when you consider that it sold for almost $8 more than games such as SPI’s NATO Division Commander (a 1200 counter wargame which offered hour after hour of game play). The International Team games still command relatively high prices today. I would expect that they are mostly sought after for grandeur rather than gaming -- even today they are quite impressive physically. Boone lists low/high/average prices of 16/101/48.00 at auction and 26/ 50/42.00 for sale.

Other I Team games ’43; Attila; Austerlitz; Bonaparte; East & West; Idro; Jena; Kroll & Prumni; Little Big Horn; Millenium; Mockba; Norge; Odyssey; Okinawa; Rommel; Super marina; Waterloo; Wohrom; Yom Kippur; Yorktown; and Zargo’s Lords.

Capsule Profiles:

ICBM
Ice War
Iliad
Intruder
Imperium
Insurgency