A slightly weird co-op of Greek(ish) city states balancing demands of gods and the people

Adding a time element to some items lets players play a slow build for a big improvement when it delivers. Modes the player go for a quick item so it frees up resources next turn or do they commit to the long play which will constrain resources until it is delivered? Can players interrupt what other players are doing? Could the players forgo doing something for their cities to try & sabotage the other player/s (you mentioned it's a sort of competitive co-op so I'm assuming that instead of trying to win you are trying to make the others lose)?

One thing your description suggested to me was that some demands from the Gods or people might be unreasonable and destructive, giving you the urge to ignore them, but in that case you might risk the problem festering and being more of an issue later.

One game that does this well is Twilight Struggle, where it is often best to play an opponent's event and wear the pain now, rather than postpone it to some other time that might be even worse.

So you could have the option of satisfying the people and the Gods' demands fester, or vice versa, or you could chicken out and defer satisfying both groups' demands for some short term bonus. How this actually worked and whether it suited your overall game would depend on your mechanics.

I have a few suggestions:

Firstly, the individual Greek gods were always engaging in feuds with one another. So I would suggest that your game include a small number (maybe 5) individual gods, each with their own likes and dislikes. Then some actions will please some gods while angering others. This will require much more effort for players to keep balanced (because you don't want to irritate any one god too much - each one could bring their own brand of disaster down on you). You could include some sort of mechanic to bribe a god without creating too much umbrage through expensive sacrifices or building a temple.

Next, if you gave each player control over not one but several Greek city states (maybe three to five each) then they could have a favour-rating in each state as well. It could even be partial control - i.e. some cities have control shared between players. So if you anger the populace too much, then they oust you. If all players are ousted from any one city, then this would lose the game. This could work somewhat similarly to the gods - because of old emnities, certain things will anger some cities, but please others. And, of course, each Greek city-state has its own patron god, whose likes and dislikes are well known, but can be temporarily disregarded by the citizens for the right incentive...

Next, you could consider having occasional external military threats, for example from the Persians. If more than one Greek city-state overcomes a Persian invasion together, it reduces the odium between them.

Then, regarding the victory condition: As you probably know, the Greeks believed that being Greek was really special, and that the ties of Greek nationality were a strong bond. Unfortunately, not strong enough to stop inter-city warfare, but certainly strong enough that apparently many Greeks apparently dreamed of a unified Greece. There was also the old myth of the golden age, which could be woven into this - obviously they wanted the golden age to return, and that implied peace and unity. Of course, the Greek city-states were eventually unified by Philip II of Macedon and ruled briefly but famously by his son Alexander the Great (who claimed divine ancestry). So maybe the victory condition is to either unify the city-states politically or religiously, or by raising up a military hero like Alexander to do it for you.

I hope some of this helps

I think that you're on to an interesting idea, but you've got a complex build on your hands. I don't envy you!

Here are some ideas that your brainstorm here has prompted me to come up with:

-Each player's "god" has a deck of cards that are drawn once per round (or less often, perhaps a game has only 3 phases, but 9 rounds?), which affect their play for the round. Perhaps their god tells them that they cannot trade with their neighbor to their right, or they suffer the consequence printed on the bottom of the card. Perhaps some consequences aren't set in stone, but decided by a roll of the dice (or spinner), creating tension.

-The way you gather resources could be based on a spinner used by all players on their respective turns, granting you resources where it lands. to play on this mechanic, perhaps the wrath of the gods could impose droughts, famines, and othersuch could cause a marker to be placed on a space that prevents you from gaining that particular spot's benefits, making your spin sometimes worthless. This might eventually mean that your city is unable to grow food, and must trade - becoming a strain on your friends.

-Each player's populace has specific demands (another deck?) that they must meet each game round/phase, or similar consequences could be inflicted (printed at card's bottom). However, while the wrath of the gods could have world-changing consequences or send horrible monsters to wreck your populace, the populace consequences would likely just affect you or things that you've built for yourself, or it could sometimes cause you to go to war with a neighbor, which becomes a new demand card that must be resolved, or the player is deposed (and everyone loses the game).

-The historical event that makes the most sense in my mind is the Persian invasions. The Persians had a strong navy and an immense army, which could create two different problems that the players must overcome to defeat them. If the enemy navy becomes too strong, trading becomes less and less likely to work. If the enemy army becomes too strong or advances too far, you lose.

I really like the idea. Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help you to build it!

The idea of having an affinity to the gods either side would be interesting for 4+ player games, it would certainly add to that cooperative/competitive game mix. I can't see it working for <4 players though, & I can't think of anyway to get it to work for 2 player games.

Perhaps this is how players get their head around it, they play to win but the strategy is in when they take their actions so they don't help their neighbours to much? Would the effect cascade around the table e.g. I do something that helps the players to my left & right which in turn helps the players to their left & right (does some of that reflect back to me?) & so on around the table?

I think that, while it might be OK for a god's demand to have an effect on neighboring players (like some of the black cards from 7 Wonders), I think that instead the way that displeasing the gods affects them is through the creation of impediments to the players as a whole (like monsters). This would allow players who have pleased their respective gods to lend a helping hand to a player who is struggling.

I was thinking about your resources and population ideas, and I have an additional one that I'd like to present. What if you measured your population (or just people) by a hand of cards, each with costs and benefits. Those cards can be used for the benefits listed, or they could be used as a means of transporting your resources (place the card face-down between you and a neighbor with a resource on top to indicate that you're sharing with them), or you could send them out for basic resources (the spinner idea I mentioned earlier). Some cards might simply be able to give you a guaranteed resource.

To encourage trade, I would limit what can be stored by a particular player between rounds - perhaps up to 3 resources each, or maybe that a given city can store as many as they want of just one resource, making them a hub for that kind of resource (if you've got too much of something, then it'll be wasted unless you can figure out a way to get it to that player). The demands of the people could be these physical resources, where they demand that you provide 2 food, one soldier, and one ore for their benefit, and if you fail, you might get fewer worker cards to use the following turn.

The gods might also require a sacrifice of resources, or they might also ask that you send your soldiers or a hero on quests, giving you a time limit to accomplish the task.

In thinking about this, I really, really want to include heroes. Rather than worry about individual soldiers, I would instead take the Civilization route and have a single hero minifigure for each player that could be sent on quests to slay monsters and do the bidding of the gods, but you could also have soldiers allocated to your army be used by having that hero minifigure enter the space with enemy forces, allowing your dudes to combat the invading hordes.

Of course, this is all spitballing, so feel free to pick and choose among this for ideas that you like. PM me if you want to collaborate on this.