Britannia (board game)
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Britannia is a strategy board game, whose most recent edition was released in the winter of 2005, and was produced by Fantasy Flight Games. The first edition appeared in 1986 and was published by Gibsons Games in the United Kingdom (see Development History below).[1]
It broadly depicts the wars in, and migrations to, the island of Great Britain in the centuries from the Roman invasions to the Norman Conquest.
Contents |
[edit] Components
- One Rulebook
- The Game Board depicting a map of the island of Britain
- 251 (listed as 219) Unit Markers in four colours: red, blue, yellow and green, representing Infantry, Cavalry, Leaders, Roman Forts and Saxon Burhs.
- 17 Nation Cards, carrying information about each nation
- 175 Victory Point Tokens in denominations of 1, 5 and 25
- 16 Population Markers
- 1 Game Round Marker in the shape of a sword
- 5 white six-sided Combat Dice
[edit] Gameplay
Britannia is a 3-5 player game that takes approximately 4 hours to complete. The primary rules are for 4 players using the counter colours as printed in the game, but there are variant scenarios for 3 and 5 players, as well as a 3-player shorter Game and several short 2-player scenarios. Each player controls several nations.
The game begins with one army in each area of Britain, with each part of the island occupied by different nations: the Belgae, Welsh, Brigantes, Caledonians (representing the distinctive Broch culture) and Picts. A force of Romans begin in the English Channel and are the first nation to move. Through their superior fighting power and mobility the Romans will come to dominate most of the board, but eventually the Roman Empire will withdraw their forces from Britain completely, leaving behind just the scattered Romano-British. Meanwhile, throughout the game, further nations arrive from across the seas: the Irish and Scots, and later the Dubliners, from the west; the Norsemen from the north; the Saxons, Angles, Danes and Norwegians from the east; the Jutes and Normans from the south. All of these nations will compete with each other, as well as the existing nations, for turf. Some nations will be destroyed, and the recurring theme in Britannia is that nations will rise and fall. However all nations will make their contribution to a player’s Victory Point total and eventual victory or defeat.
At the end of the game all four players will have the possibility to become the King of England through their control of Harold the Saxon, William of Normandy, Harald Hardrada and Svein Estrithson. However this in itself will not determine who will win the game.
Nations take their turns in strict order, each taking one turn in each Game Round.
Each nation's turn has five phases.
- Population Increase Phase
- In this phase nations other than the Romans count the territory they hold and may be able to add new armies to the board through natural increase of population.
- Movement Phase
- In this phase a nation may move none, some or all of its pieces on the board. Distances are generally limited, but some nations may be able to move pieces along the coasts using boats. Also new forces arriving from across the sea will be able to land. Roman and cavalry forces can move further than infantry, as can forces with leaders.
- Battles/Retreats Phase
- Where a nation has moved forces into an area held by another nation a battle will occur. Once all movement is complete battles are resolved with the aid of dice. Battles are conducted in rounds and forces of both sides may retreat after each round. The ability of nations to retreat and fight another day is a major part of the flavour of gameplay.
- Raider Withdrawal Phase
- Some nations have designated Game Rounds called Raiding Turns which allow their forces to remain at sea, or return to the sea after making an attack on the land. These forces will return in later Game Rounds.
- Overpopulation Phase
- At the end of their turn if a nation other than the Romans has more armies than twice the number of areas held, the excess armies are removed due to overpopulation.
A nation is made up of several different playing pieces:
- Army
- These represent the fighting forces of the nation, as well as possessing some characteristics of population.
- Leader
- These have no combat strength in themselves, but increase the combat strength of all forces they are with. Named leaders appear on various Game Rounds for specific nations throughout the game.
- Fort
- These represent Roman Forts. The Romans build a fort in each area they conquer. These fight as normal armies and may not move. The Romans must protect their forts, as they can only score on Round V for areas that contain an undestroyed fort. If a fort is destroyed it is turned over onto its destroyed side, to show that the Romans failed to protect that area. Forts may not be rebuilt.
- Burh
- These represent Saxons fortified settlements or Burhs. These may be built if the Saxons hold less than a set limit of areas on certain Rounds, and help the Saxons build up their strength for resisting the expansion of the Danelaw late in the game.
The player whose nations have achieved the highest Victory Point total at the end of the game is the winner. Nations can score Victory Points on any Game Round, such as for eliminating certain opposing pieces or temporarily capturing certain areas, but will mostly score for holding different areas of Britain during the Scoring Rounds of Round V, VII, X, XIII and XVI. Also nations can score additional points by achieving Bretwalda or King of England. Nations all have their own Victory Point objectives listed on their Nation cards, and each player colour will accumulate Victory Points at different rates through the game. This means that at any given moment who is actually winning will not be immediately obvious. Experienced players develop an idea of what typical scores are at different stages of a game and so will be able to tell what is really going on.
An ideal game ends with a close finish with several players still being able to win, and the outcome resting on one battle or roll of the dice.
[edit] Development History
This game was created by Lewis Pulsipher in 1983 under the working title of Invasions.[1] It was first published by Gibsons Games as Britannia from 1986 in the United Kingdom in two slightly different versions after development by Roger Heyworth. A German-language version was released by Welt der Spiele and the game was later republished in the United States by Avalon Hill. The game developed a devoted following across the world, and when in 2003, after a long break from board game work and having retained the publishing rights, Lewis Pulsipher announced he would be extensively revising the game, a great deal of player input contributed to the revision, which not only tidied up the rules, but also brought in a number of new features. Consequently the newest version is sometimes known as Britannia Second Edition, or Britannia II.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Dalgliesh, Tom (2007), “Britannia”, in Lowder, James, Hobby Games: The 100 Best, Green Ronin Publishing, pp. 34-37, ISBN 978-1-932442-96-0
