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Britannia (board game)
Encyclopedia
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
, first released and published in 1986 by Gibsons Games in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and most recently updated in late 2008
2008 in games
This page lists board and card games, wargames, miniatures games, and table-top role-playing games published in 2008. For video and console games, see 2008 in video gaming.-Game awards given in 2008:*Spiel des Jahres: Keltis...
as a re-release of the 2005
2005 in games
This page lists board and card games, wargames, miniatures games, and table-top role-playing games published in 2005. For video and console games, see 2005 in video gaming.-Game awards given in 2005:...
edition, produced by Fantasy Flight Games
Fantasy Flight Games
Fantasy Flight Games is a Roseville, Minnesota-based game company that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games. Fantasy Flight Publishing was founded in 1995 by its CEO, Christian T. Petersen. Since the release of its first game product in 1997, the company has been doing...
. It broadly depicts the wars in, and migrations to, the island of Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
in the centuries from the Roman
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
invasions to the Norman Conquest.
Britannia was selected among the anthology Hobby Games: The 100 Best and is ranked by members of the Board Game Geek site in the top 150 of over 3000 ranked games. Britannia has spawned a subgenre of wargames characterized by epic time scales with players taking the part of multiple tribes or nations over the course of the game.
Components
- a rulebook
- a board depicting a map of the island of Britain
- 251 unit markers in red, blue, yellow and green representing infantry, cavalry, leaders, Roman forts and Saxon BurhBurhA Burh is an Old English name for a fortified town or other defended site, sometimes centred upon a hill fort though always intended as a place of permanent settlement, its origin was in military defence; "it represented only a stage, though a vitally important one, in the evolution of the...
s. - 17 nation cards with information about each nation
- 175 victory point tokens in denominations of 1, 5 and 25
- 16 population markers
- one sword-shaped game round marker
- five white, six-sided combat dice
Gameplay
The game begins with one army in each area of Britain, with each part of the island occupied by different nations: the Belgae
Belgae
The Belgae were a group of tribes living in northern Gaul, on the west bank of the Rhine, in the 3rd century BC, and later also in Britain, and possibly even Ireland...
, Welsh
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
, Brigantes
Brigantes
The Brigantes were a Celtic tribe who in pre-Roman times controlled the largest section of what would become Northern England, and a significant part of the Midlands. Their kingdom is sometimes called Brigantia, and it was centred in what was later known as Yorkshire...
, Caledonians
Caledonians
The Caledonians , or Caledonian Confederacy, is a name given by historians to a group of indigenous peoples of what is now Scotland during the Iron Age and Roman eras. The Romans referred to their territory as Caledonia and initially included them as Britons, but later distinguished as the Picts...
(representing the distinctive Broch
Broch
A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs include some of the most sophisticated examples of drystone architecture ever created, and belong to the classification "complex Atlantic Roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s....
culture) and Picts
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
. 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
Roman army
The Roman army is the generic term for the terrestrial armed forces deployed by the kingdom of Rome , the Roman Republic , the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine empire...
will come to dominate most of the board, but eventually the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
will withdraw their forces from Britain completely, leaving behind just the scattered Romano-British
Romano-British
Romano-British culture describes the culture that arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest of AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a people of Celtic language and...
. Meanwhile, throughout the game, further nations arrive from across the seas: the Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
and Scots
Gaels
The Gaels or Goidels are speakers of one of the Goidelic Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Goidelic speech originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to western and northern Scotland and the Isle of Man....
, and later the Dubliners
Norse-Gaels
The Norse–Gaels were a people who dominated much of the Irish Sea region, including the Isle of Man, and western Scotland for a part of the Middle Ages; they were of Gaelic and Scandinavian origin and as a whole exhibited a great deal of Gaelic and Norse cultural syncretism...
, from the west; the Norsemen from the north; the Saxons
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
, Angles
Angles
The Angles is a modern English term for a Germanic people who took their name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a district located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany...
, Danes
History of Denmark
The history of Denmark dates back about 12,000 years, to the end of the last ice age, with the earliest evidence of human inhabitation. The Danes were first documented in written sources around 500 AD, including in the writings of Jordanes and Procopius. With the Christianization of the Danes c...
and Norwegians from the east; the Jutes
Jutes
The Jutes, Iuti, or Iutæ were a Germanic people who, according to Bede, were one of the three most powerful Germanic peoples of their time, the other two being the Saxons and the Angles...
and Normans
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
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
Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson was the last Anglo-Saxon King of England.It could be argued that Edgar the Atheling, who was proclaimed as king by the witan but never crowned, was really the last Anglo-Saxon king...
, William of Normandy
William I of England
William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...
, Harald Hardrada and Svein Estrithson
Sweyn II of Denmark
Sweyn II Estridsson Ulfsson was the King of Denmark from 1047 to 1074. He was the son of Ulf Jarl and Estrid Svendsdatter. He was married three times, and fathered 20 children or more, including the five future kings Harald III Hen, Canute IV the Saint, Oluf I Hunger, Eric I Evergood and Niels...
. It is possible that no nation will be king if all four of these leaders have been killed or if they lack the required number of regions. 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
Castra
The Latin word castra, with its singular castrum, was used by the ancient Romans to mean buildings or plots of land reserved to or constructed for use as a military defensive position. The word appears in both Oscan and Umbrian as well as in Latin. It may have descended from Indo-European to Italic...
. 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 Burh
Burh
A Burh is an Old English name for a fortified town or other defended site, sometimes centred upon a hill fort though always intended as a place of permanent settlement, its origin was in military defence; "it represented only a stage, though a vitally important one, in the evolution of the...
s. 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
Danelaw
The Danelaw, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , is a historical name given to the part of England in which the laws of the "Danes" held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. It is contrasted with "West Saxon law" and "Mercian law". The term has been extended by modern historians to...
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
Bretwalda
Bretwalda is an Old English word, the first record of which comes from the late 9th century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It is given to some of the rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the 5th century onwards who had achieved overlordship of some or all of the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms...
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.
Development history
This game was created by Lewis PulsipherLewis Pulsipher
Lewis Errol Pulsipher is a teacher, game designer, and author, whose subject is role playing games, board games, card games, and video games. He was the first person in the North Carolina community college system to teach game design classes...
in 1983 under the working title of Invasions. 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
Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. Its logo contained its initials "AH", and it was often referred to by this abbreviation. It also published the occasional miniature wargaming rules, role-playing game, and had a popular line of sports simulations...
. 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 published by Fantasy Flight Games is sometimes known as Britannia Second Edition, or Britannia II. This version was first published in 2005, and when the first print run sold out a reprint was produced in 2008, incorporating all official errata and corrections, as well as new language versions in German, French, Spanish and Hungarian.
Changes between versions
At each stage of development and publication of Britannia changes were made to the rules of the game, as well as to the scenario and materials:Map : On the hand-drawn map in the original Invasions prototype there was just one Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
area, and several areas had different names, such as Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, which would later be Avalon, and Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
, which would later become Downlands. The Gibsons version introduced North and South Mercia, and rearranged the connection of areas around the Pennines
Pennines
The Pennines are a low-rising mountain range, separating the North West of England from Yorkshire and the North East.Often described as the "backbone of England", they form a more-or-less continuous range stretching from the Peak District in Derbyshire, around the northern and eastern edges of...
, while changing marshy Somerset into lowlands and lowland Berkshire into highlands. This map, painted in dark shades of green and blue, was retained for later versions until the Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) version, which slightly changed the Pennines area again and cleared up the sea area connections in the Skye
Skye
Skye or the Isle of Skye is the largest and most northerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate out from a mountainous centre dominated by the Cuillin hills...
region. The Avalon Hill mapboard incorporated the Turn Record Chart down each side of the board. In previous versions the events of the game were listed on a card for each of the four players. The onboard Timeline was reimplemented by FFG, and their artwork for the land changed to predominantly yellow, with a rather enlarged map compared to previous versions.
Colours : The original prototype used Blue, Red, Green and Yellow for the different player pieces. The first Gibsons version had Purple, Brown, Red and Blue, with the Brown pieces becoming Black in their later version and in the Welt der Spiele version. Avalon Hill changed these counters to Green. This led to players of the different versions calling this coalition 'BBG' or Brown-Black-Green. FFG then changed the Purple counters to Yellow.
Scenario : In the prototype the Irish were allied to the Romans, and this was changed to the Irish joining the Red coalition in the Gibsons version, and all subsequent versions. For the non-standard games every version had slight changes to which nations were controlled by which player. Gibsons introduced a short game. Small changes were made to many of the forces arriving in the game between the prototype and the Gibsons version, and later for FFG's version, which also added more leaders. In FFG's version Round V became a Victory Point counting turn instead of Turn 4. The FFG version also includes several two-player games and a changed version of the short game.
Rules : In 1983 the Invasions prototype was submitted by Lewis Pulsipher to Gibsons for evaluation and testing, and most development work was done by Roger Heyworth without referring back to the designer. This had been Pulsipher's last design before effectively retiring from game design. This led to a number of areas being confused and not entirely in line with the designer's intention. By 2004 when Pulsipher first saw the published version of Britannia being played at a convention he was surprised by some of the tactics that were allowed by the rules, especially in terms of their historicity. One major area of change between the intention of the prototype and the Gibsons and Avalon Hill versions was how raiding worked. In these games raiders could 'hang around forever' at sea without committing to landing. These and other areas in the rules were cleared up with the advent of the FFG version, reducing the need for players to clarify rules amongst themselves, as had been the case during the period between the Avalon Hill and FFG versions. The 2008 version removed any lingering detailed issues with the 2005 version, including the nation turn order listed on the map.
New concepts : FFG's Britannia II has introduced the new concepts of Roman Road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
s and Roman Reinforcements, Belgae submission and the Boudiccan Rebellion, and a four kings ending instead of three, with the addition of Svein Estrithsson. Britannia II also includes rules for players to bid amongst themselves to take particular sides in an auction, in part to address any perceived imbalance between the colours.
Reimplementation
The game Maharaja, also published by Avalon Hill, reimplemented the same system, on the Indian subcontinentIndian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
.
Other published designs using systems developed from the Britannia pattern with additional complexity include Hispania, covering the Iberian peninsula
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
and Italia, covering Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
List of leaders
Romano-British: ArthurKing Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
Scots: Fergus Mor Mac Erc
Fergus Mór
Fergus Mór mac Eirc was a legendary king of Dál Riata. He was the son of Erc.While his historicity may be debatable, his posthumous importance as the founder of Scotland in the national myth of Medieval and Renaissance Scotland is not in doubt...
Norwegians: Harald Hardrada
Dubliners: Olaf Guthfrithson
Normans: William
Angles: Ida
Ida of Bernicia
Ida is the first known king of the Anglian kingdom of Bernicia, which he ruled from around 547 until his death in 559. Little is known of his life or reign, but he was regarded as the founder of a line from which later Anglo-Saxon kings in this part of northern England and southern Scotland...
, Oswiu
Oswiu of Northumbria
Oswiu , also known as Oswy or Oswig , was a King of Bernicia. His father, Æthelfrith of Bernicia, was killed in battle, fighting against Rædwald, King of the East Angles and Edwin of Deira at the River Idle in 616...
, Offa
Offa of Mercia
Offa was the King of Mercia from 757 until his death in July 796. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æthelbald after defeating the other claimant Beornred. In the early years of Offa's reign it is likely...
Belgae: Boudicca
Boudica
Boudica , also known as Boadicea and known in Welsh as "Buddug" was queen of the British Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire....
Danes: Ivar
Ivar the Boneless
Ivar Ragnarsson nicknamed the Boneless , was a Viking leader and by reputation also a berserker. By the late 11th century he was known as a son of the powerful Ragnar Lodbrok, ruler of an area probably comprising parts of modern-day Denmark and Sweden.-Invader:In the autumn of AD 865, with his...
& Halfdan
Halfdan Ragnarsson
Halfdan Ragnarsson was a Viking chief and one of the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok with Aslaug. It has been suggested that Halfdan is the same person as Ragnar's son Hvitserk....
(as one leader), Cnut, Svein Estrithsson
Sweyn II of Denmark
Sweyn II Estridsson Ulfsson was the King of Denmark from 1047 to 1074. He was the son of Ulf Jarl and Estrid Svendsdatter. He was married three times, and fathered 20 children or more, including the five future kings Harald III Hen, Canute IV the Saint, Oluf I Hunger, Eric I Evergood and Niels...
Norsemen: Ketil Flatnose
Brigantes: Urien
Urien
Urien , often referred to as Urien Rheged, was a late 6th century king of Rheged, an early British kingdom of the Hen Ogledd . His power and his victories, including the battles of Gwen Ystrad and Alt Clut Ford, are celebrated in the praise poems to him by Taliesin, preserved in the Book of Taliesin...
Saxons: Aelle, Egbert
Egbert of Wessex
Egbert was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was Ealhmund of Kent...
, Alfred
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...
, Edgar, Harold
Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson was the last Anglo-Saxon King of England.It could be argued that Edgar the Atheling, who was proclaimed as king by the witan but never crowned, was really the last Anglo-Saxon king...