The "Britannia-style" games are listed in order of publication.
Following that is a list of
unpublished designs.
Introduction
"Britannia-style" games consist of these general features:
Every phenomenon of any size must have its precursors; perhaps that's what this game and the next are for the Britannia-style game.
Not area-, but
hex-based with counters that contain combat and movement points.
All of a player's nations are played
together and can even combine in defense, thought not in attack.
There is no
economic mechanism, so no new pieces are received as a result of
occupation, only scheduled reinforcements.
times.
Many of the point goals are for
taking cities. There is no stacking except in
cities. The only other way to score points is to destroy enemy
combat factors.
BGG entry
Stephen Oppenheimer's book The Origins of the British gives evidence suggesting that although there were invasions by Angles and Jutes, the Saxon invasion described by St. Gildas (a writer who may have had an axe to grind) may never have occurred. Instead it looks, at least to Oppenheimer, like Germanic-speakers were in England long before the Romans were, and upon Roman departure they simply resume power. If this is correct, this game needs a significant variant to remove the Saxon invasion and replace it with a Saxon resurgence.
Notes Playback Mailing List (Eurobrit) Rules Re-write BGG entry
Available from
Strategia e Tattica
BGG entry
Some differences from the Britannia rules include the
following:
initial setup is free and counter by counter;
order of nations within a turn is random;
redeployment phase;
mountains count as a double area for movement;
leaders do not add to the movement rate;
the basic movement rate is three;
leaders affect two areas in a round;
defender retreats first;
maximum number of rounds of combat is fixed (two or three);
growth is not based on number of areas owned;
units may return from the dead if for each a unit is removed permanently;
invaders need not double-stack to overrun;
submission rules are generalized;
submitted units are not allowed to move.
BGG entry
Europe is divided into vague and unnamed territories of
different types: Agriculture I, Agriculture II, Forest, Mountain and miscellaneous.
Some territories also have a port or mining abilities.
Civilizations are represented by randomly drawn pairs of counters of various kinds: military,
resource, miscellaneous which are drafted by each player.
The player then takes a number of tokens based on the number of players and red numbers
on the counters which basically fixes the civilization size for its life.
Civilizations begin from an edge of the map and move into adjacent territories.
There are no dice. Conquest requires a number of tokens depending on the number of
defenders and variations caused by terrain and special abilities.
When after a few turns the civilization size has dwindled one usually
decides to let it "go into decline". This turn, it does not move by the player chooses a
new civilization. "Decline" counters are placed on the existing
territories leaving only one token each to still earn points.
And so on. Normally one plays two, three or four civilizations during the course of a game.
BGG entry
1700 years of Russian history, from
the demise of the Scythians to the death of
Ivan the Terrible. Players lead Huns,
Goths, Mongols and other groups that
ravaged ancient and medieval Russia, as well
as the great city-states of Kiev, Novgorod,
and Moscow. Alexander Nevsky battles the
Teutonic Knights, the Mongols seek to destroy all in their path...
BGG entry
Game on England and her conquests for up to four by the inventors of
History of the World.
Sides are represented by individual kings and
entirely decided by draft before play even begins. Kings vary by the amount
of extra force they add and in their primary spheres of activity.
Play itself is diceless (and thus reminiscent of
Vinci),
the core of the combat system being a rather strange and unique form
of arithmetic. The active player's forces must defeat the inactive
defenders by the minimum possible amount – pieces are rated at value
1, 2 or 3 – but then only the strongest of these invaders remains.
The other unusual mechanic is that over the entire course only twenty-five
percent of one's forces are guaranteed to be one's own. The rest are drawn
from a bag and may be one's own, but are also often the forces of other
players, rebellious indigenous groups or mercenaries usable with any of the
above. (There are also three levels of fortification.) The need for a player
to clear out his force pool for the next set of forces means
often going through unusual gymnastics. For example, he may use other player
forces to conquer rebels, then use rebels to conquer them back and finally
use his own forces to conquer the rebels. The other unusual feature is
that in a four-player game, each player has only six turns and only on
half of them may he declare scoring (which occurs for all players).
Just as in their previous game, the board is no board at all, but printed on a folded cloth.
BGG entry
From Agamemnon and Troy to the wars of Athens/Sparta and Persia, then Alexander the
Great and right up through Hannibal and the Roman conquest of the entire known world.
Simulating 1600 to 146 BC in 16 rounds to last about 5 hours.
Includes 36 pages of rules, 60x60 cm board, 16 cards, 298 pieces, 5 dice,
scoring track, etc. Games are made on demand for 35 Euro + packing and shipping.
In German.
The history of the Italian peninsula, Roman Africa and Illyricum
from the foundation of Rome to the consolidation of Julius Caesar
in the first scenario and in the second, from the invasions of
the Visigoths to the consolidation of Charlemagne.
There are 400 army pieces,
are used in 24 game turns, each a century long, starting from 403 BC.
Important aspects impinging on play are mountains, emperors, heroes,
new inventions, rebellions, barbarian invasions, diplomacy and the Great Wall.
Growth of each nation depends on the amount and nature of the territory it owns.
Re-make of Vinci, now as a game of giants,
dwarves, elves, orcs, amazons and wizards.
Includes 14 races and 20 special powers.
BGG entry
Chinese history from 200-1300 AD (Han Dynasty to Mongols?).
Desktop-published game includes some 200 plastic counters in 4 colours with stickers,
color map on heavy paper and two pages of rules. Shipped in a roll without container.
Unlike Britannia, does not use special victory point awards for each particular group.
More at
Andrew Parkin's site
BGG entry
Fantasy Flight Games-2005;
3-5 (4 optimal)
Combines together all the different versions of the rules and adds
a method for distributing nations that will provide greater variety in
the 3- and 5-player games (optionally also in the 4-player).
More at
Lew Pulsipher site
BGG entry
"Myths
of British Ancestry" by Stephen Oppenheimer is a fascinating article on
the early peopling of Britain, mentioning for example that Germanic
languages were probably spoken there much earlier than previously thought
and also the Norwegian invasions of the isles prior to the Romans.
Obviously this game needs a prequel.
Published in October at the Essen Game Fair.
More at
Andreas'
site
BGG entry
BGG entry
Pictures
Early Comments
BGG entry
Shorter scenarios include "Decline and Fall" (of the Western Roman Empire), "Heirs to the Empire" (German successor states), "Jihad" (rise of Islam), and "The End of the World" (millennial).
The game includes 41 nations and covers from the collapse of the Western Empire to Joan of Arc. Playing time is about ten hours with rules based on Britannia rules. Includes two pages of special rules mainly for enhanced movement and fighting; submission and revolt; sacking Rome; "fight as they move" (to simulate the conquests of Attila, Genghis Khan, etc.); etc.
The game has a playing time of probably more than twelve hours.
Playtesting is occurring online; details at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MandateH
More at
Lew Pulsipher site
"Successor to Britannia."
More at
Lew Pulsipher site
Covers the same period as Britannia adding Ireland and subtracting
much of the scoring. Battle cards replace dice and plastic figures
the counters.
More at
Lew Pulsipher site
This is "8 hour Britannia" (including Ireland).
There are more nations and more areas.
More at
Lew Pulsipher site
Scottish history from the Romans to Norwegian king Magnus Barelegs.
More at
Lew Pulsipher site
Presumably similar to Hispania (see above).
More at
Lew Pulsipher site
More at
Lew Pulsipher site
Starting in 360, it ends 14 turns later with Murad
II taking Constantinople. It accommodates
4 players each controlling 4-5 nations, plus an extra 10 or so nations
assigned randomly at the beginning of the game. Included are
(player 1)
Byzantines, Mongols, First Crusaders, Catalans;
(player 2)
Goths, Bulgars, Lombards, Venetians, Ottomans;
(player 3)
Persian, Vandals, Franks, Russians, Seljuks;
(player 4)
Huns, Saracens, Normans, Magyars.
Randomly assigned are
Sarmatians, Serbs, Croatians, Genoese, Avars, Slavs, Cumans, Uz,
Karamans.
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