From: torbenm@diku.dk (Torben AEgidius Mogensen)
Description: Review of Britannia
 
The game is played by 3-5 players, but is best with 4, which is
reflected by there being four colours of counters. Each player
represents several different peoples/nations that lived in/invaded
Britain from the Roman invasion to the Norman conquest. Each turn
represents about 75 years, more in the beginning of the game and less
near the end. In each turn each nation increases population, moves and
fights. The order is depending on nation, not player, so each player
will have several moves during his/her turn. At some turns some nations
gets major invasions, allowing them to move and fight twice.
 
Some nations start on the board, but others enter from the sea at
specified times. Each nation acquires points and the total is summed up
for each player at the end of the game. You can acquire points in
several ways. In the beginning of the game most nations get points by
killing Romans or destroying their forts. At certain points in the
game, all nations gets points for occupying land. Not all land count
the same, and most land areas count more for some nations than others.
It tends to be so that a nation gets most points for doing what it
historically did or tried to do. Most nations gets important leaders at
specific times. Other nations often gets points for killing these.
Near the end of the game there are points for getting elected Bretwalda
or King of England. Some additional special situations gives points
to certain nations.
 
Fighting is relatively simple: each piece has a die, both players
simultaneously roll dice for all their pieces in an area and count the
number of fives or sixes. The opponent loses that many pieces.
Fighting continues until one player is dead or withdraws from the area.
There are special rules for fighting in mountains and swamps, for
Romans, for cavalry and for leaders, but the principle is the same.
 
I quite like the game. Some find that they are too bound to repeat
history by the tailored point system. Some don't like the randomness of
combat, but I find these minor quibbles. Even within the standard point
system I have seen games that turn out radically different, and rarely
will two games be exactly the same. The randomness tend to even out
over the game, though a few times a fair amount of points (though
rarely more than about 4% of the total points accumulated through the
game) can be decided by a single die roll.
 
        Torben Mogensen (torbenm@diku.dk)