Pat Hirtle - 05:46am Sep 7, 2003 PST (#4940 of 5102) Tokyo On the table is Richard Berg's Druid (the 1984 West End Games release, not the new game by the same name). One map, 200 counters depicting Boudicca's rebellion against the Romans in 61 AD. I enjoyed this game when it was first published, and recently re-acquired it through the Marketplace here at Consimworld. The game mechanics are fairly simple. Each side draws an Operations chit at the beginning of the turn to determine how much, or how little, it can do that turn. Operation points vary from 0 to 7 for the Romans and 0 to 5 for the Britains, to which are added the Operations rating for Boudicca and Paulinus. An operations point can activate a stack for movement/combat, force march (for the Romans), fomenting rebellion among the tribes by Boudicca or the Druid priests, sacking towns, etc. There's a wealth of chrome in this game, in the form of Roman civilians, Druid invocations to the gods, fortified Roman camps, spontaneous tribal rebellions, and the building and destruction of bridges. Combat is performed in rounds, with the weaker side having the option to withdraw after a round; otherwise you keep rolling until one side is wiped out. Tribal units are generally two steps, and big compared to the Roman cohorts. Brigantes, for example, have a combat factor of 16 when full strength, 8 when they're reduced. In contrast, a Roman cohort is 4 at full strength, 2 reduced, except for the First Cohort of each legion, which is 8/4. Because combat losses are in steps, this means that the Britains lose bigger chunks of their force with each step loss than the Romans, representing the greater tactical finesse of the Romans when facing barbarian hordes. There are also combat benefits for the Romans when they attack/defend with intact legions. Even playing solitaire, this game has lots of tension and uncertainty. I don't think Boudicca has much chance once the Romans marshal their forces and start to systematically snuff out the tribes; the real fun is seeing how much damage the rebels can do while the legions are still widely separated and inactive - you have to roll for activation before you can start moving legions, and there are garrison requirements to prevent certain tribes from joining the rebellion. The game lasts 20 turns, each turn representing two days. I'm on turn 7, and so far the Romans have had the greatest challenge, trying to get their legions positioned to head off the barbarians and protect the Roman settlements. But now that Paulinus is on the scene with two Roman legions, I suspect that fortune may start to turn against the rebels. This game is exciting and fun to play, and has a clean, elegant system. I'm surprised that it never seemed to get much attention. Certainly one of the more enjoyable gaming experiences I've had recently.