I have been purchasing a number of board games lately, some new and some old. This particular item is by Avalon Hill printed in 1987. It claims to allow you to play through one thousand years of British history from AD43, the date of the Roman conquest, to AD1085 when William the Conqueror was exerting his authority over the land. A bold claim with a rule book of only twelve pages, of which only five are the actual rules.
Amazingly in my opinion it succeeds in capturing the turmoil of that period, with different raiders, invaders and settlers arriving in waves on the shoreline of Britain.
The mounted map board with the initial tribes placed as per the rules. A simple but lovely map which does all it needs to do. The turn track, population track and turn recording tracks are all printed on the board too, so always convenient and accessible.
The Caledonians begin with just three regions, right up in the north of Scotland.
The Picts control most of the remainder of Scotland. Subtle colours show it to be a mountainous area, which affects movement, combat and value for reinforcements.
Moving into the more cultivated areas of northern England we find the Brigante in command.
In the south it is the Belgae who hold sway.
The Welsh occupy modern day Wales, plus Hwicce.
As well as Devon and Cornwall.
Sitting ominously in the English Channel is a fleet containing fifteen Roman units that can land anywhere from Cornwall to Kent, a single landing location or multiple is his choice.
The board shows the turn order track, the faction order of play, the increase population track, which is a neat way of showing what reinforcements each nation is due at the beginning of each of their turns. For every three regions owned that nation receives one reinforcement, but mountainous and marshy regions are only valued at half a point as opposed to a full point for arable areas. In effect the total is cumulative, so each marker will move each turn. As an example, the Caledonians control three areas, but all are mountainous so in total are worth only one and a half points, not enough for a reinforcement, but their marker slides down the the one and a half spot, should they still hold the same areas on their next turn, that one and half points is added for a total of three and so a single reinforcement is available to them.
Each tribe/nation has one of these cards which lays out what they need to achieve to accrue victory points. As can be seen by the Roman card, they need to occupy virtually all of England and the southern portion of Scotland to achieve maximum victory points.
I scanned and printed off a number of these record cards, it will be seen that the Romans, Romano-British, Scots, Dubliners and Norwegians are all controlled by one player (purple forces) it is the total points accrued by all of your nations, added together which decide the eventual winner, so it is important to achieve as much as you can with each.
I have a number of PDF copies of Avalon Hill's The General magazine, in one article is an add on for the game, totally unofficial and created by a gaming group to add more flavour and options.
I took the option of scanning and printing out on card stock, some extra tokens as the Ireland scenario requires a few more be available.
Finally, I printed out a copy of the map provided in The General. As you can see it is just about a perfect fit, it is also printed on card stock.
I need to cut it down slightly, probably in a kind of diamond shape with the long straight base at the left and coming to a point just beyond the Isle of Man. As I place plexi or perspex on top, it can be used as and when required, and will fit neatly into the box.
Movement and combat is very simple, as is working out the victory points. Works very well in solo play and all sixteen turns can easily be played out in an evening. Notable warriors come and go on various turns which adds to the flavour and really puts you in the period. Such as King Arthur, Hengist, Egbert and Harold to name just a few.
