Britannia - first game

After my copy of Britannia arrived a couple of days ago I'd imagined it would take at least a couple of weeks to get round to round to trying it.  Not so!  Thanks to my friend Anthony who'd also just received a copy I got to have a 1st game last night.  So, bearing in mind we only managed to get through the first couple of turns, here are some initial thoughts (on the 2 player Duel version)...

The Britons are already hemmed in the SE by invading Saxons and Angles

Firstly, never believe what a game tells you about the amount of time it takes to play.  On the box it suggests a couple  hours for a 2 player game... we managed 2 turns (out of 7) in 2 hours.  Admittedly we were fumbling our way though the rules, and we'd definitely sped up by the end but even so I think we'd need to have a bit more time to get through the whole series of turns.

I had the advantage of never having played any format of the game.  Anthony had played the Classic 4 player version son had to cope with trying to work out the differences in the formats.  There are a few and in some cases they can be significant.

The game itself felt like a combination of a Dark Age history lesson and a sophisticated version of Risk...don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad thing.  I like Risk: I spent many hours at Uni playing week long games (apparently other people went to lectures and stuff!!)... even now hearing the phrase "3 into Kamchatka" can bring on flashbacks of major tantrums and chairs being thrown.

The armies are reinforced and fight in a Risk-like method with some added complexity.  The interesting historical aspect is how armies come and go throughout the game.  For example my Roman armies were only there for the first turn before buggering off back to Rome which meant my legions transformed into a mix of Romano-british, Welsh and Rheged armies.  Arthur made an appearance in Turn 2 but only stays around during this era before disappearing into legend.

In each turn different armies gain and lose leaders and have certain rules apply to reflect that point in their history.  For example the Angles spent the first turn raiding the East coast which meant they couldn't stay on land after their raid.  By turn 2 (and a later era) they had changed tactics and had the choice of raiding or settling down in the territory they had plundered.

The Picts (in purple) face a powerful Scottii (appropriately blue) invasion force from Ireland.

We didn't get beyond the 2nd turn but later turns see the Angles and Saxons merging and the arrival of the Danes and eventually the Normans.

I really enjoyed the game... many thanks to Anthony for steering my through it and for setting it all up.  It'll be good to play through the whole 7 turns and to try out the bigger game.