Andreas Johansson
Sweden
Linköping
I spent 200 GG and all I got was this lousy overtext!
I spent 200 GG and all I got was this lousy overtext!
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First session of Britannia for me in a long time yesterday. The other three players being new to the game, they asked me to play Yellow, the better to keep track of all the Roman exceptions.
Despite any unfair advantages this might have given me, the Romans did so-so. They dealt easily with the Belgae, Boudicca's revolt doing little damage, but the Brigantes offered spirited resistance, only finally submitting when reduced to just Strathclyde and Galloway. This left me with the choice of attacking the Picts or the Welsh in the third turn; I went with the later, getting big points for the Scottish scoring areas and easing the Scots' way, but leaving Green in an enviable position with unsubmitted Welshmen controlling all of Wales and easily shrugging of Irish raids. The Caledonians were also doing well, taking Moray and Skye from the weakened Picts.
The first wave of Germanic attacks had mixed success, the Jutes and Saxons devastating the Channel coast, but the Angles being repulsed from the North Sea one. The initial Scottish raids dealt grievous damage to the remaining Brigantes (reducing them to a single army in Galloway), but also suffered heavy losses themselves. The end of turn V saw the Romans scoring reasonably for limes, the Saxons firmly established on English soil, and Green looking very strong. Blue seemed well named, Boudicca having scored little, the Picts weakened, and the Angles luckless.
Following the Roman withdrawal, the Saxons' major invasion was surprisingly timid, establishing control over most of southern England, but leaving Romano-British enclaves left in the southeast and in the Welsh borderlands. The later were eliminated by the Welsh and Angles, but the former hung around for until turn IX, finding time to help wiping out the Jutes, before finally succumbing to the Saxons.
The Angles were the more aggressive, attacking Saxons, Brigantes (who had staged a minor revival and briefly held Bernicia and Lothian), Romano-British, and the Irish who had established themselves around Cumbria, as well as twice invading Wales, and generally monopolizing the Bretwalda position. The Scots' major invasion proved more decisive than their earlier forays, and established them securely in Skye, Dalriada and Dunedin, from where they eventually went on to wipe out the last Brigantes from Strathclyde and Galloway, and taking Mar from the Scots. To complete their success, they repulsed a big Caledonian invasion of Skye.
Said Caledonian offensive was ill-timed, the losses leaving their homeland underdefended when the Norsemen descended. The islands and Caithness fell to the invaders, and the nation was eliminated when the Picts retook Moray. The Norsemen also took Skye from the Scots. Further south, the Danes destroyed the Angle hegemony, but their attacks on the Saxons, who had now grown quite strong, were less successful, and they failed to establish a stable realm of their own, so northern and middle England became a patchwork of Angle, Danish, and Dubliner territories, the last wiping out the last Irish. In Wales, the Norsemen established themselves securely in Dyfed.
Come turn XV, then, the Saxons were the easily biggest power in the south, while the Scots dominated, well, Scotland. Poor Danish scoring left Green with no little hope of winning, but both Red and Blue looked like they might catch up to Yellow, who maintained a modest lead.
In Scotland, the only meaningful action in the last two turns was the Scots going north, taking Skye and Hebrides from the Norsemen (who could only console themselves somewhat by seizing Powys down south). Down south, the Norwegian invasion was of mixed success, taking most of the points on offer (killing many Danes in the process), but leaving Harald dangerously exposed after severe losses in a battle against the Saxons in March. William the Bastard then tore the Saxon realm to bits, killing Harold himself in Suffolk, and then narrowly failing to get Harald, who retreated north with a single army. Sveyn's invasion in turn XVI did some damage to William's forces, but wasn't enough to prevent William from proclaiming himself King of England while Harald and Sveyn covered in Lindsey and Suffolk respectively.
Blue thus got a big wodge of points from the Normans, but with the Picts scoring modestly and the Scots magnificently up north, it wasn't enough to pass Yellow. Finally positions: Yellow, Blue, Red, Green
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Lewis Pulsipher
United States
Linden
North Carolina
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Which version were you playing? The Welsh rarely submitted in the older versions, but usually submit in the FFG version.
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Andreas Johansson
Sweden
Linköping
I spent 200 GG and all I got was this lousy overtext!
I spent 200 GG and all I got was this lousy overtext!
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FFG. In the AH version their position in turn V would have been more or less as expected (never played Gibson).
The reversal of Green's and Blue's fortunes during the mid-game was fairly drastic, the Angles recovering marvelously from their early disasters.
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