Designing the new Britannia sculpts
almost 5 years ago
– Tue, Jul 23, 2019 at 04:09:19 PM
We locked our resident Dark Ages expert PSC Dan into a small, dark room and didn’t let him out until he’d put together a sculptor’s brief and vision board for our sculptor, Bob Naismith. We love Bob’s work so were delighted that he came on board for Britannia!
Dan came up with five miniature concepts: one unique to the Romans (they just look so different that they need their own sculpt, based on a 1st century AD legionary), and four different ‘tribe’ sculpts to represent the 16 non-Roman nations. Each player’s nations are represented by these miniatures moulded in the correct player colour. There’s also a Norman cavalryman to represent cavalry armies in both Classic and Duel Britannia.
One of the ‘tribe’ sculpts represents a Celtic tribesman, bare-chested, be-trousered, and furious! Another represents a slightly less wild vision of a Celtic warrior, with helmet, cloak, sword and shield. An Anglo-Saxon style warrior featuring the Benty Grange helmet, mail shirt, shield and a hand axe is our third sculpt, and a Viking warrior with a two-handed Danish axe is our fourth.
As a stretch goal, we’ve unlocked a unique Norman sculpt – like the Romans, the Normans with their kite-shaped shields have quite a distinctive look so we want to represent that in our miniatures. And having unique miniatures to begin Round 1 (Romans) and end Round 16 (Normans) nicely bookends the game! As another stretch goal, we’ve unlocked a Romano-British cavalry sculpt, to give Arthur’s knights a distinctive look.
The leaders are represented by a larger-sized miniature (leaders are larger than life, right?), broadly based on a statue of Alfred in Winchester (UK). As stretch goals we’ve unlocked a Boudicca and Arthur unique sculpt, and are hoping to unlock some more unique leader sculpts to swap in for the generic ‘Alfred’ miniature when those named leaders come into play.
We hope you like our designs!
Great news: We’ve slipped a new stretch goal in!
almost 5 years ago
– Mon, Jul 22, 2019 at 03:19:17 PM
We know there’s a bit of a leap from the unlocked £50K stretch goal to the (currently) locked £60K stretch goal, so we’ve slipped an extra one in for you all…
At £55K we’ll unlock a second copy of the rulebook as a Kickstarter Exclusive.
Every copy of Britannia obtained through the Kickstarter campaign will come with an extra copy of the rulebook, meaning you’ve got one for reference and one for thumbing through … or one for each player in Duel Britannia … or two copies on the gaming table in Classic Britannia. Basically, however you choose to use it, you’ll have a second copy of the rulebook!
A second rulebook has been a popular addition to some of our previous Kickstarters, so let’s push on and get it unlocked!
Duel Britannia – playing through a nation turn
almost 5 years ago
– Mon, Jul 22, 2019 at 02:49:17 PM
Here’s a look at game play in Duel Britannia.
The board is different to the Classic Britannia board, and the rules differ somewhat from the Classic game’s play. However, the same playing pieces are used in both games. Note that our photos show the prototype miniatures and board.
Each of the 7 rounds of the game plays through in the same nation order – starting with the Ostmen and ending with the Picts. Sometimes a nation has not yet entered the game or has been eliminated, so those nations are skipped over.
It’s round 6 and it’s the Danes turn. The first action in a nation turn is increase of population. The Danes count 3 increase points for Kent, 3 for Essex, 2 for East Anglia, and 2 for York. From this total of 10 they subtract 1 point for each Danish army in a land area.
There are 7 Danish armies, so the maintenance calculation is 3. This gains the Danes 2 armies. 1 is placed in East Anglia and the other in Essex.
Appearance and reinforcements occur next. The Danish player checks the timeline and notes that no new Danish armies appear, although the Danes have boats. This allows movement by sea.
Looking at the best options for scoring, the Danish player targets Lindsey and Wessex. 1 army is moved from York into Lindsey, and 1 from East Anglia. 2 armies are moved from Essex into Wessex.
With the movement phase complete, the Danish player now moves onto combat. The Danish player decides to begin in Lindsey.
2 dice are rolled for each army, and a 5 or 6 is a hit. 2 hits are required to eliminate an army. The Danish player rolls 4 dice and the South Angle player rolls 2 dice. The Danish player rolls two 3s, a 5 and a 6. That’s enough to eliminate the Angle. The Angle rolls a 4 and a 5 – not enough to take down a Danish army. The South Angle army is removed from the board.
In Wessex, the Danish player rolls 4 dice and the Saxon player rolls 2 dice. The Danish player rolls a 1, a 2, a 3, and a 5. 1 hit, but not enough to eliminate the pesky Saxon! The Saxon player rolls two 5s. That eliminates 1 Danish army, which is now removed.
Either nation could now choose to retreat, but neither does so they roll again. This time, the Danish player rolls only 2 dice, but score 1 hit. Added to the hit scored in the previous session, this eliminates the Saxon. The Saxon rolls lucky dice and also scores 2 hits – eliminating the remaining Dane. Both armies are removed!
After combat, a nation’s turn ends with scoring. Scoring centres are printed on the board. Land-based scoring centres and adjacent areas score victory points for most nations, but the Viking Danes have sea-based scoring areas: The North Sea and the English Channel.
Every land area adjacent to one of these seas scores the Danes 1 victory point.
The Danes score 1 point for:
York; Lindsey; East Anglia; Essex; Kent – this makes 5 victory points in total.
After the Danes nation turn ends, the Norse nation turns take place, and play continues through the other nations currently in play.
Friday treat – next stretch goal unlocked!
almost 5 years ago
– Fri, Jul 19, 2019 at 01:32:58 PM
We couldn’t help ourselves – we’ve unlocked the next stretch goal already! This means that all Kickstarter backers get a set of four longships to use as victory point markers (you’ll still get the card punchboard ones too – your choice which you use).
Why did we do this? Well, Will just gets over-excited and likes adding extra bits and pieces to our games wherever possible, and Dan is keen for us to push on to unlock the new red leader so he can spend some time researching how we want the miniature to look.
We’re away over the weekend, but let’s see what gets unlocked next week! Have a great weekend everyone!
Previews of the player aid
almost 5 years ago
– Thu, Jul 18, 2019 at 02:08:33 PM
There are two player aids in the box - one for Classic and one for Duel.
Classic has a gatefold aid (4 sides) listing nation order, scoring, the timeline amongst other things. Duel has 2 sides featuring similar information.
Here are a couple of sneak previews of the work in progress (not all pages are shown)...
