inconsequential ruminations

I have not tried to get into Math Trade Geeklists as I live in the UK, but there’s a UK based one that ends tomorrow night. It seems like a clever way to trade away a few old games I am bored with.

Four of us played Britannia last night. I had fun, but mainly due to the company. My game experience itself was horrific. I can see why this game is a classic, but it is not my sort of thing.

The most important thing to mention is time. We had a half-hour rules explanation and started at 5pm. We screwed up the rules about activating nations completely, so restarted at 6pm and finished at 11.15pm – five hours and fifteen minutes later. It was a learning game and we were fumbling our way through the rules, but we tried to keep the game moving at a decent rate and I cannot see how the game could be pulled down to four hours without lots of experience.

I picked green, purely because that’s my normal colour. According to Lew Pulsipher’s introduction to the FAQ, it’s the weakest colour, so I should have been wary that I was going to get a trouncing. Green’s main nations are the Welsh, and the Danes. No one had played before and I was not told that the Romans would suddenly leave around 500AD (I should have considered that as I have an archaeology degree), so I did not submit to (ally with) the Romans immediately, but instead tried to see if I could stick it out. The Romans took offence to this and shoved the Welsh completely out of Wales, just leaving us a toehold in Cornwall. From that point onwards, 45 minutes in, my game was over as the Welsh are a slow but substantial income generator for the Greens. My advice to new Green players: hurl yourself at the Romans’ feet as soon as you possibly can. I cannot see why you would not. You give them a few victory points, but there is no benefit to you in hanging on. I will know next time, but my experience of the game after that was awful. Green’s other nations are marginal, until the Danes come along about two thirds of the way through. As it happens my Danes were crushed, due to poor dice rolls and worse decisions, but I cannot see how they could have pulled back my initial disadvantage. I wish I could have been eliminated completely, rather than having to wait around for another four hours.

On the positive side, this game has great historical flavour. The Dark Ages were never on any of my syllabuses, so, being the lazy student I was, I never read up on them. As a Briton, it was great to get a feel for movements of the different groups fighting over Britain at the time.

The components are great, although let down by the board. Why the blazes isn’t Britain green? Anyone who has felt a guilty pang of joy when peering out of a plane window flying back over the overcast fields surrounding Gatwick Airport will know why this matters.

Although I have played a few multiplayer wargames, I have not played one like this before. Unlike the others, this one strives to be very competitive, while keeping a firm grasp on historical narrative. You cannot play this casually purely for the experience or you will get destroyed.

Sadly, it is way too long for what it is. They may have refactored it for the 21st century but it still has a very 80’s playing time. The most damning thing you can say about Britannia is that you could almost play A Game of Thrones twice in the same duration.

Although last night was pretty awful, while I have been contemplating the game and writing about it, I have warmed to the idea of playing again. I might just have to leave it for a while so my wounds can heal.

4/10 – but that should climb with further plays. If it were three hours long, I would give it a 7 and be excited about exploring it more.