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Win with purple
- a roman job
The
latest games played during the French Britannia Championship '97 showed
that a purple victory is quite possible, even though it might be achievable
only for the better - or luckier - players. Each purple victory originated
from good cooperation between all purple peoples, especially between Scots &
Romans.
More
than with all other colors, the purple player has coordinate the
actions of his different peoples without sacrificing the points of one for
the other. The other key to victory is exercising control of the general
direction of play with his few counters on the map.
It needs a good evaluation of forces and a superior understanding of the
game to nudge the game to a profitable direction for him.
From
another point of view, it might be interesting to give purple to an
apprentice player in order to teach him the tricks of the trade and the
different strategies of his peoples showing up on the map.
Of
the different purple peoples the Romans are the most important in the
eyes of most players. They plunge three out of four players right into the
action at the start of the game and fight the first decisive battles. I will
therefore show you in this article a good timetable for the roman invasion.
This
timetable takes into account the contradictory aims of the purple
player (building as many forts as possible, cripple the Picts & come back in
time to protect the forts in the south) and the roman forces (the strong but
too few legions and the more vulnerable forts, if left undefended).
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Turn 1 (major invasion)
: Destruction of the Belgae (and all of the Belgae!),
driving back the Welsh to their native mountains, taking the Pennines & make
the Brigantes submit. If possible during the second move, attack Devon to
impress the Welsh & deprive them of a reinforcement during their second
turn.
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Turn 2
: All out attack versus the Brigantes to get their submission (or
extermination), taking Dunedin and Dalridia or Alban if things go well, as a
special bonus, have a little preemtive strike at the Welsh...
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Turn 3
: Taking of Alban & Dalridia, attacking concentrations of pict forces
(in order to make it easier for the Scots to get ashore), getting back to
defend the southern forts from turn 4 on & being able to submit the Welsh. A
courtesy visit to the Caledonians might be amusing if not lucrative...
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Turns 4 & 5
: Surviving the raiders on all coasts, pushing them back to the
sea if they settle down and hold Downlands, Lindsey & Pennines (Devon too)
to make the installation of the Romano-British easier.
This timetable is ideal (should be, at least)
and might be actually applied by somebody, sometime. I would be quite
surprised if I managed it, but I continue to hope...
The
Roman plays versus time & population increase of the other peoples at
the start, later he plays for his forts. The principal weakness of the
Romans is their inability to stage large concentrations of troops because of
the large number of territories they have to conquer & hold in order to
score their points.
The
Romans succumb to the numbers, which has, at least in part, been the
historical evolution of things. Some well placed stacks of enenmy counters
can bind a large number of legions and prove fatal to all Roman strategies.
Also during turns 4 & 5, raiders attack the forts at numerical superiority,
even when they're protected by a legion...
To
migitate these inconveniences, there's one solution: the eradication. In
the first place the one of opposing peoples in order to be left alone, in
the second that of raiders before they attack more forts. In all cases the
purple player has to reign the british plains and to keep them safe (at
least until turn 5).
Francois Sommaire
July 1997
Translation by Joachim Ring
January 2000
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