OK finally I can type up something about Britannia after having played as each of the 4 colours in 4 games between January 2023 and January 2025.
Color ranking
Red is the best, so far. 3 wins and 1 4th place finish (an aberration).
Yellow is second, with 3 second place finishes in a row.
Blue has been redeemed somewhat. They've been placed everywhere but now with the Saxon burhs rule being properly executed (see below) they should do better.
Green trails in fourth place; anytime I play it solo I do well with it, but the reality is hard.
Looking at Yellow
Yellow has come second 3 times in a row, then finally a third place finish in the fourth and final game.
Romans are the main point scorer, obviously. I played Romans in the first game of this series and got a mighty 257 points and still lost by 18 points to Red.
It is basically essential that the Romans dominate everyone in England, Wales and Scotland. I accomplished this in my game for 128pts as did Billy in the last game for 136pts. Billy was able to benefit from the limes system as his burnt out forts were occupied by the Welsh. Royce did not go to Scotland, opting to turn around and thus only got 107 points.
The Scots are the other main point engine of the Romans. Billy lost his Scots by the very end of the last game and Scotland was a mess of sniping throughout so they scored lower than usual. In other games the Scots did well enough by simply holding the ‘Scottish Crescent’ of Skye-Dalriada-Dunedin. If Scotland is relatively peaceful throughout, they do well.
The Dubliners and Norwegians have extremely tight point margins, with both the former only scoring holding points (and not that many) in Round 13 and 16 and the latter can score up to 30 points for ‘passing through’ in Round 15 and then a lot less for holding ‘any English territory’ in Round 16.
So Yellow has done well, but the closest they got was Red doing better, which is partially down to a mistake I made in the rules (see Burhs section).
Look at Green
The Greens have been in third place twice and last place twice.
The Welsh are the main point scorer of the Greens, but are kind of funny to play. It is easy to fall into the ‘defensive trap’ and just spend the whole game sitting behind the ‘Green Wall of Wales’, watching as the others colours fight over England. You will net 70-80 points but the Red Saxons most likely will win the game. Green must sally across the Welsh line into England and cut down Red a bit. Not too much, but here and there, plus it helps the Danes.
The Caledonians should just sit there and then die (or hopefully survive with one territory) to the Norse. Getting around 40 points in the first 3 scoring rounds and maybe 8 in the subsequent two is all you can do with them.
The Jutes are a bit of a throwaway nation but if you can score the initial 8 points for holding Kent that’s all you can ask of them. I think I am the only player to have the Jutes live to the end of the game, netting 34 points total.
So the key to Green doing well is the Danish. I still have not figured out how to do it, but I think they will start to do better soon (see Burhs section). Dave scored the best with the Danes with 70 points, though the average over 4 games is 64 points. I think all 4 of us who have played the Danes don’t carve out the Danelaw on the east coast, opting instead to brutalise the overstretched Angles further north. Though York is tempting, it is probably better to carve out a beachhead based around Lindsey. I think we all replaced the Angles on the east coast in Rounds 11-13, but were eroded in turn by first the Dubliners then the Norwegians. Better to hit the Saxons, plus any Angles and Belgae in the area and live in the Danelaw. Cnut’s kingship and later Svein arriving have to be played well. So Green must fight Red in the south.
Looking at Red
The Reds have 3 first place finishes and one last place finish somehow.
The Brigantes get loads of points (6) for killing Roman legions, most likely in self defence. In the last game of the series I was the Reds for the first time since 2007 and I did not kill a single legion. In two other games, they managed to kill at least 2 for a fat 12 points in the opening rounds.
In one game, the Brigs refused to surrender and were wiped out by Round 5. This was the game where the Reds were in last place. Looking at it now, if the Brigantes had survived and held a reasonable amount of territory all game they probably would have won instead of being in last place.
It just goes to show how important they are as a ‘points engine’. They average in the region of 50-70 points for the whole game.
The Irish arrive as raiders and remain as raiders for quite some time, after which they must settle down. In the last game, my Irish were wiped by Round 7 I believe so were a non-factor. I failed to land in Cornwall and after living in Cheshire and/or Cumbria for a round or two they were killed off.
The Saxons are the top scorer for the Reds. It is not unusual to win all 3 Bretwalda votes and 4 kingships with them with relatively little effort. They are generally pulverised (or wiped out in my case) on or around Round 16 but they did their job already.
In the last game, the Norwegians used their stack of doom and major invasion to push as far south as the Downlands. The Welsh sniped from the West, the Danes the east and the Angles were sitting in South Mercia. The Normans then landed and Harold the Saxon was killed off by the Welsh at the start of Round 16. I was the Reds/Saxons but praised the Welsh player particularly for not letting me run away with the game, he had been actively crossing the border all game at Hwicce/Avalon and kept the Saxons in check.
In other games, the Saxons became this absolute behemoth that no other player would dare attack. With up to 20 infantry tokens and 8 burhs, they were unstoppable. It was so formidable the Normans could not land properly and other sides that might oppose the Saxons with some success (Welsh, Angles, Norwegians) simply didn’t bother. See the Burhs section.
The Norsemen are a nice spoiler in Scotland at the end. They typically annihilate the Caledonians and live in their lands for good points in R13 and R16 (6/6/6 then 4/4/4). A visit to Cumbria (and loads of other territories) nets nice small points in the late game, which is quite possible given that they have boats for a long time and everywhere is potentially weakened and/or empty.
Looking at Blue
Blue has placed everywhere, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in 4 games.
The Belgae generally submit, then burn a bunch of forts with Boudicca and usually die. They have only lived to the end in one game, the last one under Royce’s control. He managed to burn 6 forts, 3 with Boudicca, then 2 more near Wales and finally against all odds a fort in Lindsey where they would survive until the very end of the game as standard. I think in the very last round or two they retreated into Norfolk, but they lived for 44 points total. Every other game they scored around 20 points and died before Round 5.
The Picts should usually just live in the ‘Pict Triangle’ Mar Moray and Alban. Anything else is a plus. They must live to the end of the game anyway to qualify as one of the two Blue point engines. In pretty much every game they have done well.
The Angles are the key to Blue winning. Blue has won once under Iain’s leadership - this was the game where the Brigantes were dead, so there was plenty of peace in the north of England. The Angles must live in the north and all along the east coast, somehow, then get as many Bretwaldas and possible kingships as they can. If they can’t get them, they must at least deny Red from getting them. They also must avoid the ‘overextension trap’ that almost all of us have fallen into, stretching ourselves way too thin on Round 10 for holding points, then midway through Round 11 the Dubliners and Danes start cutting the Angles in half.
The Normans did not do so well in the first 3 games, scoring around 30 points average and having lackluster landings. On all the postgame maps, the Saxons still have 3-4 territories due to the Burhs mistake probably while the Normans only hold 3-4 territories by the end of the game. By the very last game I had realised my mistake with the burhs, making the Saxons much more vulnerable and thus justifiably being wiped out by the Welsh, Norwegians and Normans. Iain, when he won, had held 5, but they were all along the east coast, possibly due to the (erroneous) defensive strength of the Saxons. In the last game, they scored 50 points, their best ever, and held 6 contiguous territories. So Blue will only get stronger now that Red has been corrected.
The Burhs mistake
In the first 3 games, I had made a mistake with the Saxons. In rounds 12 and 13, the Saxon player is allowed to build forts, 1 for every 2 population points, instead of getting units as normal at the start of the turn. So if the Saxon held, say, territory worth 16 population points, they could decide to spend 6 points on 3 forts and the other 6 on a single unit as possible, netting him 3 forts that function as regular units except they can’t move plus an infantry he can place anywhere and move as normal.
The ruling also states: the Saxon can only place burh/fort tokens equal to 8, minus the number of Saxon territories. So if the Saxon controls 6 territories, they can place 2 burhs if they can afford it. Conversely, if they control 8 or more territories, they can place none.
There are 8 burh tokens, and in the past, the first three games I did not adhere to the 8-territory rule properly, resulting in all the Saxon players having sometimes all 8 of the possible fort tokens placed between Rounds 12 and 13, freeing up loads of Saxon troops to defend their borders or even expand like wild in those rounds and beyond. By Round 15 when the Normans were expected to land off the English Channel, they usually faced this absolute behemoth and it seemed impossible.
I’m rambling but I don’t think it would have affected the results too much, but there were definitely moments in these games where by rights the other players should have been sniping at the Saxons, but psychologically couldn’t do it, because the Reds had so many fecking units. Likewise, the Saxons had all their territory goals so didn’t bother pressing too far out in any direction. The biggest losers were the Normans, who kind of needed to land convincingly but were severely blunted by sheer red numbers on the beaches, followed by the Angles losing out on kingships etc and the Danes not bothering to cut into the south-eastern coast too much.
So it’s fixed now and I was pleased to be the first Saxon player to be affected by this ruling, with Saxony being justifiably wiped out by Round 16. In other games, the Saxons held on in 3-4 other territories by the end. Billy’s Norwegians felt emboldened enough to swing south and take a bite out of the reds, followed shortly after by the Normans. In the past, this simply would not have happened.
So while I still think Red is the best colour overall, it only is if the other players go easy on them. Once I had won the Kingship in Round 14 for the fourth time as the Saxons, they were fair game in Round 15 and 16 and rightly so. In the past, players probably wanted to cut down the Saxons but there was no easy way to do it.
Ironman nations
Romano-British - have survived often enough, surprisingly. I think everyone is fine with them living in March.
Jutes - have only survived one game to the end, when I controlled them. The Saxon player was very defensive so it helped my cause there.
Irish - the Irish can fail and die, as they did for me in Game 4 but it's not essential. In most games, they have lived in Cornwall-Devon peacefully enough.
Belgae - Belgae living all game in Lindsey is not unusual. I think in the 4 games, the only time they were wiped out early was when I, as the Romans, deliberately did so.
Anachronistic Awards
Welsh in London - Dave occupied many burnt out forts for Billy in Game 4, but infamously did not occupy Essex, denying Billy 6pts. He allowed the Romano-British to live in Clwyd as an apology, I think. I think in Game 1 Cian did the same thing for me when I was the Roman but was gracious enough to stand in Essex haha.
Brigantes dying - it has only happened once, in Game 1.
Other instances -
Bretwaldas
I think only myself and Darren have swept every single Bretwalda.
I recall myself and Cian voting against Royce the Red to give Billy's Blues the Bretwalda one time.
Kingships
Again, I think only myself and Darren as the Reds have swept the kingship stakes.
There have been no Yellow or Green Kings. Certainly no Kingship for Cnut in Round 14, sadly. One day maybe!
Regicides
Specifically Harold, Harald, Svein and William.
There have no kings in England at the end of some games, usually there is at least one king but they do not hold 'double territory' so no 10 points.
No more tokens
Almost always the Saxons. Once or twice the Welsh.
Conclusion
Britannia is a great game, I have fond memories of playing it back in 2008 or whenever it was and finally bought a near-pristine copy of it in 2022 (?) for 100+ euro. With 4 games played with 8 different people, it's been worth it.
