The board depicts the island of Britain, divided into 37 land areas. Britain is divided into 3 regions of Wales, England and Scotland.

Die-cut cardboard counters are provided which are made up of Army, Cavalry, Leaders, Population markers and Roman forts.

There are also 17 Victory point cards, one for each nation. Each card states what the nation must do to earn victory points, which usually consists of which areas it has to occupy and what Victory points it gains for doing so.

At the start, each player is allocated a set of nations depending on how many play, and each player takes the appropriate Victory point Tables for the nations they will control. 6 Nations are then placed on the board, with one army in each of the starting areas, except for the romans who begin with 15 armies in the English Channel.

Following the Order of Play table printed on the board, Each nation in turn carries out the following during its turn:

Increase Population - Count economic value of areas occupied, divide by three and the result is the number of units gained.

Invasion Phase - Invading armies are placed in the appropriate sea areas as instructed on the Turn Record Chart.

Movement Phase - Armies move up to 2 areas, but Cavalry and Romans get to move 3 areas. Each area is limited to the armies it can support. Overpopulation then comes into play. If a nation occupies only 4 areas, for example, it cannot have more than eight armies in play. Romans are exempt to this. When nations meet...

Battle Phase - ... battle ensues. A die is rolled for each army and eliminates an enemy on a 5 or 6, unless its Roman or cavalry when it only needs 4,5 or 6. Romans, cavalry and defenders in highlands are only eliminated on a 6.

Victory Point Count - A nations Victory point card is checked to determine if any Victory Points are awarded for areas it controls. These are noted down using pencil and paper. No victory point track!

The game continues in this way until Turn 16 and whoever has most Victory Points overall wins, regardless of which nation has been the most successful.

Thats a brief overview. There is actually more going on than this would suggest. For example, in Turn 6, the Romans leave and Romano-British take there place. Then there are other rules to try to follow history such as Romano-British cannot attack Brigantes or Welsh, but these two nations can submit to the Romano-British. The Brigantes will also submit to the Angles, and in turn 14 some Danish return home.

SUMMARY:
Despite the above restrictions, and the advantages that the Romans enjoy, it's still possible for history to be rewritten, to a certain extent. Also, it's never quite certain until the end exactly who is winning, as players accrue points at different rates during the game, but the game usually is always a close run thing, indicating a well-balanced game. As there are several players, each player is effectively outnumbered, so ill-considered moves designed to hurt another will usually backfire and hurt himself. An enjoyable romp through 1000 years of history, especially after having played a game or two when the various strategic possibilities become more apparent.

Review by Brian