The Roman Invasion of Britain 43 AD

[Minister X]

Map Name: The Roman Invasion of Britain 43 AD
Mapmaker(s): Minister X
Number of Territories: 22 (not counting Gaul) or 29 (if you count Gaul) or just 20ish (if sea terts don't count for any bonus)
Special Features: some one-ways
What Makes This Map Worthy of Being Made: see below.

Map Image:



I don't think any map like this exists. ALL the terts in Britain (and the sea) start neutral. I've thrown an n2 in there but it could be a 1 or a 3. Up to seven players start in Gaul (representing Roman legions or something). Any number from two to seven can play - see below for starting positions for each. The players' task: cross the sea and conquer Britain.

I checked many maps for the names and locations of the British (Celtic) tribes that existed at the time and can't find more than 20. Add the sea terts for 22. Since the terts in Gaul are safe from attack, I'd not count them for any bonus. So 22 terts: the fourth smallest map at CC. Small maps are popular.

Bonuses cannot be based on the usual formulas. I've set them based on number of terts and distance from Gaul. The farther you advance, the more you earn. The Claudius/Flavius/Hadrian divisions are historically accurate -- it took a long time for the Romans to complete the job (at least until they got to what's now Scotland; they wanted nothing to do with those bruisers).

Unless I'm mistaken, this sort of invasion dynamic isn't available on any other map but I could be wrong. I've not checked them all. In any case, none would be this simple.

Starting Positions:
2-player: 4 and 5
3-player: 1, 2, and 3
4-player: 1, 2, 6 and 7
5-player: 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7
6-player: all but 1

Besides all the neutrals, there's one odd feature of this map that may prove to be problematic. The sea terts as choke points. Does this provide too much of an advantage to the player lucky enough to go first? Maybe not because the sea terts by themselves aren't worth much. You want to get onto Britain and don't need to leave anything behind unless you want to try to block the route others could use to cross the seas. This is especially relevant in a three-player game, where all three must share the one sea tert.

So... option: make more sea terts and allow all players to access all of them. Three should suffice. Blocking them would be possible but likely not worth the effort. Better to devote resources to capturing bonuses. Also: make them useless for ANY bonus so there's even less reason to hold them.

The three landing terts in Britain are more or less historically accurate. Also, these are the three (as I've mapped things) that are farthest from Hadrian. Though it might be useful adding more landing spots (to eliminate bottlenecks) such as Durotriges and Iceni, I'd think twice. I think we have to consider these bottlenecks a feature of the game, not a problem to be fixed. We'll see if I'm right if this ever gets play-tested.

So it's a race northwards. I think it might work; might be fun.

NOTE: with CC management seemingly interested again in getting some new maps made, the cartographer in me (perhaps against my better judgment) has been awakened. I got the idea for this one because the invasion was a MAJOR turning point in history yet despite the fact that England/Britain/Ireland/Scotland maps are quite popular, this event had not been tackled. It's hard to find important and mappable campaigns that haven't already been mapped! I created this version of the map hurriedly. I do NOT consider it attractive. It's a rough draft. If the IDEA for this map wins enough approval, I'd start over from scratch on the graphics. The idea here is simply to illustrate the concept.

Question: even though the Romans never made it there, I could include Scotland and thus add a bunch of additional terts. HERE is a map showing them. Two problems, one advantage. It's not historical and it would make the map quite elongated in the north-south axis which is not good for the geometry of map-making. But it would enhance the "drive north!" dynamic and so may be worth it. Any comments?

Finally: I need a much better name for this map. Any suggestions or votes?

ROME INVADES BRITAIN (or BRITANNIA )

CAESAR DRIVES NORTH

BRITANNIA 43 AD

BRITAIN ROMANIZED

BRITANNIA TAKEN

INVADE BRITANNIA

CELTIC BRITAIN INVADED

[SoN!c]

Looks great!

"BRITANNIA (ROMAN BRITAIN)"

[plurple]

There is a preference for new maps to have at least 8 players.

Along with your worry of there being bottle necks with the few sea lanes. Might help to have some auto deploys on the starting zones as these conquest style ones often do.

I also fear that games will go very long if the objective is to hold the whole of the uk mainland. So could lead to some long drawn out losing games.

[SoN!c]

There is a preference for new maps to have at least 8 players.

Along with your worry of there being bottle necks with the few sea lanes. Might help to have some auto deploys on the starting zones as these conquest style ones often do.

I also fear that games will go very long if the objective is to hold the whole of the uk mainland. So could lead to some long drawn out losing games.

Very good idea, also i would make a 3third entry point from bretagne. Amorica comes from ar mor = the sea connection between the same celtic tribe bretagne/somerset-tintagel

British part = cornwall

French part = Cornouaille

= same region

In 6200 bc you could walk by foot between those lands. Doggerland was an area of land in Northern Europe, now submerged beneath the North Sea, that connected Britain to continental Europe. It was flooded by rising sea levels around 6500–6200 BCE.

So the same tribe got divided but they stayed connected "at mor" (by sea). And just before the Romans invaded britain they fought hard in Bretagne against that sea connection because they wanted the tin ore that was mined around Tintagel. Tin-tagel is named Tintagel for a reason..

Both regions still have the same languague, Cornish (Standard Written Form: Kernewek or Kernowek;[8] [kəɾˈnuːək]) is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. It's called "Breton" in Bretagne but same origin. Google it

[iancanton]

my first thought here is that it will probably play a bit like baseball. the latter is a stack-and-go map, with relatively little in-the-field action. maybe tweaking the bonuses here might help: bonuses of the +x for y regions type in each of the three zones are harder to break than purely zone-based bonuses.

unless i'm mistaken, the current xml does not support start positions as specified above that depend on the number of players.

ian.