Vorstellung: “Germania Magna”
INTRODUCTION:
“The Alamanni are truly enemies of the entire Roman world.” (emperor Valentinian I)
It is the 4th century, the Rome exists for over 1000 years. It is, however, but a pale shadow of what it used to be in the times of Caesar or Trajan. The World is changing and new powers are growing stronger; soon they will begin to harass and attack the Roman lands. Deep within the impenetrable and dark forests, which stretch beyond the rivers of Rhine and Danube, live brave Germans, who turn their greedy eyes on rich towns and villages spread across the Roman provinces. It would be, however, a lot easier to pillage and conquer if not rivalry and constant wars between tribes and warbands.
Germania Magna: Border in Flames is a semi-cooperative card game in which you assume the role of a Germanic warlord leading his warriors into Roman provinces, which lie across Rhine and Danube rivers. The Roman Empire is still too strong to be conquered, but its fields and cities provide loot for your warriors, and its armies give you an excellent opportunity to prove yourself as a worthy leader and, by doing so, to achieve eternal glory for yourself. The enemy is very powerful, so to win you need to forge alliances (however fragile) with other warlords, who will switch sides each time the tide of war changes.
LIST OF ELEMENTS:
Inside the box you will find:
• 8 Chieftain Cards
• 15 Province Cards
• 15 Roman army cards
• 70 Tribal Cards
• Dice
• Glory Boards and appropriate markers
• Loot counters
HOW HISTORICLY ACCURATE THE GAME IS:
We want the game to be as historically accurate as possible. In our team You will find people who work on their Ph.D. thesis in history and the authors of books and articles about the antiquity. All arts are prepared with attention to details, so You won’t find there any references to fantasy, popular stereotypes or legionnaires from principate, but typical units from late antiquity like Scholae Palatinae or Comitatenses legions. Our artists always do some research before painting new images, so they have knowledge about written sources and archeological findings, our main artist is also reenactor in Legio XXI Rapax. Many cards will be supplemented with quotes from works of Vegetius, Ammianus Marcellinus, Priscus, Zosimus, Ausonius, Sidonius and many other authors from the period. On the other hand, we don’t want to bother players who are not interested in ancient history with too many rules and historical references, because it should be fun not only for ancient history maniacs but also for all who like good, playable games. That’s why all the elements will be easy to find for those who want to learn more about the ancient history, but at the same time they won’t influence the gameplay and may be ignored by all who want to focus only on the game mechanic.
THE GAME MECHANIC:
Germania Magna: Border In Flames is a semi-cooperative card game for 2 up to 4 players, each game lasts for about 30-60 minutes.
The game consist of rounds (usually 6), which are divided into the following phases:
1. Preparation Phase in which players receive Chieftain Card, which has its own unique ability and initiative value. In this phase new Roman Province appears that may be the target of our invasion. Each province has its own fixed military strength (limitanei) and may be supported by additional forces of comitatenses (Roman Cards).
2. Supply Phase in which players draw cards from Tribal Deck and/or gain some additional loot which they can spend to play cards.
3. Deploy Phase in which players play their Tribal Cards (units, tactics, strategies, attachments) creating hordes which will invade Roman Provinces. You may choose how many provinces You want to attack, whether You want to cooperate with others or win alone.
4. Clash Phase in which battles are fought. Some provinces will trigger their own special effects affecting any battle that will occur on its territory, the other will provide interesting benefits for the victors or will change the defeat into total disaster if You allow the Romans to win the day. Players may cooperate to win and gain loot, but there can be only one true victor who will receive most glory. That’s why many cards will influence not only Romans but also other Chieftains (players) changing the balance of forces. Some alliances may be forged other broken, depending on the current situation.
After the last round the game ends and a player with most Glory Points wins the game.
PREMIERE AND CROWDFUNDING:
The game will have its premiere on Internationale Spieltage Essen (8-11 October 2015), which is the biggest board game fait in Europe. Before that, in September, we want to launch crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. The aim of the campaign will be to release the game with as many bonuses as possible, because we know it can be even better than it is now.
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE:
It’s the core game, but in the future we want to release expansions which will introduce new tribes as well as cards for those that are already available and will allow players to construct own decks from available cards. We are currently working on the first expansion – Storm from the East – which will allow to use Huns as playable tribe.
OUR TEAM:
It’s not our first game, if You gather all the games that the members of our team had prepared by now, You would get more than a dozen titles. It’s also not the first history game we are preparing, but it’s our first game about the ancient history. It is also one of two titles we want to released in English version. Second one is “Trenches of Hell”, which is a tactical simulator about the 1st World War (Polish edition is already available but improved English version is currently in development).
Designers:
Daniel Budacz
Piotr Krzystek
Łukasz Wrona
Artists:
Paweł Kaczmarczyk
Judyta Sosna
OUR WEB PAGES:
We don’t yet have official web page of Germania Magna, but You can visit the webpage of our Publishing house or Board Game Geek and Facebook profile of our game:
http://www.wydawnictwoalter.pl/
https://www.facebook.com/gemaniamagna
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/182050/germania-magna-border-flames
