The Fall of Roman Britain PLAYBOOK COIN Series, Volume VIII by Marc Gouyon-Rety T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S Multiplayer Example of Play . 2 Designer Notes. 64 Non-Players Orientation. 16 Non-Player Design Notes . 65 Victory Descriptions . 27 Sources . 66 The Pendragon Chronicles . 28 Gazetteer . 68 Event Notes . 42 Pronunciation Guide . 70 © 2017 GMT Games LLC • P .O . Box 1308, Hanford, CA 93232 • www .GMTGames .com 2 Pendragon ~ Playbook Multiplayer Example of Play or Renown (for Barbarians) that each Faction has (1.8). Go ahead and “They, moved, as far as was possible for human nature, put a cylinder in each Faction’s color on the Edge Track at the numbers by the tale of such a tragedy, make speed, like the flight indicated: Dux is red, Scotti green, Saxon black, Civitates blue (1 .5) . of eagles, unexpected in quick movements of cavalry on The remaining four cylinders are for Eligibility (2 .2) . They always land and of mariners by sea; before long they plunge their start the game in the Eligible box on the Sequence of Play track—put terrible swords in the necks of the enemies; the massacre them there . they inflict is to be compared to the fall of leaves at the Put the blue pawn along the Edge Track between 36 and 37 and fixed time, just like a mountain torrent, swollen by numer- the red pawn between 75 and 76 . The pawns mark current victory ous streams after storms, sweeps over its bed in its noisy conditions for the Civitates and Dux Factions, respectively, which course; […]” may change over time as the Roman Imperium deteriorates (6.8, Gildas (De Excidio Britanniae, Part I.17) 7 .2) . Note that these colored pawns’ positions correspond to one of a variety or colored bands along the Edge Track showing these various victory thresholds . First-Time Players Should Start Here! Next we will set up everything under “Markers” . (If you have not Welcome to the tutorial for Pendragon . It will walk you through setup punched out the counters, punch what you need as we go .) and some game play step by step, getting you going with the core • The first several markers, up to “Prosperity + Prestige”, are for mechanics and demonstrating just a few of the options available to various victory counts (1 .9, 7 .0) . Put them on the Edge Track at each Faction . Our purpose here is to teach concepts, not to suggest the numbers listed . strategy—we will leave that to you! • Find and position the Imperium marker on the Imperium track If you would like to look up specific Rules of Play as we go, see (6.8) at Roman Rule with Military Dominance. relevant reference numbers in parentheses . • Then put the Roads marker with “Maintained” up in the little Roads Our sample session will include four players . So for now we can box nearby . ignore the entire rules section for Non-players (8 .0-8 .9) . • Next get the four Patrolled/No Patrol markers—one for each named Sea—and put them in each Sea either “Patrolled” or “No Gray tone boxes throughout this tutorial note some key differences Patrol” up as indicated . between Pendragon and earlier volumes in the COIN Series . • Finally, mark every Region and City on the map with a blue “Briton Control” marker . Each regional area has a little “Uncontrolled” box PART ONE – Setup to hold the Control marker . For the two gray circular City spaces, Forces and Markers. Let’s start by setting up a scenario . We have just put the marker to one side of the Stronghold shape there . chosen “Barbarian Conspiracy”, the beginning of the fall of Roman Set all other markers (including “Refugees” listed in the setup here) Britain . (Note that this setup is the same as the full-length “De aside for now . Excidio Britanniae” scenario .) Lay out the gameboard, spread out Finally, we will set up Prosperity cubes and Forces pieces map space by all the components, and turn to page 37 in the Rules of Play showing map space as listed . The colored shading indicates which color wood scenario setup . bits are involved . Follow down the list and set up everything to the To get the Factions ready to fight, let’s get out the Forces pieces. Refer end of this scenario’s setup . Note the following as you go: to rule 1 .4: it shows you all the types of Forces pieces and what they • Gold Prosperity cubes will fill in all the small colored squares in are called . By colors, place all of them in their respective Available each space only, not the see-through squares, so that each Region Forces boxes, arranging the large castle-shaped pieces (Strongholds) on has two rows equal in length to the big Population number in it, their outlines . Each Forces box on the game board shows how many while each City will fill all its Prosperity squares (see the illustration you should have (your game set may have come with a few extras—if at 1 .7) . You should have 10 gold cubes to spare (not counting any so, remove those from play) . Fifteen darker blue cubes (Comitates) extras provided above 90 total) . go in the blue “Not Yet in Play” box . • The only Forces starting on the map in this scenario are the You also should have 90 little golden cubes . These will mark Prosperity Britons—red and blue . The Barbarians—green and black—are all and Plunder (1 .7)—we will set them up later . still in their Available Forces boxes, awaiting ships to take them You have a few other wooden bits: two Resource-Renown/Eligibility Raiding onto Roman shores! cylinders colored for each of the four Factions (1 .8, 2 .2), six white • All red Dux Forces are on map: The Roman Army begins the era and four gray pawns for marking action spaces (3 .1 .1), and a red and still in fighting trim! blue pawn for marking current red and blue victory conditions in • You can doublecheck your set up of blue Civitates Forces when effect along the edge track (1 .9) . you are finished by comparing pieces left in the blue boxes with Now let’s follow the setup on page 37 . After some introduction to the those listed . scenario and any special victory conditions, you see a section labeled “Deck”—we’ll get back to that in a moment. Next is “Resources/ The small golden cubes are not Forces pieces. Rather, Pendragon Renown”—that means one cylinder in each color along the track of uses them somewhat like markers to show the Prosperity of each numbers at the board’s edge that will mark the Resources (for Britons) Region or City and what units may be carrying that Prosperity off as Plunder (1 .7) . © 2017 GMT Games, LLC Pendragon ~ Playbook 3 When finished, your gameboard should look like the illustration below If you want to continue this session after completing the tutorial, and in larger form on page 44 of the Rulebook. or if you just want to try out assembling a full deck now, proceed as follows (otherwise the 11 cards listed are enough): deal out another two Event cards and put them below the above stack . Then form a second pile of 12 Events. Shuffle a second, randomly selected Early Epoch card among the bottom four of those Event cards . Put that pile of 13 cards underneath the earlier facedown pile (card 1 above still on top) . Set the remaining Event and Winter cards aside . Your deck is ready for the short “Barbarian Conspiracy” scenario . Victory. Finally, before we begin to play, have a quick glance at what each Faction is trying to do to win . Find the Faction foldout chart that says “Commands” and “Feats” and look at the “Victory” box at the bottom of any one of the panels . The box lists all victory conditions so that players can keep an eye on everyone’s standing—each Faction has particular goals that it seeks to achieve (7 .2-7 .3) . These victory objectives are laid out in section 7 of the Rules. In summary: • The Dux (Roman military) is trying to defend Britannia’s Prosperity and build up the Army’s Prestige while maintaining Military Dominance over the civilians . However, if the Imperium fragments (6 .8), it will abandon Prosperity and focus on its own Control of British Population . • The Civitates (Roman civilian lords) are defending Briton Control while seeking Civilian Dominance . • The Saxon Barbarians seek Renown by Returning with Plunder while establishing Settlements in Britannia; they also can win by Controlling enough British Population . • The Scotti Barbarians similarly seek to accrue Renown and establish their own Settlements . Starting setup for Barbarian Conspiracy scenario Deck. Have a look at the general instructions for Deck Preparation appearing under SETUP on page 37 of the rulebook, near the beginning of the SCENARIOS section. For all scenarios, Decks are prepared by shuffling all 72 Event cards (separately from the seven Epoch cards) and forming them into facedown piles of 12 cards, then shuffling one Epoch card (either “Early” or “Late”, as specified) among the bottom four Event cards, and finally stacking the piles. That way, each Epoch of Events between Epoch cards has some twelve Event cards or so . For this tutorial session, we will artificially construct the first Epoch of the deck, so that we all are reacting to the same Events . Fish out the following cards and stack them face down so that they will flip up in exactly the following order: • Card 1 (top): CALLEVA ATREBATUM (#50) • Card 2: ARD RI (#58) • Card 3: ANDERIDA (#42) • Card 4: CLASSIS BRITANNICA (#8) • Card 5: RECRUITS (#17) • Card 6: DEIRA (#26) • Card 7: WITH THE CROSS ON HIS SHOULDERS (#33) • Card 8: AMBROSIUS AURELIANUS (#22) • Card 9: CELYDDON COED (#56) • Card 10: FICKLE WEATHER (#15) • Card 11: MAGNUS MAXIMUS (#77, Epoch card) © 2017GMT Games, LLC 4 Pendragon ~ Playbook In Pendragon, unlike most COIN Series volumes, victory conditions In addition, the Saxons because they are 1st Eligible may add an for some Factions can change during the game as the Imperium accompanying Feat to their Raid Command (2.3, 4.1).