Britannia: Classic and New Duel Edition Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• About This Edition
• Duel Britannia Overview
  • Goal
  • Number of Players
• Major Differences Between Duel Britannia and Classic Britannia
• Game Components For Duel Britannia
• Complete Duel Britannia Unit List
• The Game Board
• The Unit Markers And Other Components
  • Infantry
  • Leaders
  • Cavalry
  • Player Aid
  • Round Marker
  • Player Victory Point Markers
  • Raider Markers
• Game Setup
  • Setting Up Round 1
• A Game Round
• Phase I: Population Changes
  • Reference: Selected Nation Army Limits And Scoring Centres
  • Scoring Preview (Phase V Summary)
• Phase II: Appearance/Reinforcement
  • Appearance At Sea
  • Eruption
  • Raiders
  • Intruders
  • Withdrawal Of The Romans
• Phase III: Movement
  • Difficult Terrain
  • Stacking Limits
  • Overruns
  • Raiding And Intruding
  • Sea Movement
  • Straits
  • Boats
• Phase IV: Combat
  • Battle Dice
  • Allocation Of Hits And Elimination Of Armies
  • Defender In Difficult Terrain
  • Retreat Options
  • Terrain Effects
  • Leaders
  • Cavalry
  • Examples Of Battle
• Phase V: Scoring
  • Scoring Centres
• Source Note

About This Edition

This box contains two complete games designed by Lew Pulsipher: Classic Britannia, for three to five players (the traditional game), and Duel Britannia, a brand-new standalone design for two players (also playable four-handed as a partners game). Both share the same box, plastic miniatures, and many components, but each has its own rulebook section, its own board side, and its own way of playing.

The publisher has confirmed that Classic Britannia's rules are unchanged from Lew Pulsipher's last published version of the game — only the components and artwork are new. This file documents the rules that are unique to this edition: Duel Britannia, the new two-player game included in the box.

Duel Britannia Overview

Duel Britannia is a quick two-player game embodying the essence of the Classic Britannia game. Duel Britannia represents centuries of the history of the British Isles, from 350 A.D. to 1050 A.D. Play lasts 60 to 90 minutes for two players, though "deliberate" players may take longer. Most obviously, this game skips the Roman invasion and conquest, beginning toward the end of Roman occupation; it ends with Danes versus Wessex (a suitable two-player contest) rather than with the Norman and Norwegian invasions (which requires three or four players).

Note: Duel Britannia is much like Classic Britannia but varies in important ways (see "Major Differences between Duel Britannia and Classic Britannia" below). Don't let your preconceived notions from Classic Britannia affect how you play or how you interpret the rules! Rules for similar functions are not always identical in the two games: for example, the retreat rules, and the population rules. That said, many of the rules are identical, such as most of the movement rules.

Goal

You win the game by having the most victory points in total at the game's end. Points are scored primarily for occupation of areas near your nations' scoring centres. Each player controls several nations, and each nation can score victory points each turn it is in play. Not every nation is equal in scoring potential, and victory points are not accumulated evenly, nor at the same rate by each player. Some nations may not survive until the end, and the Viking nations only appear part way through the game; it is theoretically possible for a player to have no pieces at the end of the game, and still win!

Note: Scoring and conquest are not the same; it is sometimes better to defend what you have than to attack. And you may choose, for strategic reasons, to ignore an area you can score for, and move instead to one where you cannot score. This game is not a simple "smash-and-grab".

Number of Players

Duel Britannia is designed for two players (one player controls the "Brython-Viking" nations and the other player controls the "Anglo-Saxon" nations) but is also playable with four players as a partners game. With four players, two play on one side as the "Brython-Viking" nations and two play against them as the "Anglo-Saxon" nations. The four-player game differs from the two-player only in who controls which nations:

• Anglo-Saxon Player 1: Saxons, Jutes, Irish.
• Anglo-Saxon Player 2: North Angles, East Angles, Scots.
• Brython-Viking Player 1: Welsh, Ostmen, Rheged, Norse.
• Brython-Viking Player 2: Danes, Romano-British, Picts.

You may also use the drafting rules from Classic Britannia to "choose up" sides.

Major Differences Between Duel Britannia and Classic Britannia

• Board: The board has fewer areas, and includes Ireland, but is not different in effects. There is more variation in the population increase values (from a 0 for Connacht, to 3 for Kent and Essex).
• Timescale: Duel Britannia starts as the Romans are soon to leave Britain; Classic Britannia starts with the Roman invasion nearly 400 years earlier. Duel Britannia ends with the era of Cnut and Edmund Ironside; Classic Britannia ends with the era of the Norman Conquest 50 years later.
• Sequence of play: The major change is that scoring occurs at the end of each nation's turn in Duel Britannia.
• Population changes: Duel Britannia uses a maintenance economy, where you must "pay for" existing armies before getting more. You do not "save up" population increase points, hence no track for it on the Duel Britannia board. This method tends to provide more pieces per area than in Classic Britannia, which uses an accumulation economy (where it doesn't matter how many armies you already have). There is no overpopulation rule in Duel Britannia because the economic method has that already built in; in Classic Britannia your armies can starve because of overpopulation. In Duel Britannia there are two areas worth three economic points, and one worth zero. Every area in Classic Britannia is worth one or two.
• Appearance/Reinforcement: In Duel Britannia, there are possibilities for armies to "erupt", that is, to appear where there is at least one army of another nation. Arthur and his cavalry army (one, not two as in Classic Britannia) appears for three nations in succession, instead of only for the Romano-British in Classic Britannia. Arthur's cavalry in Duel Britannia "protects" other armies, too. Arthur cannot die (as we all know), but you can still score for "killing" him.
• Movement: This is nearly exactly the same in both games. However, there is no unlimited overstack in Duel Britannia, and armies at sea cannot move to another sea area. In Duel Britannia only the Vikings have boats – and they always have boats. In Classic Britannia there is much more variation in who has boats, and when.
• Combat: Duel Britannia's combat system is much like Classic Britannia's but uses a two-dice-per-army, two-hits-to-kill method. Furthermore, a victorious attacker can retreat to an area occupied by their own armies. In Duel Britannia, you can retreat to a vacant area even if an opponent is adjacent to that area.
• Scoring: Each nation scores at the end of its turn. Scoring location revolves around a scoring centre, and is much simpler than in Classic Britannia. There is no Bretwalda or King, except for the Danish attempt to become king with Cnut, and the Saxon response. You get two victory points for killing an opposing leader in Duel Britannia; in Classic Britannia this varies from zero to six. There is scoring associated with destroying or preserving Saxon Shore forts. The average score is some way over 100 VPs per player in Duel Britannia.

Game Components For Duel Britannia

You will need the following components to play Duel Britannia:

• This rulebook.
• The game board (Duel Britannia side).
• Plastic miniatures in four colours: red, blue, purple, and black, representing infantry armies, cavalry armies, and leaders (see separate unit list).
• 2 identical Duel Britannia player aids.
• 1 round-tracking marker.
• 8 purple forts.
• 2 red forts.
• 1 black fort.
• 1 blue fort.
• 22 raider markers.
• 2 player victory point markers.
• 10 dice.

Note: Components included in the box but not listed above are used only in Classic Britannia.

Complete Duel Britannia Unit List

Each nation is limited in how many infantry and cavalry armies it may have on board by the number of components supplied in the game. Below is a full list of each nation's playing pieces. For each named leader, use a leader miniature of the correct player colour.

• Romans: 17 infantry.
• Irish: 5 infantry, Brian Boru.
• Saxons: 11 infantry, Cerdic, Alfred the Great, Athelstan, Edmund Ironside.
• Ostmen: 4 infantry.
• East Angles: 7 infantry, Offa.
• Romano-British: 8 infantry, Arthur and 1 cavalry.
• Norse: 5 infantry, Ketil Flatnose.
• North Angles: 7 infantry, Ida.
• Welsh: 7 infantry, Arthur and 1 cavalry, Cadwallon.
• Scots: 7 infantry, Fergus Mor Mac Erc, Kenneth MacAlpin, MacBeth.
• Jutes: 4 infantry, Hengist and Horsa.
• Rheged: 5 infantry, Arthur and 1 cavalry, Urien.
• Danes: 11 infantry, Ivar and Halfdan, Cnut.
• Picts: 5 infantry, Brude Mac Bili.

The Game Board

The board represents the British Isles, divided into 27 land areas. Four sea areas surround the islands: Irish Sea, Atlantic Ocean, North Sea, English Channel.

• Grampians and Pennines are mountainous and (for purposes of the game) impassable areas owing to the roughness of the terrain. Grampians separates Mar and Dalriada, and Pennines separates Strathclyde and Northumbria. They do not interfere with scoring: Strathclyde is adjacent to Northumbria and Mar is adjacent to Dalriada for scoring purposes, even though armies cannot move directly from one to the other.
• There are 11 "difficult terrain" land areas. There aren't real mountains in Britain, but the terrain in these areas is tough going making them harder to move through and easier to defend.
• The other 14 land areas are "clear terrain". These areas have no special rules.
• There are numbers shown in Kent, Essex, and Connacht. These represent non-standard population increase point values (3 for Kent and Essex, and 0 for Connacht).
• Some areas have a scoring centre icon on them (see "Phase V: Scoring" for how to score). Some nations have two scoring centres, and these are marked on the board with their own icon.
• At the start of Round 5, the Jute scoring centre no longer applies, and a second Saxon scoring centre is added in York.
• Straits allow movement over water between two areas. They connect areas for scoring purposes. See "Phase III: Movement" for the rules on moving across straits. Note that the Welsh cannot move to Ireland via straits.
• Red borders show the limits of England, as defined for this game. A scoring track runs around the edge of the board.

The Unit Markers And Other Components

Each nation's armies and leaders are represented by plastic figures. Forts are represented by card counters. There are more actual pieces in the box than are needed for Duel Britannia, because the same pieces are used for Classic Britannia.

Infantry

Armies are represented by infantry figures, differentiated by colour and pose. Each nation is limited to the maximum number of armies shown on the player aid – for a complete list see the "Complete Duel Britannia Unit List" above.

Leaders

Each colour has two leader miniatures. For each leader in play, use a leader miniature of the correct nation colour.

Cavalry

Only one cavalry army (in two different colours) appears in Duel Britannia, accompanying the Brython leader Arthur. Some nations occupy forts; see "Forts And Burhs" (in the printed rulebook).

Player Aid

This lists when and where armies and leaders appear and the scoring centres for each nation. It also lists the maximum number of armies a nation may have; the army limit represents the a nation's ability to organize its military forces. Many groups presented in the game as a "nation" were actually several smaller tribes that were rarely unified.

Round Marker

The round marker is placed on the timeline on the board to keep track of the current game round.

Player Victory Point Markers

Each player has a victory point marker in their own player colours (purple/black for the Brythons-Vikings, and red/blue for the Anglo-Saxons). When a player scores victory points, their marker is moved that many spaces along the scoring track. If a player passes 99 victory points, their victory point marker is flipped to the "+100" side and their marker continues to move along the track.

Note: Some players prefer to keep track of each of their nation's individual victory points on a separate sheet of paper and add the total for all of their nations at the end of the game.

Raider Markers

Raider markers in player colours are used to keep track of which areas a nation has raided (as no nation can score victory points twice for raiding the same area).

Game Setup

1. Place the round marker in the Round 1 space on the timeline on the board.
2. Determine which player will control each side. One side (the "Brython-Viking" or purple/black player) is the Romans, Romano-British, Welsh, Rheged, Picts, Ostmen, Danes, and Norse. These nations are represented by the black and purple playing pieces. The other side (the "Anglo-Saxon" or red/blue player) is the Scots (or Scotti), Irish, E Angles, N Angles, Jutes, and Saxons. These nations are represented by the red and blue playing pieces.
3. Each player should take a player aid and the pieces for the nations they control.

Setting Up Round 1

The starting units should be placed on the board as follows:

• Romans (17 starting armies): 1 in every area of England and Wales.
• Roman forts (8 forts): 2 in Essex and 2 in Kent; 1 in Wessex, E Anglia, Strathclyde, and Northumbria (the latter two representing Hadrian's Wall).
• Picts (4 armies): 1 in each area of Scotland.
• Irish (2 armies): 1 in Dublin, and 1 Munster.
• Scots (1 army): Ui Neil. There is no army in Connacht.
• At sea: Place armies as shown on the player aid for Round 1.

A Game Round

Duel Britannia is played over seven rounds, each round consisting of a turn of play by each nation currently in play (each such play is called a nation turn). Order of play is by nation, not by player/colour, as indicated on the player aid.

Note: Romans are not listed on the player aid; for purposes of retreat from battle, they are controlled by the Brython-Viking player. Romans are replaced in the first round after the Anglo-Saxon nation turn.

Nations are treated entirely separately; it is even possible for a player's nations to fight one another, just as though they were opponents! (They cannot choose not to fight each other.)

In its nation turn your current nation may gain or lose armies via agriculture (increase/decrease of population) and reinforcements, may gain a leader, may then move some or all of their pieces, then resolves any resulting battles, then scores. Each nation turn is played as follows:

• Phase I: Population changes (and leader removal)
• Phase II: Appearance/reinforcement
• Phase III: Movement
• Phase IV: Combat
• Phase V: Scoring

Phase I: Population Changes

Duel Britannia uses a maintenance economy method, where you have to "pay" for your current armies, rather than an accumulation method (as used in Classic Britannia) where the current number of armies makes no difference to how many you receive. We equate population with armies because there were no standing armies in the Dark Ages.

Each land area (except Connacht) has an "increase point" (agricultural) value. For most areas, this is one for difficult terrain and two for clear terrain. Kent and Essex are worth three points each. Connacht has zero economic value. If a nation only has an army or armies in Connacht, nowhere else, at the start of their turn, they cannot gain an army.

To determine your population change, count the increase points of the areas your nation currently occupies and subtract your number of armies (who are not at sea). Fortifications (forts, burhs, Dumbarton, Bamburgh) are not counted in this calculation. Leaders do not count either.

Refer to the table below for results.

Calculation	Result
4 or better	Gain 3 armies
2 to 3	Gain 2 armies
1 to -1	Gain 1 army
-2 to -3	Lose 1 army
-4 to -5	Lose 2 armies
-6 or worse	Lose 3 armies

Example: If the calculation is minus 1 (e.g. you have 5 increase points and 6 armies) then you still gain an army. If it's minus 2 (4 points and 6 armies) you lose an army of your choice. There is no circumstance where you neither gain nor lose, except when you've reached your maximum armies for the nation and cannot get more.

Your new armies may be placed in any land area(s) occupied by the nation.

If the nation has a leader on the board at the start of its nation turn (having been in play in the previous round) it is removed in this phase.

Reference: Selected Nation Army Limits And Scoring Centres

The player aid lists the full army limit and scoring centre(s) for every nation. Several are noted alongside the population-change rules as worked examples:

Nation	Army Limit	Scoring Centre(s)	Notes
Ostmen	4	Irish Sea
Norse	5	Atlantic Ocean, Irish Sea
Scots	7	Mar	Dalriada counts as adjacent to Mar.
Irish	5	Dublin, Ui Neil	Never score points for raiding areas in Ireland.
East Angles	7	Lindsey
North Angles	7	Northumbria	Strathclyde counts as adjacent to Northumbria.
Jutes	4	Kent

Scoring Preview (Phase V Summary)

A short preview of the scoring rules, detailed fully under "Phase V: Scoring" below:

• +2 VP for occupying your scoring centre (+1 VP per scoring centre if you have 2 scoring centres).
• +1 VP for each land area adjacent to your scoring centre (Connacht does not score VPs).
• +2 VP for each area raided at the start of its nation turn (only once per area per nation).
• +2 VP for killing an enemy leader (including Arthur, even though he never really dies).

Phase II: Appearance/Reinforcement

Look at the player aid's timeline to see if your nation receives any additional armies or a leader in this round. If there's a name instead of a number of armies, it's a leader. The player aid tells you how many armies/leaders your nation gains and in which sea they appear (sometimes there's a choice of two). If no sea is specified, place them in a land area your nation occupies, subject to stacking limitations. Leaders who do not appear at sea, and any accompanying armies, are placed with any existing army or fortification of the nation on land.

If there aren't enough armies in the nation's piece maximum for all reinforcements, then those armies simply aren't available, and cannot be saved for later.

Note: It may be convenient for players to place all the external reinforcements somewhere on the board at the start of the entire round, to remind everyone that they're coming, even though they aren't there yet.

Appearance At Sea

Some Danes appear in "North Sea/English Channel". This means you can place each army in either sea area, for example dividing the Danes so that some are in the English Channel and some in the North Sea.

When armies are due to appear at sea, but not enough armies are available (to the nation's maximum), you have the option to remove some existing armies in order to make enough armies available at sea.

Eruption

"Erupt" means that if the land area is occupied by another nation, the leader/armies appear there during the increase/reinforcement phase and fight the occupant before anything else happens in the nation turn. They still play a normal turn, if they survive the initial fight.

Occasionally a leader will appear on the timeline, but his nation will no longer occupy any area on the board. In this case, he appears (with one army, or more if specified on the timeline) in any area his nation could score for. If there are any armies of another nation there, a fight occurs immediately before anything else happens in the turn (an "eruption"). You may choose not to have the leader (and necessarily the army) appear, rather than risk him getting killed (which gives points to your opponent).

Exception: Fergus Mor Mac Erc can only erupt in Ui Neil, Dalriada, or The Isles.

Raiders

Raiders usually have the option to stay in the area they've raided rather than go back to sea; they don't get the raid points for the area in this case.

"Raider" and "intruder" refer to all armies at sea in that nation's turn (exception below). There are not separate raiders or intruders, it is a condition for all of that nation's armies at sea in that turn. So, when a nation can no longer raid or intrude, all its armies must land and stay on land (or die).

Exception: Armies of a raiding nation that are on land can conduct a raid if they use a strait (e.g. the Irish) or if they have "boats". They return to the land area they started from.

Intruders

Intruders can withdraw and even retreat from a battle to the sea if things go badly for them. The only actual difference between raiders and intruders is that intruders cannot score raiding points. The only difference between intruders and normal invaders is that the non-intruder invaders cannot withdraw/retreat to sea: when armies at sea are neither raiders nor intruders, they must land and stay on land in that turn (or die). Plan ahead!

Withdrawal Of The Romans

After the Saxon turn in Round 1 the Romans are recalled to the continent, never to return:

• Replace all Romans in Wales and Devon with Welsh armies.
• Replace all Romans in Strathclyde, Northumbria, Elmet, York, and Hwicce with Rheged armies.
• The remaining Romans are replaced with Romano-British armies.
• Surviving forts remain.

Phase III: Movement

Each army or leader can move up to two land areas. Movement from one area to an adjacent one counts as one of the two. For example, an army or leader can move from Wessex to Hwicce to Elmet, provided there are no armies of another nation in Hwicce.

No army can be in or traverse two sea areas in the same turn. Those that start at sea may not move to another sea area.

Difficult Terrain

Armies must stop when they enter a difficult terrain area, regardless of who or what occupies it.

Stacking Limits

There is a limit to the number of armies (not leaders or fortifications) of one nation that can occupy one land area. This is two in difficult terrain, three in clear. Each nation in an area can be at their maximum – the ensuing battle will sort it out!

One "overstack" of up to four in difficult terrain, or five in clear terrain, is allowed.

Stacking limits apply at the end of all movement, not during movement, and to each nation separately. (So for example, the Welsh may have two armies in Devon, but the Saxons can still send in an overstack of four.)

Stacking limits apply to retreats.

There is no stacking limit at sea.

Leaders and fortifications do not count against stacking limits.

Overruns

If the moving nation has twice as many pieces (not counting leaders, but counting fortifications) as the defender(s) of a clear terrain area, other pieces of the moving nation may move through the area without stopping. This is called an "overrun".

Example: A Welsh army is in Mercia. Two North Angle armies move in to fight it. A third North Angle army (or more) may then move through Mercia to another area; the two already there must stay and resolve the fight.

Raiding And Intruding

On a few occasions, the timeline indicates that a nation may "raid" or are "invaders". In this case, pieces that begin their nation turn at sea may land, fight, and after all battles are resolved for the nation turn, return to the same sea, to be available next round.

Raiders may move two areas on land, so they may raid an area not on the coast; even so they can withdraw to their sea, even "sneaking past" enemies to do so. For example, if the Jutes wipe out the defenders in Wessex in Round 1 (and then must withdraw), the Saxons can move to Hwicce and attack the Roman there, and if they are successful, then withdraw all the way to the English Channel.

Sea Movement

Multiple nations may have pieces in a sea area, and there is no combat at sea, ever. They also withdraw to the sea area they started the turn in after a successful raid, unless they decide to stay (and therefore score no raiding points!). Some can withdraw while others stay (no raiding points are scored for this, just territory points).

No army can ever move through two sea areas in one turn (including the sea area they start in, if any).

Straits

Straits are double-headed arrows crossing one sea or another. This enables armies at one end of the strait to move to the other. This constitutes their entire move; that is, they may not move to the area at one end of a strait (say, to Dyfed from Powys), and then move across the strait to Cornwall in the same turn.

Exception: The Welsh may not use the straits to move to Dublin or Munster.

Straits connect areas for scoring purposes. So the Irish can get one point for several areas in Britain that connect from Dublin to via straits.

Boats

The Viking nations (Ostmen, Norse, and Danes) retain the ability to build ships and move by sea for the entire game. This is called "boats".

Consequently, a Viking army can move across one (and only one) sea area as part of a move starting on land. For example, a Viking in Dublin may move through the Irish Sea to Strathclyde; one in Dalriada may move through the Atlantic Ocean to Northumbria.

Armies attacking via boats can retreat (to their origin) using the boats. But if armies are attacked by the enemy, they cannot use boats to retreat.

Phase IV: Combat

A battle occurs when pieces of different nations occupy a land area after movement. No fighting occurs at sea! Even if the nations are of the same player, a battle must be resolved.

Battles occur in sessions. Each battle must be fully resolved before the next battle is considered. The moving player chooses the order in which battles are resolved, and this can be important.

Battle Dice

In each session (there may be several in a battle), a player rolls two dice for each army (normal or cavalry) or fortification still "alive", even if it has been hit once.

Dice-rolling is regarded as simultaneous, though the rolls don't actually have to occur at the same time. Leaders roll no dice.

Allocation Of Hits And Elimination Of Armies

A 5 or a 6 is normally a hit (excluding cavalry). Two "hits" are required to eliminate an army.

Hits accumulate from one session of a particular battle to the next, but do not carry over to later in the game. To help you remember that a single hit has been inflicted, lay down the figure.

A side can never have more than one "wounded" army at a time – you can never "spread out" hits on more than one army to avoid having any die. The player suffering hits decides how to allocate them. If they only have normal armies, there is no decision, but if they have a fortification as well as normal armies, their decision may be important.

Defender In Difficult Terrain

If the defender (non-mover) is in difficult terrain, a 6 is needed to hit it, not a 5 or 6. Even Cavalry needs to roll a 6.

If a leader is with the attackers, then a rolled 5 or 6 will hit (as the leader adds one to the 5).

Retreat Options

After a session, if any defenders (non-movers) are still alive, some or all may retreat. They can retreat to any area occupied by the same nation, or to a vacant area that the attacker did not come from. A piece that has already been hit cannot retreat unless all pieces of that nation retreat. You cannot retreat to a space where a battle is still unresolved.

After the defender has chosen whether to retreat, the attacker has the same option, except they must retreat to an area where they attacked from. (If there is a battle there owing to an overrun where the battle is not yet resolved, then no-one can retreat there.)

If there is more than one surviving defender or attacker, they can retreat to different legal areas. Some pieces (for example, a leader) can retreat while others remain, but if a wounded army retreats, all the armies must retreat.

A piece cannot move more than one area when retreating. Retreating pieces must do so before any other battles are resolved. Stacking limits apply during/after retreats.

If there is no place to retreat, the piece must stay and fight.

If both sides remain in the area, another session of battle takes place.

If all defenders have been eliminated or have retreated, the victorious attacker can still retreat to any area they occupy with no other nation present – even one that attackers did not come from. This can leave the battle area vacant, if all the attackers retreat.

Note that this is quite different to retreats in Classic Britannia!

Terrain Effects

There is a considerable advantage to defending in difficult terrain, because a 6 is ordinarily needed to hit you. Attackers don't get that benefit. Terrain has no other effect on battle.

Leaders

Leaders do not count as additional armies. Instead, armies with the leader add one to their combat dice rolls. So a 4 becomes a 5, a 5 becomes a 6, a 6 stays a 6 because there's no provision for a 7.

A leader is immediately killed in battle if combat losses leave the leader without other armies or forts of their nation in the area, even if there are no opposing armies remaining.

Cavalry

Arthur's cavalry army is hit only by a 6, even in normal terrain. Furthermore, it hits in normal terrain on a 4, 5, or 6. When attacking difficult terrain, it needs a 6 to hit just as a normal army. You also add the leader effect with Arthur.

In normal terrain you must roll the attack dice separately for the cavalry, to distinguish the results from those of any infantry armies fighting.

Any 6 rolled by the enemy in a battle with cavalry must be applied to the cavalry army until it is eliminated. Lower rolls hit nothing until the cavalry is eliminated. In effect, the cavalry shields friendly infantry.

Example: The cavalry and an infantry army attack two Saxons in Wessex. The Saxon player rolls 6, 5, 5, 2. The 6 hits the cavalry, the 5s hit nothing! Same situation, different rolls: 6, 6, 5, 3. The two 6s eliminate the cavalry, so the 5 hits the infantry.

Examples Of Battle

Three Saxon armies attack two Welsh armies in Dyfed. The Saxon player rolls six dice, the Welsh player four. The Saxon player gets a 6, two 5s, and three lower numbers. The three hits eliminate one Welsh army, while the other is hit (lay the figure on its side). The Welsh rolls 6,5,2,3. This eliminates one Saxon army. Most likely, the remaining Welsh army will retreat, if possible. Then one or more of the Saxon armies can retreat, if a Saxon-occupied location is available. The surviving Welsh army is back to full strength.

Now let's do the same battle in Powys, which is difficult terrain. Only the Saxon 6 is a hit. The Welsh don't lose an army, though one is hit. The Saxons do lose one army. The Welsh are more likely to stay and fight. If the Saxons stay as well, each will roll four dice.

Now let's do the same battle in Powys but add a Saxon leader! The 5 is now a hit (the leader raises it to a 6), so the Saxon gets two hits, eliminating one Welsh army.

Phase V: Scoring

Scoring occurs in your nation's turn after combat and retreats. Use the scoring track around the board to keep a count of the victory points (VPs) you win.

Scoring Centres

Each nation has one (sometimes two) scoring centres that reflect their performance historically. These are indicated on the board and are listed on the player aid.

The Viking (Ostmen, Norse, and Danes) scoring centres are in sea areas. Thus they have a much larger choice of areas where they can score, but they cannot score for their scoring centres themselves (as seas are never worth VPs).

Source Note

This file transcribes the official "Duel Britannia" rules chapter as published in the Britannia: Classic and New Duel Edition rulebook (PSC Games / Giochix.it, 2020), covering the chapter's Overview, Major Differences, Components, Board, Setup, and Phases I–V of a game round, up to and including the start of the Phase V scoring rules. The publisher confirmed in the game's Kickstarter FAQ that Classic Britannia's rules are unchanged from Lew Pulsipher's prior published edition, already catalogued separately under this app's britannia entry, so they are not duplicated here. The remainder of the printed Duel Britannia scoring rules, the end-of-game summary, and the "Forts and Burhs" section (referenced by this chapter as appearing later in the printed book) were not reachable through any source checked and are omitted rather than reconstructed from memory.