The Coin Tribes’ Revolt Boudica’s Rebellion Against Rome 1 - 4 players : 30 - 60 mins playtime : Ages 12+
Rulesbook
Sympathy / Opposition (Sym / Opp) Each region uses the local will cards to track the opinion of local tribes in the area. Line up the triangles on the tracking cards with those on the map cards. Orientate the card in landscape when one region is neutral, remove the card entirely when both regions on one side are neutral: ● ● ●
No card = neutral neutral Weak sympathy / opposition opposition = 1 × the population population value Strong sympathy / opposition = 2 × the popu lation value
It is 60 AD, Romans have occupied the wild lands of Britannia, and exist in an uneasy peace with the tribes of the land… When the Iceni king dies, R oman oman greed and brutality triggers a rebellion led by the Iceni queen, Boudica, that tears across the south-east of Britain. With the Roman forces spread elsewhere in Britain, the revolt could forever forever change the course of history. This is an asymmetrical game of warring factions set in the turbulent times during the early Roman occupation of Britain. It is inspired by the COIN series of games by Volko Ruhnke (GMT), and attempts to recreate the feel of these games within the restrictions of the 9 card nano game format. The game can be played with fewer than 4 players if one or more players control multiple factions. This also allows for solitaire play.
Components (9 cards, 18 × 12mm dice) ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
One action card showing available actions, and a turn tracker on the perimeter which which is also used to trigger trigger the reckoning phase. phase. Four map cards Two cards to indicate the local will for the four regions Two event cards One round timing die 16 faction dice, four in each faction colour One spare die
Regions
region is neutral, neutral, bottom has 4 opposition (2 Example: Left) Top region will×2 population). Right) Top region has 2 opposition (2 will×1 population), bottom has 4 sympathy (1 will×4 will×4 population).
Bases Moving your faction die to the area marked by the palisade wall in the dashed square denotes building a base. Multiple factions can have a base in the same region at the same time.
Each map card makes up one region. Three contain cities, with intact and razed cities denoted by circles and crosses respectively. The large numbers in each region show the population value used to calculate sympathy/opposition.
Example: The Trinovantes build a base and move their die to the dashed area in the region. Other factions must expend units to build a base (Romans and Catuvellauni) or rely on special events (Iceni ).
Factions ●
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Romans - The counter insurgency faction, trying to put down the rebellion. Win condition: Number of intact cities + total sympathy in all regions ≥ 16 Iceni - The main insurgency faction under Boudica, inciting rebellion. Win condition: Sum of population values from all razed city regions + total opposition in all regions ≥ 11 Catuvellauni - A large nearby tribe that borders the others. They have embraced Romanisation after a long struggle and intend to use all sides to expand their territory and control. Win condition: Number of regions in Catuvellauni control + total number of units ≥ 15 Catuvellauni control Trinovantes - Allies of the Iceni, but also trying to re-expand their influence after many years of being under the control of Catuvellauni and Romans . Win condition: Number of regions with bases + number of regions in Trinovantes control Trinovantes control ≥ 5
Influence / Control The faction dice are used to track units in each region. Each unit is worth 1 influence, and having a base increases a faction’s influence by 2 (there is a reminder on the map). A faction has control of a region if they have the greatest influence in that region. If there is a tie, no one controls the region.
Special Events Events are special actions that can be very powerful, depending on the circumstances. Each event card has four events on it, two on each side, and therefore when shuffling, you need to flip and rotating the cards as well. Both parts of the event are available to any faction that takes it, but the lighter background is expected to favour the Iceni and Trinovantes, while the darker background is generally more likely to be useful for the Romans and Catuvellauni. After each reckoning (when all kept cards are discarded), or whenever there are no events available, any discarded event cards are shuffled and laid out as in the starting setup (or with only 1 card, if only 1 is available). If both cards are kept kept by players, no events events can be taken until the next reckoning. reckoning.
Example: The first available event is “Boudica’s Rebellion” which allows Razing a city without losing units or, by taking the card, you can eliminate tribes when you battle.
When a player takes an event action, they perform the action on the card, or place it in front of them to use the ongoing
Setup: The arrangement of the cards at the start of a game showing the initial placement of the faction units and the initial will in the four regions. The event cards need to be randomised, as does the initiative dice for all the factions. The remainder remainder of the faction dice should be kept to one side for future use.
Playing the game
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Setup To begin the game, place the map cards in the middle of the table as shown in the setup diagram, with the intact cities (circles) upwards. Next, place the local will cards either side of the map to indicate public opinion at the start of the rebellion. The white card is for the left two regions, the grey card is for the right two regions. Line up the marks on the will cards with those on the map cards to track the will as shown: ● ● ● ●
Turn structure
Neutral around around Verulamium Strong sympathy around Londinium Weak sympathy around Camulodunum Strong opposition in the non-city region (top right)
Each player picks a faction, takes th e corresponding dice and places them on the map to reflect starting influence in each region as per the setup image. Each player rolls one die to determine initiative order, break ties as described below. This is now their action die and should be p laced to the left of the action card ordered top to bottom as eligible.
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The game is broken up into five periods, each comprising four turns. This is shown by the numbers around the edge of the action card. Each period end is marked by the red numbers. On the first turn in any period, change the tracking die to read six. Reduce this value by one each subsequent turn in a period. At the start of each turn, roll the spare die. If it matches or exceeds the number of the turn tracking die or it is the fourth turn in the period (i.e.4, 8, 12, 16, or 20; the red numbers) execute a reckoning phase after the turn. If, after a reckoning, there are still turns remaining in the period, set the turn die to 1 to remind you that the reckoning has happened, set it to six on the first turn in a new period. The 1st eligible player chooses a row on the action selection card and executes the 1st action. The 2nd eligible player executes the second action on the chosen row of the action selection card, or passes. Passing increases the number on the action die by two. The turn continues until two players have executed actions, or there are no more eligible players, whichever is soonest. All players that have acted then reroll their action dice and move them to ineligible to the right of the action card, ordered with the highest number to the top. Tie-breaks are resolved as before.
The remaining dice are placed to one side ready if they are required. Shuffle the event cards without looking at them, occasionally flipping them over and rotating 180º to ensure random events and lay them out above the action card as shown in the setup image.
Breaking ties ● ●
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Each player in the tie must roll the spare die. Arrange the initially tied dice so that the player’s die with the highest tie-breaker roll is positioned highest amongst the tied dice. Do not change the value of the initial die roll. If necessary, repeat until the tie-break rolls are unique, removing and re-positioning any single winning or losing die any time that a tie-break is broken. Repeat tie-break procedure for any set of tied dice (e.g. if the initial rolls were 6611, there are two separate tie-breaks to resolve). A passed die always beats an ineligible die of the same number
Example: Turn 2: Catuvellauni are 1st eligible, Romans are 2nd eligible. and the Romans decide to take “One Catuvellauni take “Two actions” and action” action”. After taking their turns, these factions move to ineligible and reroll their initiative while Trinovantes and Iceni move from ineligible to
Available actions
Reckoning phase
Actions and bonus actions are listed in the player aids. ● Two actions + bonus ○ The player can execute one of their actions in up to two regions. ○ In addition, they may choose an available bonus action to execute either before or after one of the main actions in one region. The available bonus actions are listed underneath each main action on the player aids. ● Two actions ○ The player can execute one of their actions in up to two regions. ● One action ○ The player can execute one of their actions in one region. ● Event ○ The player can execute an event from the top event card, and then discard the card. ○ Each event has two options available; the light background generally benefits the Iceni and Trinovantes, the dark background generally benefits Romans and Catuvellauni, but both are available to all factions. ○ When there are no events available, reshuffle any discards and lay them out again, as during setup. If both cards have been taken as “until the next reckoning” bonuses, there will will be no further events available available until the next reckoning when both event cards will be reshuffled and laid out again. When executing an action or event, a player may need to adjust the will of the region in which the action/event took place. This is detailed in the player aids and on the cards. +X means move the will one step towards X: ×2 Sym
×1 Sym
Neutral
×1 Opp
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Check the total score of each player and check for winning conditions: ○ Romans - Number of intact cities + total sympathy in all regions ≥ 16 ○ Iceni - Sum of population values from all razed city regions + total opposition in all regions ≥ 11 ○ regions with bases + number of Trinovantes - Number of regions regions in Trinovantes control ≥ 5 ○ Catuvellauni - Number of regions in Catuvellauni control + total number of units ≥ 15
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If one or more faction has met their winning condition, the faction who has exceeded their target by the most wins. If it is the final reckoning and no faction has met their winning conditions, the faction who is closest to their target wins. If two or more players draw, victory is shared.
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If there is no winner: ● The Roman faction can increase sympathy in up to two different regions in which they have presence: once in any intact city, and once in any other city. ●
Then, shuffle the event cards and lay them back out as in the setup and continue with the next round.
Additional Notes
×2 Opp
Partial actions
+ Opp moves in this direction +Sym moves in this direction +Neutral moves towards the middle
When executing an action in multiple regions the order of activation is the choice of the player.
You do not have to do everything when taking an action or event to be able to do it. You can take “Two actions + bonus” and only take one action and bonus, for example. example. Or, for the “Shifting Alliances” event, you may take the “Remove base …” event event even if you already already have a base in in the region. However, you must do at last part of the event to take it. So, you may not take the “Replace one tribal unit …” part of the “Shifting Alliances” event just to get the +Sym shift in will, or just to prevent another faction faction using it.
Bonus actions can be activated at any time during the turn.
Negotiation Notes on actions “Tribe/tribes/tribal” refers refers to any non-roman faction “Adjacent” is orthogonally adjacent, i.e. not corner to corner. “Presence” means having one of your faction dice, and therefore units, in a region
The maximum number of regions in which you can have presence is three. Therefore, you can’t rally in a fourth region and if you march into a fourth region, you abandon any units and base (if any) left behind in the activated region. ● ●
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Rally - Maximum units in any region = 6. March - You activate the region that the units are moving from. Each action must activate a different region. However, the units may all move to the same region. Therefore, “Two actions” will allow adding up to 4 units to a single region, but there must be at least two regions with 2 or more units to draw from. Alternatively, a second action may move units moved during the first action (i.e. to effectively increase their range). Battle - When calculating the result of a battle, always round down the damage from tribes. For example, if the Trinovantes have 5 units in a region and they battle, they will do 2 damage as each unit does ½ damage and therefore 5 units do 2½ damage, rounding down to 2. Romans do 1 damage for every unit so don’t require rounding. When combining, work out the total damage before rounding. i.e. 3 Iceni units and 3 Trinovantes units battling together will do a combined total of 3 damage. Build - A faction must have at least one unit remaining in a region to be able to add a base after expending expending the required number number of units. Sack - Target of the sack bonus action doesn’t lose any additional
Factions may find it beneficial to discuss and negotiate over th eir future plans, particularly those in loose alliances. alliances. However, However, while promising future actions is allowed, no promise is binding… binding…
APPENDIX Example couple of rounds
End of the actions during turn 4, start of the reckoning phase.
Start of the example turns. Turn 3: We join the action in turn 3 after all factions have taken one turn and the board state has changed a little from the setup. There will be no reckoning this turn as the spare die rolled a 3, which means that there will be one after the next turn, turn 4. Iceni are 1st eligible and Trinovantes are 2nd eligible.
The Iceni decide to seize the opportunity at Verulamium. The Romans only have one unit in this region and so by selecting “Two actions + bonus” bonus”, they are able to march two units into Verulamium and, as they outnumber the Romans , they can use their bonus to raze the city (losing two units to do so). They only have units in one region so waste part of their main action, however this is a good move for them as it also moves the local will one step towards opposition i.e. from weak sympathy to neutral. action ” rather than the “S pecial” pecial” event. They Trinovantes decide to take “One action” battle the Romans around Camuldunum to reduce their ability to do damage to the Trinovantes in the future. They have three units, and so remove one Roman unit (i.e. half rounded down).
After turn 4 has been completed, the reckoning phase begins. The current scores are as follows: ● Romans - Number of intact cities (2) + total sympathy in all regions of 16 (8) = 10. This doesn’t meet their winning condition of 16 ● Iceni - Sum of population values from all razed city regions (1) + total opposition in all regions (2) = 3. This doesn’t meet their winning condition of 11 ● Trinovantes - Number of regions with bases (2) + number of regions in Trinovantes control (2) = 4. This doesn’t meet their winning condition of 5 ● Catuvellauni - Number of regions in Catuvellauni control (1) + total number of units (6) = 7. This doesn’t meet their winning condition of 15 Therefore, no faction has achieved their winning condition, and the game will continue at least until the next reckoning phase. After the winning condition check, check, the Romans get to increase the local will in up to two different regions in which they have presence, at least one of which must still be intact. Only the Londinium region has strong sympathy, therefore the Romans can take maximum advantage during the reckoning, increasing the sympathy in Verulamuim and Camulodunum, to weak and strong sympathy respectively. This puts them on a score of 15, just 1 away from the Roman victory condition. However, even if this will adjustment had moved them to 16 or above, the winning condition is only checked at the start of the reckoning phase and therefore they wouldn’t be able to win until the next reckoning phase (assuming they maintain their score). The Catuvellauni re-roll initiative and move to ineligible while the Romans, Iceni, and Trinovantes move to eligible. The two special event cards are reshuffled and laid out again. Turn 5: The turn die moves to space 5 and is set to show a 6. A new reckoning phase is possible as the game has now moved to the second period. The spare die rolls a 4 and so, unfortunately for the Romans, there will not be another reckoning straight away. Being 1st eligible and only 1 point away might have enabled them to force an early victory…
End of turn 3.
The Iceni and Trinovantes re-roll their initiative and move to ineligible. They both roll a 4 and so use the spare die to break the tie in favour of the Trinovantes. The Catuvellauni and Romans move to eligible. Turn 4: The turn die moves on to 4, and automatically triggers a reckoning at the end of the turn as th ere hasn’t been one yet during this period.
actions + bonus” bonus” as they don’t mind Catuvellauni are 1st eligible and take “Two actions + giving the Romans the option of taking the event. If they thought the 2nd eligible player could negatively impact them with the event, they might consider forgoing the bonus action and just just take “Two actions” instead. They rally in the Verulamium and Camuldunum regions, adding 2 units to Verulamium as they are in control here, but only 1 to Camulodunum as they are not in control. As a bonus, they decide to build a base in Verulamium. They spend the 2 units they have just added from the Rally action (taking them back down to 4) and move their die to the dashed base are of the region card. The Romans are 2nd eligible. The event doesn’t interest them at this stage. Therefore, rather than take the “One action” option, they decide to pass. This increases their initiative to 6 and they know they will be 1st eligible next turn, thus allowing them to take a more powerful action such as “Two actions + bonus”. bonus”.
Start of turn 5.
… and so it goes on on until a faction has achieved a winning score during a reckoning phase or the game reaches the final reckoning phase.
The Romans The Romans start start in a strong position and are most likely to win early… Iceni start furthest from their winning condition, but if they start razing The Iceni cities they are hard to stop a s there is no way to re-build a city… Catuvellauni and the Trinovantes have Trinovantes have a push-pull contest to control the The Catuvellauni most regions and reach a winning position. Trinovantes have a low winning
