Eamon J Driscoll at 19:19, 30 August 2021

2021-08-30T19:19:04Z

Eamon J Driscoll: Created page with "BRETWALDA, n.: the title given to rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the Vth century onwards who had achieved overlordship of some or all of the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms...."

2021-08-27T15:52:48Z

Created page with "BRETWALDA, n.: the title given to rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the Vth century onwards who had achieved overlordship of some or all of the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms...."

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BRETWALDA, n.: the title given to rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the Vth
century onwards who had achieved overlordship of some or all of the other
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The first element, "Bret", may be related to Briton or
Britain. The second element, "walda" is generally translated as "sovereign"
but is more literally a "wielder". Therefore, a Bretwalda is a wielder of the
Britons.

The game begins in Winter 620/1 with no units on the board. This is then a
build phase, where each power can construct any units in its home centres.
Fleets can only be built in ports (see below), but in this phase boat bunches
can also be constructed in any coastal centre. This cannot be done in any
subsequent build phase. (See below)

Winning conditions: There are 50 supply centres on the board: thus 26 are
required for victory.

Special areas: Iona is a land territory, although due to the sea area between
it and mainland Scotland, an army cannot move to Dunadd, Great Glen or Ross
from there. A boat bunch or fleet can do so, however, and armies can still
exist in Iona (having been convoyed or built there): they just can't move
anywhere without first building boats.

Home centres: As part of the adjustment phase, players are now allowed to
designate a single home centre to be moved to a different centre they
control. The original centre gives up its ability to build new units, while
the new one gains it. Both must be in the control of the player at the time,
and the change does not take effect until the next adjustment phase (i.e. in
the same phase you can still build in the old centre, but not the new one)

By designating neutral centres as ports, this allows a lot more tactical
options.

If a power loses a home centre while it is a home centre, they cannot simply
move the centre to somewhere else and continue to have 3 home centres. That
centre remains as a home centre, and must be recaptured if they wish to have
3 build centres again. Of course, it is also possible to move any
neighbouring home centres away and fight on with only 2 (or whatever). A
power can never have more home centres than it started with.

So the advantages of moving your home centres nearer the front line can be
outweighed by the risks of losing all your home centres if the tide turns
against you.

In the Dark Ages, many people groups were migrating around the British Isles,
and power depended more on population than immovable resources. It seemed
like a good idea, both historically and tactically, to allow for this
migration and have non-fixed home centres. However, I'm not really a fan of
the idea of building in *any* centre you own: it too easily turns small
advantages into big ones and makes it very hard to fight back.

Bretwalda has 3 types of unit: armies (A), fleets (F) and boat bunches (B).

(1):Armies
These behave exactly as in normal Diplomacy.

(2):Fleets
These behave exactly as in normal Diplomacy, except for one thing. They were
not readily available in the Dark Ages, and hence construction of them is
restricted. They can only be built in designated ports. The Picts were the
only British kingdom to have a decent sized navy: this is represented by
giving the Picts 2 ports, and everyone else 1. The following supply centres
are designated as ports for the various powers, and the neutral ports:

Dalriada: Iona [Ion]
East Anglia: Ipswich [Ips]
Gwynedd: Caernarfon [Cae]
Kernow: Scillonia [Sci]
Leinster: Wexford [Wex]
Mercia: Gloucester [Glo]
Northumbria: Bamburgh [Bam]
Pictland: Abernethy [Abn]
Pictland: Burghead [Bur]
Wessex: Portchester [Por]
The neutral ports

Rheged [Rhe]
Isle of Man [IoM]
The Hebrides [Heb]
Galway [Gal]
Ystradtywi [Yst]
London [Lon]
Flanders [Fla]
(3):Boat bunches
A boat bunch represents an army with a set of boats. They are constructed
from a coastal army by a special boat-building order: A (Den) = B. This move
will work unless the army is attacked: similar to cutting support. Boat
bunches cannot be built during build phases.

A boat bunch may move across sea areas, but because the boats are smaller and
of poorer quality than those comprising fleets, they must hug coastlines at
all times. In other words, a boat bunch may not pass from one sea area to
another unless there is an adjoining coastline common to both sea areas. For
example, B (NSN) - WAS is legal, B (NSN) - NSS is not. This does not prevent
B (Wic) - CDG, B (CDG) - Aby, however: only sea-to-sea movement without a
coastline nearby is prevented.

Once constructed, the boats are kept with the army until voluntaily
abandoned. This can be by one of 4 means:

(1) moving inland : B (Den) - Pow leaves Gwynedd with A (Pow).
(2) supporting inland: B (Den) s A (Che) - Pow leaves Gwynedd with A (Den)
(3) being convoyed : B (Den) - Mer VIA COL leaves Gwynedd with A (Mer)
(4) being explicitly abandoned : B (Den) - Che (db) signifies that the boats
are to be left behind.

Coastal boat bunch moves default to taking boats with the army unless
explicitly stated otherwise.

Misorders are simply treated as void - that unit holds. So if a boat bunch
tries to move inland but orders something illegal, the boats are still held.
Note this does not apply to supporting other powers' moves which don't
happen ...

Convoys: Only a FLEET can convoy. A boat bunch cannot - it is inferior out at
sea in this respect.

Either an army or a boat bunch can BE convoyed - in the case of the boat
bunch this requires it to abandon its boats, as above.

BUT convoys are not restricted to "land-to-land"!

A sea-borne boat bunch can be convoyed by a (sea-borne) fleet. As this
requires abandoning boats, however, the boat bunch is DESTROYED if it fails
to reach its destination.

e.g. Gwynedd:

B (CDG) - Arm VIA IRI
F (IRI) c B (CDG) - Arm

will leave Gwynedd with A (Arm) and F (IRI) if it works.

However, if Dalriada comes in with
B (NCH) - IRI
F (IoM) s B (NCH) - IRI.
the convoying fleet is dislodged, and B (CDG) is DESTROYED.

A similar thing would occur if Dalriada simply moved A (Ban) - Arm, bouncing
the convoy and leaving B (CDG) destroyed.

F (IRI) could still retreat to CDG if it is vacant.

A fleet moving into CDG in this case would succeed unsupported.

Void convoys where a convoy from another power's fleet was expected and not
delivered, are treated as a "stand" order, thus boats are not lost, nor are
sea-borne boat bunches destroyed. The same goes for moves which would
otherwise lose boats, but are impossible (e.g. moves inland to non-adjacent
territories) However, a support given to another power's move that does not
happen does require loss of boats.

Bretwalda province names
Land areas
Abn - Abernethy P *
Aby - Aberystwyth G *
Alc - Alcluyd *
Arm - Armagh *
Art - Artois
Ath - Atholl P
Bam - Bamburgh N *
Ban - Bangor D *
Ber - Bernicia N
Buc - Buckingham *
Bui - Builth G
Bur - Burghead P *
Cae - Caernarfon G *
Cai - Caithness P
Cam - Cambridge E *
Can - Canterbury *
Cas - Cashel L *
Che - Chester *
Cir - Circinn P
Cum - Cumbria
Dal - Dalcassian L
Dei - Deira N
Den - Denbigh G *
Dor - Dorchester *
Dun - Dunadd D *
Dyf - Dyfed G
Elm - Elmet *
Ess - Essex E
Exe - Exeter K *
Exm - Exmoor K
Fla - Flanders *
Far - Faringdon W *
Gal - Galway *
Gla - Glastonbury *
Glo - Gloucester M *
God - Gododdin *
GrG - Great Glen D
Gyr - Gyrwa E
Ham - Hampshire W
Hat - Hatfield *
Heb - The Hebrides *
Her - Herefordshire M
Hwi - Hwicce
Inv - Inverness P *
IoM - Isle of Man *
Ion - Iona D *
Ips - Ipswich E *
Ker - Kerrier K
Lan - Lancaster N *
Lin - Lindsey *
Lon - London *
Man - Manau
May - Mayo
Mer - Mersey
Mgn - Morgannwg *
Mun - Munster L
Nrw - Norwich E *
Ntn - Northamptonshire
Ork - The Orkneys *
Pns - The Pennines N
Por - Portchester W *
Pow - Powys G
Rhe - Rheged *
Ros - Ross
Sci - Scillonia K *
Sha - Shannon
Shr - Shrewsbury M *
SSt - South Strathclyde
Sus - Sussex
Tam - Tamworth M *
Tar - Tara L *
Tin - Tintagel K *
Tir - Tirconnel D
Tre - Trent M
Tyr - Tyrone D
War - Warwick M *
Wea - The Weald W
Wex - Wexford L *
Wic - Wicklow
Wil - Wiltshire W
Win - Winchester W *
Wiv - Wivel K
Wix - Wixna E
Wol - The Wolds N
Wro - Wrockenset M
Yor - York N *
Yst - Ystradtywi *
Sea areas
ANG - Anglican Sea
BCH - Bristol Channel
CDG - Cardigan Bay
CEL - Celtic Sea
COL - Colwyn Bay
CRS - Cornish Sea
DOG - Dogger Bank
ECH - English Channel
FAS - Fastnet
FFT - Firths of Forth and Tay
HBS - Hibernian Sea
IRI - Irish Sea
LYM - Lyme Bay
MAO - Mid - Atlantic Ocean
MIN - The Minch
MOF - Moray Firth
MOR - Morecambe Bay
NAO - North Atlantic Ocean
NCH - North Channel
NSN - North Sea North
NSS - North Sea South
PEF - Pentland Firth
SEV - Severn Estuary
SOD - Straits of Dover
SOJ - Sound of Jura
SOL - Solway Firth
STG - St. George's Channel
THA - Thames Estuary
WAS - The Wash

@@ Line 48: / Line 48: @@
 the idea of building in *any* centre you own: it too easily turns small
 advantages into big ones and makes it very hard to fight back.
 Bretwalda has 3 types of unit: armies (A), fleets (F) and boat bunches (B).

Bretwalda - Revision history

Eamon J Driscoll at 19:19, 30 August 2021

Eamon J Driscoll: Created page with "BRETWALDA, n.: the title given to rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the Vth century onwards who had achieved overlordship of some or all of the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms...."