Sword & Sails

Here's a quick one for AAR Central. I had expected to put a post together for something a little different, but while I was in Jersey earlier this month, I ended up putting the most time into a six-player game of Sword & Sail. It played like a medieval era version of Twilight Imperium. 

In our game, I took the French by random draw. The other players took England, the HRE, the Vikings, the Kievan Rus', and the Byzantines, while North Africa was out of play. We had a few house rules in play to dictate control of the minor factions, but they don't really need any explanation. The important rule to note though is that movement is simultaneous. Everyone plots the movement of their armies and fleets and then moves simultaneously.

I did not want the French for security reasons, but I felt better than having the HRE. In the early game, I managed to secure the bordering territories through lucky marriages. My first army stayed north to deter an invasion from the English while the majority of my armies drove south to invade Spain. By a stroke of luck, I managed to properly guess the location of Joe's (England's) invasion. I moved the first army into Normandy just as his second army crossed the channel. In the ensuing combat, my army outnumbered his, but his heavy cavalry wrecked havoc on my forces. Luckily, I managed to eliminate his knights and cavalry to the man just as he defeated my army. They perished on French soil, but Normandy remained under my control.

While I busied myself conquering northern Spain, the Vikings harassed England from the sea, the Byzantines engaged the Bulgarians in a losing war, and the Kievan Rus' kept absorbing more steppe. 

To weaken the empires in Spain, I allied with the Kingdom of Leon and had them invade Qurtuba. The invasion wrecked havoc on both armies, but the troops from Leon retreated before all forces were knocked out. Fearing invasion from England again (who allied with Mike's HRE forces), I sailed Leon's troops to northern France to sit on my borders and free up more of my armies. 

Joe described the ensuing political changes as follows: disappointed by the political abuse from the French who treated their troops like cannon fodder, the Kingdom of Leon flipped sides and joined the English, just as their troops landed in Northern France. This just about threw my lead in jeopardy. Thanks to my stockpile of political cards, though, I canceled Joe's attempt to flip the Kingdom of Leon. As a result, I managed to retain control of my Spanish Allies, just as the Vikings invaded England. To consolidate my lead, I spent most of my income on building up cities for VPs and on the final turn, I thwarted an invasion by HRE troops in Lower Lorraine. At the end of turn 5 (Spring 1001 AD), I was poised to win the game with 36 VPs and I had the money to get me to 40 and the victory. With that, we called it a game. It was a great experience, and I'll likely get my own copy sometime soon. And to top it off, I had a rare victory to claim on my visit to New Jersey.