Germania: Drusus' Campaigns 12-9 BC : An introduction


About 


Germania is a solo wargame about the Roman Conquest of Germania, the lands inhabited by the Germanic tribes at the end of the 1st Century BC.

The player represents the Governor with two objectives. The first is the public one of conquering Germania as far as the river Visurgis (Weser) and establishing a new Imperial Frontier.

The second is increasing his personal fortune. The activities of the Germanic Tribes are determined by a set of rules.

This solo game that was originally published in the magazine Slingshot #128 by Society of Ancients.

The player takes the role of the Roman general Drusus trying to conquer and pacify ancient Germania, the game systems (charts and tables) simulates the rebellious tribes.

You can find further details here. 

Background.


I have had in my mind for a long time, a strategy game set in either a pre-Roman invasion Britain or a pre-roman area in general. The game would see you try and unite your neighbouring tribes into one against a threat (not necessarily the Romans). Unlike the Total War games, whilst war is an option, it is really the last option. The idea is to achieve this with trade, honour and alliances. At the heart of the game is an economy based on wood and the production of charcoal. Certain areas of the map will be rich in forests, but low in population and vice versa. Then there are areas where there are forges and require the charcoal, and then there is the markets, where the goods from the forges need to be taken. When this all works, everyone is happy, but it is a fragile system with separate tribes all controlling parts of it.

I mentioned war is the last option, but I envisage shows of strengths to be important. This is where the game becomes like a barbarian football manager (that sounds better in my head than it does typing it) as disputes can be settled with hero warriors or warbands. It is also appropriate to demonstrate a certain level of strength to maintain your standing.

Now in my mind, modelling the economy, the life tables, etc etc is fairly straight forward. After all, this is something I have had real-world experience in. However, bringing it all together, I have no idea where to start. Enter stage right Germania Drusus' Campaigns.

The game.


Very much a work in progress


I started reading up a lot on wargaming, and some of the rules and mechanics they incorporate. One that particularly stood out for me was the aforementioned. So as a coding challenge, I have decided to make a video game version of it with two aims.


  • Try and get my head around the UI parts of unity - boy is that a post in itself. 
  • Form something of a base for my own game. 



Progress 

Ok, I will be the first to admit this isn't looking pretty at the moment, but this is proving to be a very interesting challenge. First of all has been the interpretation of the rules. For example the following paragraph:

Status The Game is played in Turns each representing one year. There are five turns at the end of which the Player's tour of duty in Germany is deemed to have been concluded and he is posted elsewhere in furtherance of his career.

 I originally interpreted that as there are five turns, then there are an additional five turns at the end. Also, the rules about fleet movement are currently still a bit vague to me.

 One clear advantage has been, that instead of worrying about an enemy AI , I’ve been programming dice roles and lookup tables which is certainly a lot easier.

What has been really interesting though, is I know how the finished product should work. This is a huge advantage compared to my other game projects I am working on.

Where I am at the moment is around the military deployment phase of the game. Though this is not exactly true. The approach I am taking to the coding is non-linear. The reason for this is I am trying to make everything as fluid as possible.


Historically accurate dGermanian Settlement reconstruction,

To put more context around this (I know a couple of non-techys are interested in this) ; if we take my highly realistic depiction of a barbarian settlement for example. In the original board game, there are eleven settlements. The way I have set up my settlements is they are entirely independent. The way the code is being written, it doesn’t matter if there is one settlement, or a thousand. It still works. It also doesn't matter that they are barbarian settlements. They could be villages in Mordor, towns around Waterloo or cities on Mars. It still works.

What they also do is also contain a fair amount of information about what is happening, and what has happened. So part of the challenge is making sure they contain the right information at the right time.
I have taken this approach so I can use these as settlements in my own game.  The same also goes for Legions and other parts of the game.

Behind the scenes of the settlement


You might notice in the picture there is information for the population in there, which is not used in the Germania game but will be used in mine.

Next Steps 


  • Get all phases working (bar from fleet movements to be done at a later date ) 
  • Copyright*. I do not know the status of the copyright of this game, I am actively trying to find out. 
  • Ongoing, UI Tidy up
  • Ongoing, Graphics tidy up.

Disclaimer: This is being done as a coding exercise not for commercial gain in any way. 

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