Keith Nellist
Although the board, pieces, scoring and some of the rules are different, the derivation is obvious. The sweep of history and the rise and fall of various ethnic, cultural and military groups, along with the timescale of approximately 100 years per turn, and the use of victory points to drive the simulation, come from Britannia. I would recommend playing the original game to understand this version. I would also freely admit that Britannia is probably a better balanced game than Peloria.
My prototype consisted of a painted map of Peloria on a board and used 1:72 scale plastic soldiers. Counters might be less fiddly and just as effective, and I believe that a reasonable paper board could be printed from the map files provided here.
The rules of Britannia are relatively simple, but there are some significant changes to them in this version. There is no submission in this game, no raiding, no forts or burhs (although Aldryami forest has a similar effect). There are additional terrain types - mountains and elf forest, as well as some special pieces - dragons, the Bat, and other unique features. The seas of Peloria (Sweet, Elf, White) are not as important to the game as the seas surrounding the British Isles.
There must be four players for the History of Peloria to work properly, each taking control of four Nations. These are not actually nations, but a combination of ethnic, cultural, religious, military and racial groups. These Nations are not allied and, even though they are controlled by the same player,they may even fight each other sometimes. They cannot, for example, move freely through each others' territory.
The game starts at the Dawn, and we find Peloria relatively sparsely populated by the shivering, cold and hungry survivors of Prehistory. In the Oslir valley Horse nomads are powerful, while to the south the Theyalans bring the Light and Orlanthi religion to the benighted peoples they find huddled in darkness. In Pelanda, to the west, another culture survives. In Alkoth, the fierce “Killmen” spread terror to surrounding regions.
Each turn gives the Nations opportunities to increase in population, conquer territory, and fight their enemies. New forces will appear throughout the game; some new barbarian hordes from the South, Aldryami spreading their seeds with a plan to reforest the whole world, troll caravans, exiled Fronelan mercenaries carving out a new empire. We will see the myterious Empire of Wyrms Friends, the Gbaji Wars, the heroic Call to Heroes and the appearance of the Red Moon Goddess. Finally, we reach the start of the Hero Wars in turn 16.
The best options for a player are not always obvious. He must balance his opportunities to score points with preventing other players from scoring. Current Victory Point scores are not secret so everyone should know who is in the lead. This may not be a reliable guide to who will win as the different Nations and players have their best scoring chances at different times in the game. With this in mind, we present a stategy guide.