In a break from prep for our upcoming college night our group broke out a bit of the Irish with one of our enlarged board games “Brian Boru High King of Ireland” by Osprey Games. It’s been a bit since we played this one and most of the players were unfamiliar with the rules, so we had more than a few hiccups along the way as we soldiered on to find out who would out maneuver who to claim control of the Emerald Isle.
Jay was there notepad and pen at the ready, capturing the game as it progressed so we will turn it over to him for a play by play……
“The semi-retired crew got together on a nice sunny Thursday to determine who the ruler of Ireland would be in High King of Ireland. This is a “super-sized” version of the board game with a big map and enhanced playing pieces. Tim, Steve L, Mark J, Gregg and Jay all tossed their hat (crown?) in the ring to be crowned king. Of course, with a name like FItzpatrick, Kevin had to be the game master. DJ and Mark dropped by later to check things out. This was a new game for most of the players, so lots of rookie mistakes as people learned the mechanics of the game.!”
“This game is played in a series of rounds with 4 rounds for each of 4 turns in a 5 player game. Each round, a person will designate a location to be bid on. There are 3 colors/types of locations. red (military), yellow (marriage/politics) and blue (church). The winner will have the opportunity to place a control token there. Other players will get to perform “losing” actions including placing church tokens, taking viking tokens, moving up the political track, taking cash, and potentially placing a control token on a city connected to a city they control for a cost of 5 coins. As noted, sometimes it isn’t a bad thing to “lose” the bid depending on what your goals are. The winner of the bid will then start the next round of bidding. At the end of 4 rounds, each area will be looked at (vikings, marrage/politics, church). Winners in each category will get a good benefit (monastery for church which doubles the strength of a city, marriage of politics which grants control of a city in a given region, and placing vikings on an opponent city, causing them to lose control of it). The winner of the church category will also be the first player in the next turn. Some points are scored at the end of the round, but the big points are supposed to be at the end of the game. (More on that in a second as we wound up playing Kevin’s unintentional modified scoring system). !” Editor’s note: I wanted all the players to have plenty of points… It was cheaper than a pint of Guinness.
“At the end olf the first turn, Jay and Mark decided they liked the vikings the best and wound up tied. Steve wins the church and manages to win control of an area. This gives him an early edge in scoring. ”
“For the second turn, Steve takes another area (and controls northern Ireland) while Tim pushes to get Leinster under control and manages to get it. All the vikings got bought out, so no vikings were left to attack. Steve once again holds court with the church (I am sensing a pattern here). Steve takes a commanding lead with his two areas with Tim in hot pursuit as they are the only two that have control of at least 1 area.!”
“The third turn sees Tim take control of Southern O’Ineill. Steve widens out his lead even more with Tim currently in second and the rest of us playing for second. Jay gets the church this turn just to make it someone different from Steve. Vikings get distributed by Gregg. Jay also scores a marriage this turn. (It has been a different person each turn).!“
“The last turn sees Tim get the Princess of Denmark (the last card for marriage is always the Princess). Unlike previous turns, the Princess has options and one of them is to take control of viking held areas (there are 6 on the table) so Tim will get to count those areas as his at the end of the game. Steve wins easily going away with Tim pulling away from the rest of the pack with the order being Mark, Jay and Gregg after him.”
“As we enter the last turn, we discover we had been scoring the game wrong according to the rules and we had been counting things at the end of each turn that were only meant to be counted at the end of the game, which is what helped propel Steve to such a big early lead. (As mentioned, this is the “Kevin scoring variant” that we were unaware we were playing at the start). Stuff like this happens with new games where people are unfamiliar with how things go. However, it can make for some funny and entertaining moments and I don’t think it changed much in terms of the order of finish. Most everyone had a good time and this one will see the table again in the future. This game is probably a good entry game for a group looking to have some fun and not tie up a ton of time doing it.”
Thanks to Jay for this great report on the game and pictures. We also would like to offer our Thanks to all the players who came out to enjoy a fun afternoon of gaming. As always we extend our ongoing appreciation to Miniature Market Rock Hill for their continued support.
Remember to shop local!
Big Muddy Historical Game Alliance of Greater St. Louis
Our public educational demonstrations including rules and game evaluation sessions use historical miniature and historical board gaming to explore military history, historical decision-making, and the people, places, and events of the past.
Historical Gaming in Action is a public educational program presented by the Big Muddy Historical Game Alliance of Greater St. Louis.
Using miniature figures, terrain, maps, historical research, and guided play, our games explore military history through the decisions faced by commanders, soldiers, and communities. Visitors can examine the table, ask questions, learn about the historical setting, and—when space and time permit—join the game.
Our scenarios are based on historical sources. While game rules simplify some details for practical play, each event is designed to encourage discussion of historical events, geography, leadership, logistics, strategy, and the human experience of conflict.
Historical gaming can be both enjoyable and educational. Big Muddy provides public educational demonstrations, seminars, and convention programming that promote historical miniature gaming and military history.
