Game: Excalibur

Thread: Re: Source for rules in ENGLISH?

bikerboy — 2008-09-28T23:49:23+00:00

Hey,what's up? I can solve your problem with the rules. There's 16 pages of rules plus 2 more pages of background and designer's notes. What do you want to do?

Roger

Thread: Source for rules in ENGLISH?

Crockerdile — 2008-09-28T13:15:48+00:00

I've recently acquired this game ("Camelot"). My rulebook is large (32 pgs.) and entirely in GERMAN. Does anyone know of a source for an English language copy of the rules? I've tried all of the links listed here...no luck. I'm willing to pay or make a deal for scans or copies.

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Witold Janik — 2008-04-30T17:31:41+00:00

My additional board

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MrSmith — 2008-02-17T22:19:18+00:00

domain cards organized by color (40 total)

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MrSmith — 2008-02-17T22:16:50+00:00

domain cards organized by color (40 total)

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MrSmith — 2008-02-17T22:14:19+00:00

domain cards organized by color (40 total)

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MrSmith — 2008-02-17T21:07:57+00:00

weather track and king movement track

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MrSmith — 2008-02-17T20:56:51+00:00

player aid 3 - Oriflam rulebook

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MrSmith — 2008-02-17T20:48:14+00:00

player aid 2 - Oriflam rulebook

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MrSmith — 2008-02-17T20:36:29+00:00

player aid - Oriflam rulebook appendix

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MrSmith — 2008-02-17T20:18:13+00:00

board

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MrSmith — 2008-02-17T20:10:08+00:00

rulebook - Oriflam

Thread: Re: Excalibur Review

Arneson Stidgeley — 2007-11-07T23:30:55+00:00

JefA wrote:
Again as with many such games its the diplomacy betwen players that will make or break you. No lord will survive a 3, 4 or 5 front war for long. Do not omit the "lets you and him fight" aspect of diplomacy, far easier to pick off 2 disunited weaker opponents than 2 united strong opponents (duh!).
This is what makes it weak for me. It is Diplomacy writ large: ie, no-one should be able to win against opponents half awake.

It is too easy to pull back a leader. Sure, the weaker one or two players get killed off and then it's a case of perhaps two pairs fighting each other.

Thread: Re: Excalibur Review

asgelb — 2007-05-23T17:04:03+00:00

sounds great! I definitely would like to give this game a try!

Thread: Re: Can someone that has played this please review it?

JefA — 2007-05-23T13:53:43+00:00

Ok i've done a review of it.. for what its worth.

Personally I think its a great game and I've had it for 16+ years and played it a lot.

nowadays i teach it to kids at my local youth centre.

Tis actually the best (and i thk only) game of Wotans that I rate.. i have several others but they are all take it or leave it games for me.

Excalibur is close to my top 10.. maybe should be in it...hmmmm the prob is i am forever mesing with my top 10.. i'll leave it.

You can look as soon as the tireless workers from BGG check it for libel, (its not), content (trivial bad english i am afraid) and spaling

Thread: Excalibur Review

JefA — 2007-05-23T13:07:25+00:00

I was surprised to find that Excalibur had no rviews and such a poor rating on BGG.

I have the Wotan edition.. some 16 years old now and much played. Other companies have published the game and i can only comment on Wotans build quality.

The game is a simple war/ economic management game. The Arthurian link in the name is somewhat tenuous as the game is really based around the management and conquest of medevil manors in a single valley. It does allow howevr 2 religions, Christianity and the older pagan belief's to co-exist.

The board is a cardbord 6 section giant jigsaw that does tend to warp. (Albeit mine is 16 years old!) The counters are small (half inch i think) cardboard counters showing Knights with Raised, leveled or drooping lances depending on grade and combat strength. Grade A=6 cv, grade B=5 cv, Squire = 4 cv. Men at arms come in raised or leveled pear varieties with cv of 3 and 2 respectively. The reverse has lower wounded values. Lords are named Arthurian Knights with a cv of 8. They are irreplaceable, dont lose them! Other counters represent Castles, beehives, smoke, River Reeves, Foresters, churches, stone circles and watermills. Basically Manor improvements or penalties. Each manor has a card that shows the income received from that manor if harvested with a knight, MAA, or just peasants present. These have all stood the test of time. They show some wear now but it is 16 years!

2-6 Players can play effectively each starting on a different road into the valley filled with a number of Manors. These are not equally valuable.. bigger manors further into the valley are worth more than small manors around the edges of the board.

Each manor is made up of the central manor house and a number of fields, arable strip farms, pastures and forests. Additionally some manors have river rights allowing valuable fishing revenues to be developed. Basically each field in a Manor allows an income of 1 Bezant a year, per field, in an average year, where a Knight, not Man-at-arms, has supervised planting in the spring and harvest in the Autumn. If these perfect conditions are not met than the Manor provides a lower income.. down to 1.. or 0 in a bad year.

Basically if no Knight is there in Spring the peasants wont plant the lords crops.. concentrating on their own and quickly casting a few grains in the direction of the lords strips. If no Knight is there in the autumn then the peasants sorrowfully explain what a bad harvest it was.. how the bandits from the forest stole everything.. how pixies were
seen running off with the corn. or any other such cobblers as they can make up.

The players start with their lord and 2 good Men At Arms in the spring and will doubtless move in to take the nearest Manor. Movement is pre plotted and simultaneous. Orders are written of the form

Units 2,17,21 -> ManorName

All the roads have markers called "milestones" (yes i know these guys dawdle.. but it works in game) In a season they move 6 milestones in 3 phases of 2. If they bump into another player forces then a combat takes place. Combat is resolved by adding cv's and a die roll (d6) and comparing the total. This total is compared to a result matrix that can
cause a number of wounds. wounds are distributed evenly in the first round of combat... and evenly to wounded units, then unwounded in the second round. After 2 rounds either side may withdraw from combat.. The victor the one who remains. After combat the loser must withdraw one milestone, and may then withdraw towards his start point or another friendly manor, at normal speed. The victor may continue with his programmed orders, remain at the battle site, or withdraw towards his start point. If neither withdraw, then further rounds of combat are fought until one does withdraw, or is wiped out.

Its a simple system with some hard decisions to make. risking knights, or especially your lord can be critical. knowing when not to fight is important.

If a knight occupies a vacant manor at the end of a season then he claims the manor for his lord.

At the end of the year each player will have claimed a manor or few. He then runs thru the year end procedure collecting the income from the manors, and paying his knights and MAA. he may dismiss MAA that he hasn't the income to support, but not Knights. If insufficient income exists to pay the knights its shared out till gone.. then unpaid and
partially paid knights make a die roll leaving the parsimonious Lord who cant pay their wine bills taking whatever pay they did get. Remaing Knights and MAA improve a grade (and thus combat value) at this point.

At this point, if he has sufficient resources (and in subsequent years he may have a better income) he may buy improvements to his manor, or hire more troops. New troops start at the lowest grade, 2cv MAA or 4cv squire. They will improve in subsequent years.

Manor improvements such as Beehives, foresters and River Reeves improve the income from a manor. generally they cost 2 Bz and return an extra 1 (but weather affects this). A Water wheel requires river rights costs 15Bz and returns 1Bz per manor owned. A lord may only have one. Churches or stone circles give victory points. Castles reinforce a manor.

At year end as well the lord can rearrange his troops and personel (River Reeves, Foresters) among his linked manors. ie not isolated ones.

The game has a "standard" simple ruleset with purely military victory conditions.. conquer half the manors. The full "Advanced" set is a 10 turn came. 3 times in the game (slightly randomly) The King inspects the valley and awards Victory (Reverence) points to players, 1 per Bezant income that turn + 20 (or 10) for churches/ stone circles in each
parish (a group of manors) Most victory points wins.

There are also on the map a priory and nunnery owned by the christian church.. in the autumn they can be raided for cash (by either christians or pagans). If the king catches you however there is a big minus in VP's (15). Other players manors can also be pillaged if they hole up in their castle.

Pillaging the first round of a siege, or even just to ruin a manor too far away for you to hold.

Whereas a 2 hour timescale is somewhat ambitious I have found this to be a delightful game that I have played many times over the years. On one level its a simple enough wargame.. get most troops there and you win.. but you have to pay troops, and they are expensive.

This means you have to balance the number of troops to your manors, additionally the requirement to have knights supervising the revolting peasants limits their use in spring and autumn giving a limited summer and early autumn campaign schedule. Like many such games its really a matter of balancing your economy and military needs.

Again as with many such games its the diplomacy betwen players that will make or break you. No lord will survive a 3, 4 or 5 front war for long. Do not omit the "lets you and him fight" aspect of diplomacy, far easier to pick off 2 disunited weaker opponents than 2 united strong opponents (duh!).

In sum a great little game.. good fun.. quick and with a little luck doable in 3 hours.

I have run this at my local youth club (14-19s) and got several "best-game-evah" comments from the boys.

This game actually is crying out for a plastic minature and bigger map redo, the actual system for me is near perfect for what it is.

I rated this an 8. I heartily recomend it to anyone who likes a quik light wargame with economic overtones.. kinda Civilization lite.

Thread: Re: Can someone that has played this please review it?

Jon Karlsson — 2007-05-12T10:24:18+00:00

There is a session report that's really a review too in this forum.

Thread: Re: Can someone that has played this please review it?

Great Dane — 2007-05-12T10:18:23+00:00

I can't give you a proper review as I have only played the game once - and that was 20 years ago.

But I can tell you that the game has nothing to do with with the Arthurian myth. It is a medieval war game with a pasted-on theme to fit it into the series of Arthurian games made by Wotan games.

Thread: Can someone that has played this please review it?

asgelb — 2007-05-12T04:53:49+00:00

I am interested in this game, but want to read a review or two before buying it. Anyone out there thats played it, please review it for the rest of us!

THANKS!

Thread: Re: How many fief counters?

Kimo_LeFey — 2006-11-28T19:09:11+00:00

That squares with what I have in my (Woon) copy as well.

Thread: Re: How many fief counters?

Glom — 2006-11-04T19:45:21+00:00

Jag har i min svenska utgåva från Lancelot games:
1 sol
1 kungakrona
6 kvarnar
11 kyrkor
11 stencirklar
15 fiskeuppsyningsmän
17 rök
22 skogsvaktare
24 borgar
42 bikupor
= 150 grå brickor

In english:
1 sun
1 kings crown
6 watermills
11 churches
11 stonecircles
15 fish
17 smoke
22 wood
24 castles
42 beehives
= 150 grey counters
+ one green wood, obviosly a misprint that should have a strength 6 knight with id 02.

Thread: How many fief counters?

tool — 2006-10-01T22:45:49+00:00

Does anyone happen to know how many fief (i.e., grey, non-player) counters there are supposed to be in this game? (In the original Wotan version, if it matters.) I have 150, which could be correct (with the 87 counters per player that makes 3 sheets of 224 counters each, for a 16x14 sheet), but other numbers are possible.

Thread: Re: Good weather production

Glom — 2006-04-08T16:01:21+00:00

In the swedish rules it says: "All fiefs +1 Bz." I find both variants reasonable since there are two fields per fief.

This opens for a house rule of : If you roll 5 there is +1 Bz per fief and if you roll 6 there is +1 Bz per field.

Thread: Re: Good weather production

zuluq — 2005-11-19T20:27:31+00:00

The german rules definitely say: during good weather and favorable dice, each manor produces 1 bz extra per grain field.

Thread: Re: Movement questions

Jon Karlsson — 2005-10-27T21:32:20+00:00

1. You order your troops to go to the choke points. No, the rules do not only allow movement from manor centre to manor centre.

2. Troops may end seasons outside of manors.

Thread: Movement questions

xavilongo — 2005-10-24T18:53:17+00:00

Hello from Spain,

I have two questions about movement:
-How can you get to the "choke points"? Do the movement rules only allow movement from manor centre to manor centre? If this is the case, how can you "garrison" the choke points?
-Can you go from "Gossly" (F8)to Barfield (D8)that is 8 milestones away in two consecutive seasons, or troops must finish each season in a manor centre? Thank you. Javier

Thread: Good weather production

Jon Karlsson — 2005-07-29T18:35:20+00:00

During good weather and favorable dice: does each manor produce 1 bz extra or does each manor produce 1 bz extra per strip field? (The table says 1 bz/manor but seems cut off, and the German rules seem to say 1 bz extra per field.)

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

By: Steven Stover

This game of running lands in the feudal England written by Wotan Games of England and distributed many years ago through Iron Crown Enterprises has been sitting on my shelf form many years. I have been never been able to play it and the Westbank Gamers finally gave me the chance. The game met and exceeded my expectations.

The game can handle 2-6 players. Tonight, however, we had five: Jon Comeaux, Ashton Arnold, Eryk Syrdal, Darren Arnold and myself.

The board is set up as a number of fiefdoms connected by roads and separated by rivers and forest. Each fiefdom has an income and can be improved upon by the construction of fishing farms, beehives, or the addition of foresters. Water mills mill your grain to flour. All of these functions increase the fiefdoms income. Weather and fate can cause your fiefdom to make more or less income. There is an interesting mechanism for calculating income on the fiefdoms. It is centered around having the lords men in the fiefdom to force the serfs to work the lord's lands. If in the spring there is a lords man in the fiefdom to force the serfs to plant the lords land, and in the autumn a man is there to force the serfs to harvest the lords land, the fief maxes out in income. If either one or both of these requirements are not met, then the fiefdom makes less.

The game is played in four seasons: spring, summer, winter and fall. Movement occurs as three phases during the spring, summer, and fall seasons. House keeping and improvements are done in the winter. Spring is a time for campaigning and getting the serfs to plant; summer is campaigning alone; autumn is a time for campaigning, harvesting, and receiving income.

The lord has two types of men: Knights and Men at Arms. Another interesting mechanism is that you hire inexperienced staff and each turn they survive, they gain experience and rise in strength up to a certain maximum for each type. Men at Arms start at strength 2 and grow to strength 3. Knights start as strength 4 and rise to strength 6, with the lord having a strength 8.

Movement is completed through a mechanism similar to Diplomacy by writing down your orders and having simultaneous movement. Each season has three movement phases of two mile markers each for a maximum of 6 mile markers per season. If you meet other men on the road combat can commence with a simple but interesting combat system. Using this system was a little cumbersome at first, but you get used to it.

Religion. There are two religions vying for supremacy: Druidism and Christianity. Fiefdom's are grouped into parishes with three Fiefdom's per parish. One church and one stone circle can be built per parish. Each lord declares himself a certain religion and can only build that type of church. If he captures a church of another religion he must destroy it, Ahhhh.... holy wars in the making.

The winner is calculated through victory points. Victory points are totaled when King Arthur shows up to check your progress. This happens approximately three times during the game you just never know exactly when. Every turn in the autumn a dice is rolled. When the total equals or exceeds ten, then you count your VP's (which are called reverence points). Only two things are counted toward reverence points: income and churches. The number of religious establishments you have are worth 20 RP's, and this can be split between two people. Income is counted for itself.

We only played four turns because of a lack of time, however with people knowing the rules play will speed up. In our game Darren, Ashton and Jon took one side of the board. Eryk took an area close to Darren, leaving me a third of the board to spread out into.

Turn 1: This was mainly a land grab. We each acquired about five fiefs except Darren, who kept his people together and made a run for the center. This would come back to haunt him later in the game.

Turn 2: This was a major land grab. Jon and I spread out and took lots of fiefs. Since I have played the game a few times solo I left a few Fiefdom's open in my back area and quickly acquired a "border". War broke out between Ashton and Darren (what happened to brotherly love?), with Darren getting the short end of both attacks. This severely limited him for the rest of the game. Jon sat back on his laurels and built up his Fiefdom's without going to war. I attacked Darren's cut off fief in the center of the board and consolidated my gains, while Eryk maintained his diplomatic alliances and building up his fiefs.

Turn 3: This turn was interesting as diplomacy paid off for Darren. Eryk came to his rescue and kicked Ashton out of Darren's back area. Ashton continued his war unsuccessfully with Darren and I broke my alliance with Eryk and attacked a juicy fief near me. This was my downfall. Jon again showed a lack of restraint and built up his fiefs.

Turn 4: Ashton resumed the war with Darren in the early part of the turn, but ended it by attacking me. This provoked me to attack him for the most interesting battle of the game. My lord was involved plus lots of knights and men at arms. 9 pieces went into the battle .... only my lord and Ashton's two knights left the field. There was blood every where. Jon took this opportunity to occupy a relatively weak fief of mine when I retreated from the battle. Darren took revenge for my breaking our alliance and blitzkrieged my rear area with thundering herds of knights, taking three Fiefdom's from me including most of my churches, beehives, and such. Arggggg. With three of the four lords attacking me I withered on the vine from 15 fiefs to 8. Damn. Arthur came and we calculated up the first set of points.

Jon won with 154 points, I managed to come in second with 97, Eryk 69, Ashton 53 and
Darren 31.

I have only two problems with the game. First is the board. For a great set of mechanics, the cheap cardboard puzzle board warps and is hard to keep together. I intend on fixing this with some glue, masonite and a jig-saw. Two, the income for RP's seems too much. Maybe a divisor would help ... one victory point per ten income might work. By the way, you never seem to have enough money, which is good, as this forces you to make a lot of tough decisions. Making a cheat sheet for the few charts there are scattered through the rules is highly recommended.

Ratings: Steve 8, Eryk 9, Darren 7, Ashton 7, and John 7