Legion Atlantica (2019)

Legion Atlantica is a two player war game set in an alternative history second century CE in which the Roman Empire discovered the New World 1300 years before Columbus. Game turns represent months, hexes are roughly twenty miles across and Strength Points correspond to approximately 500 men. The player who controls their opponent’s capital first or the player with the largest number of city points at the end of the game is the winner.

The Roman Player controls the Invading Roman forces attempting to establish “New Rome” and extend their control over nearby Mesoamerican city states. The Tikal player controls the principle Maya kingdom trying to stop them. Both sides may attempt to conquer or win the allegiance of other Mesoamerican city states that start the game neutral, these include small independent city states as well as larger regional powers.

The game features Leaders who command armies but are also needed to conduct negotiations. Roman fleets and Mesoamerican canoe transports, low levels of transatlantic Roman reinforcements, cities that can be fortified, pillaged or destroyed, slave workers, supply and attrition, cavalry (Roman player only) and human sacrifice (Tikal player only).

By necessity almost all of the forces and characters represented are fictional, however the map is a realistic representation of the actual Mesoamerican terrain and the city states are those that there is evidence for at this time. The game represents the importance of food and river transport to the Maya and the key influence of superstitions and festivals. Celestial markers for the Moon, Venus, Mars and Jupiter are moved on a night sky track causing increasing unrest or even rebellion and changes of allegiance amongst the regional powers and city states, especially when 2 or more markers stack together.

—description from the designer