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Barbarians is one of the largest and finest ancients games ever published. The four full-sized maps cover the entire northern frontier of the Roman Empire, tracing the line of the Rhine and the Danube from the North Sea to the Black Sea, at a scale of 10 miles to the hex. The 1,000 counters represent legions, cohorts and auxiliaries for the Romans, war bands and mobs of their barbarian adversaries: Germans (22 tribes are represented), Pannonians, Sarmatians, Dacians, Gauls, Vandals and Goths. Also represened are leaders such as Caesar, Trajan, Drusus, Tiberius, Lentulus, Agrippa, Arminius, Varus, Germanicus, Decebalus and more. There are markers for burned villages, fleets, concealed movement, sieges, ballistas, dummies, siege towers, bridges and fortifications. Completing the counter mix are 18 tactical combat counters and a dozen "loot" counters, representing the spoils of barbarian raids.
The subject of the game is the frontier from 70 BC to 260 AD. The early scenarios see the Romans yet to establish the line of the Rhine-Danube, as they attack Pannonia and seek to "pacify" Gaul. Next we see a series of Roman moves to extend the Empire beyond the river lines into Dacia and Germany — moves that historically met with mixed results. These are punctuated by major attacks from without — principally by the Dacians and Roxollani, together with a whole series of border raids and minor wars with Germans and Sarmatians. Nor is the Empire without internal troubles — as the revolts of the Frisii, the Batavii, and the Pannonians attest. Finally, there are the climactic population movements of the 3rd century, as Goths and Vandals join the Empire's other foes in a wholesale assault that historically Rome stopped only with great difficulty. A "free set-up" scenario, To Gain the Purple, set in 100 AD, enables you to plan from scratch a strategy for imperial expansion, using an army of 16+ plus legions.
In all, the game includes 32 scenarios, form short 60 counter/one-map games to two-, three- and four-map scenarios with hundreds of counters. Completing the components are an eight page rules book and a 24-page scenario book, with exclusive historical notes.
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