BALTIC EMPIRES THE NORTHERN WARS OF 1558-1721 Interview: Brian Asklev

 

Baltic Empires is an approachable 2-5 player strategy game about conflicts between the states of the Baltic region during the early modern era, a transformative period of religious conflict, large scale warfare, and constant struggles for power. Players will have to develop their economy, strengthen their administration, secure trade hubs, and finally build armies to become the dominant power of the Baltics. Denmark-Norway, Sweden, Russia, Poland-Lithuania, and Prussia will fight for hegemony, using variable victory conditions that reflect their respective historical objectives.

The rules and images shown here are not final

You can find it in P500

1-Who are you and you favourite wargame/s?

I am a 40-year-old laboratory technician from Denmark who have had a strong interest for military history since childhood and been a wargamer since my early teens.

I used to play highly complex and big, time consuming wargames, but am now mostly enjoying more simple and elegant designs, that manages to show as much of the history but with far less rules. The shorter playtime and table space requirements also make these games far more manageable in a busy daily life and allow me to share the hobby with my 12-year-old son.

My favorite wargame systems are the “Fog of War” and “Conflict of Heroes” series from Academy Games, the “Conquerors” series by Shakos, and the “Command & Colors” series from GMT Games

2-Why did you decide to do this game?

I have long had a strong interest in the history of the Baltic/Scandinavian region and particularly the history of the 17th century (and have previously designed 2 games on this in the Musket and Pike Battle Series from GMT Games) and wanted a multiplayer game on this topic on the strategic level – and the best way to get a game on such an underrepresented topic would be to design it myself 😊

 
In my experience multiplayer games need to be playable in an evening in order to make it to the table in todays busy world.

 
They also need to be simple and easy to lean as there will often be at least 1 gamer in the group who is inexperienced, and this will mess with the balance and enjoyment of the game for all in complex games.
When I played Academy Games´ “Mare Nostrum: Empires” I was hooked on its simplicity and fun gameplay and wanted to do something like that for the Baltic region.

As my game would cover a different time period, geographical region and would aim for much more historical realism and chrome than Mare Nostrum a lot of changes were of course needed and during the design process the game gradually grew into its present form.

3-Can you talk about the mechanics?

The economic system is mechanically very simple but still manages to show some key characteristics of the period.

 
Each province will generate a number of goods for the player if a workshop is present on that goods icon, while cities will generate thalers (coins) if a city is present there. Provinces directly under royal rule contribute their full production to the ruler (the player) while provinces under noble control only contribute part of their local income to the royal coffers.

Players then have an opportunity to trade some of their goods for thalers and more valuable goods based on how many cities the player controls. This super simple and fast system represent the region´s all-important trade with the maritime powers (England and the Dutch republic).

After trading comes the Finance phase, in which players can borrow money (with interests) from the great banking houses of Europe as well as paying upkeep for their military. Next up is the build phase where each player build units, workshops, cities, recruit Dramatis Personae to their court and impose royal control over their provinces. These builds are done with sets of different goods types which rewards a player with a diversified economy (to represent the mercantilist thinking of the period).

As currency is more flexible thalers (coins) can be used as a substitute for any goods type, but as thalers are generally hard to come by and is also the only means of paying upkeep for your army, repaying loans and bribing independent units to work for you for a turn, you will never have enough of them.

Combat is resolved using custom dice, which allowed me to differentiate between various unit types and infuse a lot of historical detail and power-specific special rules without players having to remember a single rule – the dice faces hold all the information.

Dramatis Personae are cards with various special rules that players can build and attach to their Power Mat. 52 Dramatis Personae are included in the game and they each represent the achievements of a historical character from the period: rulers, ministers, military leaders, diplomats, traitors, rebels, scientists and engineers.

5 of these cards are randomly available each building phase and they can be built by all players and add an element of tableau building to the game – as well as an excellent way for of putting a lot of historical detail and theme into the game in an easy and fun manner.

A key mechanic of the game is its 3 Hegemon Tracks where each power tracks its Mercantile, Production and Military standing (which is a simple tally of its numbers of cities, workshops and units respectively, with some modifiers from Dramatis Personae cards). The leading power of each track gets to manipulate the order each power takes their turn within specific phases during the round. This leads to a lot of tension and heated diplomacy.

 

4-How the different factions work?

In addition to 2 shared victory conditions, each faction have their own unique victory condition that reflect that power´s overall geostrategic/political goals during the period covered.

Each faction also has unique build costs, upkeep costs, unit composition and a special rule that represent the strength and weaknesses of that power.

As each power has their own Power Mat containing this information in a simple way we have managed to put a lot of historical detail into the game without burdening players with complexity.

Russia is an autocratic power, which means it will find it easier to impose absolutist rule on its provinces (which affect how much of the income generated there will go into the ruler´s (aka you, the player) pockets, its rulers´ mistrust of foreigners and conservative views means it more expensive for them to hire Dramatis Personae cards (which represent economic, administrative and military reformers as well as foreign diplomats) as well as building anything in provinces where the population is Catholic or Protestant. They have access to very cheap infantry and cavalry units, but these are of inferior quality compared to the other powers. They aim to gain control of the major urban centers of the Orthodox Christian world (some of which are located within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as the game begins) as well as gain access to the Sea and the rich Baltic trading ports.

Denmark-Norway (Denmark for short) has the largest fleet at the start of the game and have possessions across the Baltic Sea. Their greatest advantage is their ability to impose the Sound Toll on all ships entering/exiting the Baltic through the narrow, Danish controlled waters (which boosts their income based on how much the other players trade that turn). Due to its maritime and mercantile traditions their fleets are slightly cheaper (although still more expensive than land units), as is the cost to build cities. They aim at a return of their previous dominance of Scandinavia by taking the Swedish capital of Stockholm and re-establishing the Danish dominated Kalmar Union.

Sweden is the bully of the game. Their infantry is the best in the game and their upkeep costs the lowest, but their income is the second smallest at the start of the game, so they can´t afford to fight too many enemies at the same time. Sweden´s aims are the most expansionists of all the powers as they seek to establish control of some of the richest provinces all across the Baltic, and this will likely bring them into conflict with most, if not all, the other powers at some point.

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Poland for short) is a power with a strong and proud nobility who is very wary of their privileges. They have a seemingly strong economy, but the nobility’s mistrust of royal power (aka you, the player) means that the cost of units, military upkeep, and for imposing royal control of provinces is far higher than for any other power. In addition to this Poland is a Catholic power but huge parts of their realm is either Protestant or Orthodox, which makes building anything in these provinces even more expensive, and their borders are long and exposed. Given the nobility´s mistrust of foreign adventures, their aims are mostly defensive as they seek to maintain their borders and recapture the lost province of Smolensk. Even though its armies may be small compared to Poland´s geographical size they are certainly not to be underestimated as the Polish cavalry, the legendary winged hussars, are the best cavalry units in the game.   

Prussia-Brandenburg (Prussia for short) is the underdog during this period. They start out smaller, poorer and weaker than any other power but have a couple of special rules that represent their special situation, and these go a long way to compensate for these weaknesses. They start out being (very independent-minded) vassals of Poland which effectively makes these countries forced allies, until Prussia decides to end this status, and this means most of their border is effectively shielded by their big brother for as long as they want this. Their aims are the least ambitious of all the powers, as they merely seek to build the groundworks for becoming a great power by filling all their Dramatis Personae card slots in their Court, maintain control of their starting territory and ending their vassal status. In addition to this they will also win if the game otherwise ends in a tie, as they will then have maintained the balance of power needed for them to rise. This desire to maintain the balance of power is shared with the great powers at the edges of the map and thus Prussia also represent their interests and has a special rule that gives them control over where independent units are placed each turn, which gives the Prussia player a unique ability to influence things across the map play a huge role in the diplomacy among the players.

5-Scenarios and/or length of the game?

It was an important goal for me that the game would work with less than the full number of players, so we are working hard to ensure that the 2, 3 and 4 player scenarios are just as balanced and fun as the full 5 player game.

 
It feel pretty confident that we have achieved this and there is even two different 3 player scenarios. Each scenario has the same starting point but the 2, 3 and 4 player scenarios either see players controlling multiple powers, having Prussia as an independent power that player´s bid resources to control for a round or reducing the map area and cutting some powers fully out of the game.
Players choose beforehand on between a standard (short) game or an extended game that last longer and has harder-to-achieve victory conditions.

 
Games can either end in a sudden death victory or at the conclusion of the last round, so contrary to many civilization games this is not a game that will drag on forever.

Playing time will vary depending on sudden death, the amount of table talk, and whether the short or extended game was chosen but will be within the 2-6 hours range.

 

6-Do you have another game/project in mind?

I am working on a ton of projects in several different game series as well as a couple of non-series projects. None of them are like Baltic Empires though, but more classical 2 player wargame designs.
For Academy Games´ “Fog of War” series I have games on the Korean War, Russo-Japanese War and the Burma Campaign of 1944, and in their “Birth of Europe” & “Birth of America” series I am the designer or co-designer of games on the 2nd Punic War, the Thirty Years War and the Vietnam War. In addition to this I am working on a sequel to Mare Nostrum: Empires covering Asia in the Medieval period.

For Shakos I am co-designing a game on the 1870 Franco-Prussian war, and for VUCA Simulations I am working on a game on the Russian campaign of 1812.
Several of these should be released within the next year of two, so I hope this is not my last interview with you as I have plenty more to talk about 😊