Stratagem Design Project

A small number of features can be combined into an almost endless set of variations. Once You've learn't the principles behind the representation of Armies and Fleets on the Map Board, You're able to focus on what's really the challenge of the operational level of the Campaign - prioritizing when your resources are limited... There are a number of operational situations that the rules have to cover. Since the Campaign System will have functions for game Opponents from inside the Empire, as well as outside the Imperial borders, the rules will cover features of these situations as well. There are also specific rules for main army formations - the Field Armies - and rules for the not-so-mobile Garrisson troops.  The main effort of the Rule Design is to keep the rules as simple as possible, but still have them provide guidance for a number of quite different situations. Hopefully this will offer players a Campaign System with a multitude of different Battle Setups. 

Rule and Game Design have now reached so far that it's time to start developing the first draft for the Rule Book. The Rule Book will be publish as a digital E-book initally, with possibilty to offer customers a print-on-deamnd version as aan option.   The Rule Book will be richly illustrated, with some background facts along with rules example and table with stats of units, infrastructure and abilities. 

Step by step the Game Pieces take place on the game table, right now the protoyping focuses on honing the In-game Battle Resolution to the best balance possible. Patrimonium Imperii primarily provides a Campaign Layer for your tactical battles - using miniatures or PC games - but it also offers the possibility for "in-game" resolution of battles that you and your opponents maybe don't find interesting. The In-game Battle Resolution will also let you decide outcomes quickly from engagements, if your gaming session wishes to focus on the more strategic challenges of the game. Note that artwork in the screenshots is still wip - there will be changes in the near future - but the "feel" of the design won't change very much.

Patrimonium Imperii is set in late antiquity, in the immidiate aftermath of the death of emperor Constantine the great and the struggle of power among his relatives that rippled through the empire following his demise.  The game lets you take on the role as one of his relatives and trick, deceive and fight your way to the position as the last claimant standing.  The  Constantinian dynasty  is an informal name for the ruling family of the  Roman Empire  from  Constantius Chlorus  (died 306) to the death of  Julian  in 363. It is named after its most famous member,  Constantine the Great  who became the sole ruler of the empire in 324. The dynasty is also called  Neo-Flavian  because every Constantinian emperor bore the name Flavius, similarly to the rulers of the first  Flavian dynasty  in the 1st century. The family tree of Constantine the Great. Characters coloured are included among the Claimant Characters...

Next step in the development of Patrimonium Imperii - the Board Game that also will offer a campaign layer to your favourite tactical wargame - has finally started; prototyping to be able to do the first playtest is now under way. At this moment a lot of the art work is still placeholders and the size can and will be adjusted to get the optimla game set up layout. All Character Cards of a player arranged in the way they will be laid out - on the respective Court and Diocese Boards of course, but none the less - this will be the ultimate goal to achieve for a player.  You won't be playing in an environment of old roman ruins when the game is released - but it's a nice background when play testing ;-)

Right now development has been focused on the - as I'm hoping - final steps to catch the right feel and character for the game. Logotype and themes will be used in all sorts of situations, so it's important to pin the right style, since this will be so important to a lot of other elements. The Game Ui will be closely connected to this style, so there are a lot of variables to keep in mind.