NAVALUM - Interesting old naval strategy board game.

3/7/2013

NAVALUM is the first board game of naval strategy, which clearly facilitates the understanding of the great importance of commerce and maritime communication lines, in the development of peoples and civilizations.

It is a small laboratory where you can understand and reproduce large migrations, colonizations, invasions, falls and births of empires, alliances and strategies. The geopolitical reality of some current conflicts can also be seen in a transparent way from a global point of view.

More information: http://navalum.net

NAVALUM is situated in the era of sailing, when the big Suez and Panama canals had not yet been built. When having the wind in favor - the windward - meant having a tactical advantage, and the absence of wind meant having the fleet stopped. And as now, when more than 80% of world freight transport was carried out by sea.

Includes maritime spaces, seas and oceans, as well as a representation of the entire terrestrial geography adapted to the maritime dynamics of the game, which for this reason does not have proportions or cartographic fidelity.

The marine spaces contemplate the high seas, the coastal waters, and the polar waters where different types of navigation are developed.

The terrestrial spaces are divided into geographical regions. The main geographical features that have conditioned the development and expansion of the towns are represented, such as the basins of the great rivers, the high mountain ranges, the inland seas, the deserts, the archipelagos and the insular territories.

Likewise, several pan-regions are established, which, in turn, contain different geographical regions.

More information: http://navalum.net

NAVALUM is presented in a handmade wooden folding box, which refers to the old shipping boxes of nautical instruments.

Navalum

Inside, forming part of the same box, is the game board, which simulates a nautical chart of the entire terrestrial globe. All the seas and oceans and the terrestrial spaces are represented on the board.

The chips are composed of boats and pawns. The pawns represent the human and material resources of the players. The boats, on the other hand, symbolize the maritime means available to players to transport these resources.

Players obtain resources, pawns, according to the wealth or value of the geographical regions they own. To win, a player must accumulate a minimum number of wealth points in the regions that belong to him.

As proposed in NAVALUM; The transcendence of maritime transport is crucial to achieve the aforementioned score, as players can see.

Instructions in Spanish and English are included.

The game

The game begins with the assignment to each player of a series of pawns, ships, and one or two pan-regions (set of geographical regions in the same continental environment).

Players must decide by turn, in which of their geographical regions they establish their CAPITAL. It must be a thoughtful decision, since from it all its resources (pawns) will depart, by land and by sea. It should be a coastal region, well connected with its strategic interest areas.

Initially they will place their boats in any space on the board, although it is recommended that they do so in waters close to their CAPITAL, to load their holds as soon as possible.

They will then place a pawn on each of their ships and in each of their geographic regions. This will allow them to man the ships and collect the revenues of their regions, respectively. The remaining pawns will be located in the CAPITAL, or in those ships that are in the coastal waters of the CAPITAL.

Once the game has started, players must occupy, or colonize, as many geographic regions as possible to collect their rents, until they reach the score needed to win the game.

They will advance by land, from region to region, but only by crossing through the border lines, since the pawns can not cross the great mountain ranges or the inland seas.

Or by sea, as in the real world, four times more goods are transported than by land.

Colonization must be done without delay, to reach the richest regions before other players.

Once the new regions are occupied, they must be defended against the attacks of other players. The outcome of the matches is decided by the roll of dice between the players.

And even take over those regions that are insufficiently defended.

For the reinforcement of the occupied regions, and the occupation of new ones, it will be necessary to move ships continually from the CAPITAL loaded with resources; pawns In fast boats. Or in convoys.

Soon, you will see the need to intercept the boats of other players to prevent their pawns from coming to fruition.

It will be necessary to seize the ships of the adversaries, to gain their transport capacity and deny it to them.

Squads will be set up to protect strategic spaces.

That they will need provisioning ports.

The player will have to continually make decisions about the use of their resources or the fate of their boats, and calculate the intentions of the other players.

Sometimes the game is resolved after a great naval battle.

After the battle, ships lacking resources, and their prey, will seek a port of refuge or return to their Capital. The players will need to replace the lost pawns in the matches.

Sometimes the calm will leave the fleet bogged down. On each turn, a dice roll decides the forward speed of each player's boats.

Or they will be forced to navigate polar waters. In them players can only advance one square per turn.

NAVALUM is a strategy game, the player has a good number of variables to consider, and on which to decide. You must increase your income as soon as possible, but not only that, you must also prevent others from doing so.

The player, as kings and emperors did in the past, will have to decide the fate of their ships and fleets, establish commercial lines with their colonies and overseas regions, establish stations and bases of support, obtain mastery of the sea to deny it to other players, but you will also have to intuit the intentions of your fellow players to not be surprised.

NAVALUM is not a toy. It admits as many variables as chess. It is suitable for over 14 years, and ideal for playing with family or friends with no age limit.

More information: http://navalum.net

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