In Baltic Empires players can enhance their capabilities by having up to 5 Dramatis Personae cards attached to their Power’s Court. There are nearly 50 of these cards in the game, and each of them is named and inspired by a notable historical figure of the period who in one way or another left a mark on history. Each Round 5 cards are randomly drawn from the deck and laid out for the players to see. During the Production phase the players can buy any one of these 5 cards and place it in their Court on their Power Mat, gaining the benefits listed on that card.

The Dramatis Personae cards do not only represent advisors and ministers to the court, but also abstractly represent a whole range of historical changes, such as technological innovation, administrative reform, military reforms, or good diplomatic relations to foreign powers, and additional factors such as brilliant generals or even treacheries and rebellions – all exemplified by the named historical character on each card. As the historic person they are named after is merely an exemplar, these cards are not limited as to which power can buy them – all Dramatis Personae cards are available to all Powers to buy during their turn in the Production Phase, but naturally not all will be equally useful to all Powers in all situations.

As noted, each of the 50 cards are inspired by different historical figures and thus have vastly different effects, but they all fall into four main types:

• Cards with permanent effects.
• Cards with one-time only effects.
• Cards which give you a special leader unit with unique abilities.
• Cards that alter your Victory Conditions.

The maximum number of Dramatis Personae cards a player can have in their Court is either 4 or 5, depending on which Power they are playing. New cards are placed on the next available slot in the Court section on that player´s Power Mat, but some of these slots have certain requirements that must be met before a player can fill the slot with a card. These requirements vary from slot to slot and from Power to Power, representing historical conditions or challenges faced by that power. I will cover these in closer detail in future articles on each Power.

During the course of a game players are free to discard Dramatis Personae cards to free up slots in their Court, and indeed some cards are automatically discarded in certain situations. The number of Dramatis Personae cards a player holds in their Court also abstractly represent the development of their state and its international connections. The amount of money (Thalers) you can borrow in the game is therefore linked with the number of cards in your Court, so even a Dramatis Personae card with no useful effects is still helpful in this regard.

The general structure of the Dramatis Personae cards is seen here on the left. At the top you can see the name of the historical figure who was the inspiration behind the card, a short historical description, and a portrait of that figure, all just for flavor purposes. Thus, the only mechanical aspects that players need to focus on are:

1. What kind of card it is, as shown by the card type icon(s) on the right. Card types include permanent effects, one-time effects, special leader units, and new victory conditions. A single Dramatis Personae card might have more than one card type.

2. How the card works, as detailed by the card effect text. Any special rules for the card effect will be described here.

3. If the card will modify your Power’s position on the Hegemon Tracks, as shown at the bottom of the card. Dramatis Personae cards can have positive or negative effects on the Hegemon Tracks, affecting turn order and contributing to the Cultural Hegemony victory condition.

To better explain how these cards work in the game I will show an example of each kind of card type. (Please note that the images for each card below are early playtest graphics that are currently being updated.)

Jakob von Kettler (1610-1682) – Permanent Effect
Before becoming duke of Kurland and Semigallia, Jakob von Kettler embarked on a grand tour of western Europe, where he studied shipbuilding and the ideas of mercantilism. He was an ambitious and efficient ruler, and his little duchy grew prosperous due to his economic and agricultural reforms. In 1651 he sent a fleet to build a fort on the Gambia River in Africa and in 1654 his forces conquered Tobago in the Caribbean and established a colony there. The Dutch conquered his colonies and destroyed his fleet during the Northern War of 1654-60, while Kettler himself was held captive by the Swedes. After the war he managed to rebuild his fleet and recapture the colonies, but had to shelve his plans of further colonizing recently discovered Australia. 

The ‘plus’ icon tells us that this is a card that gives its owner a permanent benefit so long as it remains in their court. Kettler´s historical ambition to establish overseas colonies, and the vulnerability of such far flung colonies, is represented by receiving a Maritime Trade Resource during the Income Phase only if your Power has a Ship of the Line unit. These Maritime Trade resources are generally more useful than normal resources, and are otherwise only received in the Maritime Trade phase by exchanging one of your other resources for them, so getting one for free is very useful. As noted on the bottom line this card also increases your power´s position on the Mercantile Hegemon Track.  A Power´s current position on the Mercantile Track is equal to the number of Cities they control on the map plus any Dramatis Personae modifiers such as the one on Kettler´s card, and it determines the number of resources they can trade during the Maritime Trade phase.  Thus, the establishment of colonies and far-flung trading stations, such as those Kettler historically achieved for his duchy, increases your Power´s trade.

Sultan Mehmet IV (1642-1693) – One-time Effect
Mehmet came to the throne of the Ottoman Empire at the age of only 6 after his father was overthrown in a coup. He would become the longest reigning sultan in Ottoman history after Suleiman the Magnificent, and was known by contemporaries to be a particularly pious ruler. In the Baltic context he is mostly known for his wars against Poland and Russia in the 1670s, and not least the War of the Holy League or Great Turkish War of 1683-99 which saw the legendary siege of Vienna in 1683, and the equally legendary relief of the city by allied forces led by the Polish king Sobieski and the winged hussars. He would be overthrown in 1687 by soldiers disenchanted with the course of the war.

The ‘lightning bolt’ icon tells us that this is a card that gives its owner a one-time only benefit. Some one-time effects happen immediately when the player buys the card, while other cards can be kept in your Court until you want to use them, and some are discarded after use, while others can stay in your court but may not be used again (remember that merely having the card in your Court is still useful for increasing your Loan limit) – this is all specified on the card itself. The historical Ottoman wars fought by Poland and Russia would often severely distract them, and thus be a great relief for any enemies they were already fighting against in the Baltic. Diplomatic connections to the Ottomans to ensure their participation or non-participation in war was therefore an important diplomatic and military tool. This is represented in the game by placing 3 independent units when you decide to trigger the card´s effect, and allows you to move and fight with them as if they were your units in the turn the card is triggered. Having the ability to threaten the Russian or Polish player with this card, even if it only works once, is a great asset for all powers in the game.    

Peter Tordenskjold (1691-1720) – Special Leader Unit
Peter Jansen Wessel was a Norwegian naval officer. He won a name for himself through audacity and courage, bordering recklessness, and was ennobled as Peter Tordenskjold (literally “Thundershield”) in 1704. His greatest exploits were the battle of Dynekilen in 1716, where his daring allowed his small force to destroy a Swedish supply fleet, and the capture of the Swedish fortress of Carlsten in 1719, which surrendered to him after a ruse where Tordenskjold´s very small force feigned to be much larger. He later died in a sword duel with a man who claimed to own a hydra after a dispute at a dinner party. Today his face is known by all Danes, as his image is on the cover of a popular brand of safety matches, produced by the company Swedish Match (which is doubly ironic given his fighting style and Danish affiliation).

The ‘person’ icon tells us that this card grants a special leader unit. As noted in the card text, the Tordenskjold leader unit is a Ship of the Line, befitting of an admiral. The unit classes in the game are Infantry, Cavalry, Fortress and Ship of the Line, and leader units always move & fight as one of these. His historical performance and ability to surprise the enemy and triumph over superior numbers is represented by allowing his side to attack first whenever he is present, instead of conducting battle simultaneously as normal. Naval combat tends to be more dramatic and unpredictable, as the naval dice have more “Miss” results than the other dice types but also have a “2x HIT” result”, so firing before your enemy can produce truly spectacular victories, such as Tordenskjold´s victory at Dynekilen in 1716.  

As noted at the bottom of the text this card is lost (discarded) from a player´s court if the leader unit is lost (eliminated in battle), but the opposite is also true – if the player discards this card (either voluntarily to make space for other Dramatis Personae cards or by being forced to do so due to enemy Dramatis Personae card effects), then the associated leader unit is also removed from the game. This is true for all cards that give you a leader unit.

Jan Zamoyski (1542-1605) – New Victory Condition
A skilled politician, diplomat and statesman, and a major figure in the politics of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth throughout his life, Zamoyski served several kings as advisor and Grand Hetman of the Crown – most notably King Stefan Batory. He was a champion of the unique Polish constitutional and parliamentary government of the Commonwealth, where even the poor nobility played an important role. In this he was so influential and popular that he was known as the “first tribune of nobility” or “Polish Gracchus”. This regularly placed him in opposition to the wealthy nobility, and at times also to the policies of the king. In his later years Zamoyski led the opposition to the absolutist-leaning governance reforms proposed by King Sigismund III Vasa, as well as his plans for intervention in Russia´s Time of Troubles.

This card has two icons and thus has two kinds of effect! The top ‘plus’ icon tells us that this is a card that gives a permanent effect, and the bottom ‘wreath’ icon tells us that it alters the victory conditions for your Power. As with all cards, the effects only apply as long as you hold the card in your Court. Victory in Baltic Empires is normally achieving one of the 4 sudden death victory conditions, but this card gives you another chance of winning the game if you reach the end of the last turn with all of your Dramatis Personae slots filled and holding the Mercantile and Production Hegemon positions.

The altered victory condition represents the triumph of those within your realm who oppose absolutism and increased centralized power, and instead see internal economic development as a more profitable objective for the state, such as Jan Zamoyski historically did. The permanent effect of the card represents the same thing as it becomes more costly for you to impose royal (centralized) control over your provinces. Some of the other cards that alter the victory conditions do so by exchanging your power´s normal National Ambition with another condition specified on the card, and thus gives you another way of achieving a sudden death victory, which can be very useful if the situation on the board is such that the new goal is easier to reach than your old one. I plan on eventually doing more “History Behind the Cards” articles where I will go through more Dramatis Personae cards from the game, explaining the link between the card and the life and deeds of the historical character it is named after. In the next and final article in this first series I will describe how the War phase works and how battles are resolved.

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Previous Articles:

Victory Conditions in Baltic Empires

The Sequence of Play in Baltic Empires

Economics in Baltic Empires