Wargames to celebrate America’s 250th
As America prepares to celebrate our 250th birthday, what better way to launch our features here at Wargames and Whiskey than with a wargame examining the Revolution itself - Washington’s War. Pull up a chair, pour a dram, and let's dive in.
Washington’s War is a modern classic designed by Mark Herman, and published by GMT Games. In Washington’s War, players take the roles of the British fighting to keep control of their colonies, or the American patriots fighting for their freedom. Examining the Revolution through a Card Driven Game (CDG) system originating from Hermann’s We The People, combat and political control is meted out in the thirteen colonies through a slightly asymmetric menu of standard options augmented with unique and powerful event cards representing historical figures and moments of the Revolution.
A mixture of political maneuvering that can feel a bit like Go and outright combat between the Continental and British armies create a game environment that is close, tense, and yet still delivers big “oh, shit!” moments that really capture the feel of the historical significance players are simulating. To give you an example of the immersion-through-mechanics in Washington’s War the British start with a clear combat advantage given their renowned Regulars, but the Continentals are not only comfortable dodging set piece battles in the early game, it is their clear advantage over the rigid mindset of the British army. Also present are the generals that we can all name from history class (well, ok, we can all probably name the Big Ones) - Washington, Cornwallis, Clinton, Gates… even Benedict Arnold makes an appearance complete with an Arnold-only attack route into Canada. The combat mechanics not only manage to capture both the disparity in skill between the British and Continental generals, but the arrogance (laziness?) of these commanding officers as well - at the start of each battle, players must determine if their full skill is applied to the combat, or only half of it.
Our whiskey pairing? It’s got to be Breckenridge’s Patriotic Reserve.
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The perfect coffee table-sized game
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LBERTY: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 1775 -83
A second option for the big 250th is Liberty: The American Revolution 1775-83 from Columbia Games. While also a strategic-level approach to the Revolution, Liberty brings the fog of war to the front in the form of blocks. Yes, blocks! If you’ve never dived into a block wargame, you’re honestly missing a great niche of the genre. Think Stratego but with 100x more, well, game, wrapped around that core concept.
Each block represents historical militias, detachments, regiments, dragoons, regulars etc., and each has its own strength and movement ratings…which are kept hidden from your opponent until and only if those blocks are engaged in combat. Upon resolution of combat, however, the blocks return to their upright positions and become hidden from the other player once again.
Blocks are a low-tech answer to fog of war effects that pivot a war away from hex-and-counter doom stacks and into something that is strategic in scale but tactical in execution. Liberty also benefits from a relatively easy and swift set of rules that allow players to largely dive right into gameplay without too much overhead (honestly, the thing we forgot most here at W&W was rolling for the start-of-turn storms!). This isn’t to say there isn’t a great and somewhat crunchy game to master here, there absolutely is. Rather, the crunch is the war itself with victory conditions defined as the British seeking 30 victory points, and the Revolutionary’s goal being simply to stop the British from doing so. This translates to a map that represents the 13 colonies as well as British positions in Canada, and their attendant and significant towns, cities, and forts - but which accurately portrays those towns, cities, and forts as inherently unequal in their importance. American militia may have the ability to spawn on any American-friendly town, but are they worth defending if those towns have a zero point value compared to say New York with its 4 points?
W&W readily recommends Liberty both as a celebration of our 250th, and as an excellent foray into the niche that is block wargaming.
Given the importance of Atlantic sea deployment in this game, we heartily recommend the smooth, hint-of-salt dram that is Jefferson’s Ocean.
SHOT AND CHASER: TABLE BATTLES
Table Battles: Battle of Brooklyn Heights scenario at setup
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In board gaming, there is the concept of “filler” games, that are light and quick to play and can be squeezed in between the “main” event games on a given game night. In the world of wargaming, filler games are almost definitionally more difficult to find… which is why when we do, we offer you all the Shot and Chaser:
Table Battles, designed by Tom Russel and published by Hollandspiele, fits the technical definition of filler fare in both time constraints and low complexity, but it doesn’t sacrifice any crunch to get there. A light, clever, and devious set of rules involve a system of rolling and assigning action dice combined with actions that force your opponent to execute counter-actions. Although very abstracted, this system nonetheless is very satisfying to grok and gives a legitimate argument to what the battles chosen for the Table Battles system would have been like in terms of the pitched back and forth battle flow.
For the 250th, W&W recommends the Battle of Brooklyn Heights scenario included in the base game.
We feel that High West’s Campfire blend of bourbon, smoke, and grit captures the heroic stand of the Maryland 400, which was instrumental in allowing Washington to escape with the bulk of the Continental army during the Battle of Brooklyn Heights.
