Alan Snider  - Oct 29, 2005 6:15 pm (#11063 Total: 11090)  
On the Playtest Table: Khyber Pass Games' "The Battle of the 
Little Bighorn"; and announcing the "Northern Knights Wargaming 
Group" in Vancouver, Canada with a retail store of it's own at 
http://www.stalag17wargames.com/ 
	 
GAMENIGHT, Oct 28: In attendance: Brent Louie, Rick White, Nathan
Heibert, Craig Nynych and myself. Brent and I sat down to an intro
session with S&T #231 French & Indian War, while Rick and Craig (with
Nathan) faced off in a little throwback game of AH Blitzkrieg... 

For the occasion, Brent has made some 5/8" counters for the game; single
sided, but color coded for nationalities for TRUE hidden movement. They
look fantastic and ultra thick, and fit no problem in the checkerboard
pattern of the F&I War map. 

I decide to take the British, while Brent lets me know the ultra
optional rule allows for both players to have to speak French if the
balance of power reaches the royal blue spaces and beyond. Apparently
swear words count, and it is ok to just put "le" or "la" before
everything you want to say... 

The French start with the balance of power in their favour and choose to
move first. They managed to steamroll over a few British positions,
clearing Philadelphia of British troops and taking Newcastle prior to
the end of the first year. Boston is also attacked but they manage to
repel the attacks there, although they took some heavy losses. 

The British response was to cut off the French troops in Newcastle, They
occupied all hexes in order to cut them off from any movement inland. On
their move, they loaded up their ship in Britain, and sailed for
Portsmouth with fresh troops. The other ship, headed back to the
homeland, ready for next turn. 

Quite boldly, the French chose to reinforce their troops in Newcastle,
by sea!! This got the British leadership all fired up, sending a full
transport load of troops into attack Newcastle by sea, and subsequently
killed 1/2 the French there, at the same time forcing them to retreat
out of the city. A smaller set of battles occurs to the north where the
French attempt to punch through the British barrier to help their newly
captured port. The British get totally wiped out in these areas (and the
balance of power is shifted more). 

The one saving grace for the British was they managed to retake
Newcastle, and slide into Philadelphia prior to it's being occupied by
the French. The French look very strong in Penn., and threaten to head
south-east to take over British areas to claim extra money needed. The
other bold move by the Brits, saw them throwing both their ships at the
single French ship stranded after the initial battle for Newcastle. This
naval engagement saw the entire French fleet headed for the bottom of
the deep blue... 

This is the meat of the game for me; trying to take an extra area or 2
and be able to defend them (and claim the VP's) if the other player
still has yet to play. The second major concern being forage limits,
when the 4th impulse is completed. One needs to spread out to eliminate
the need for paying extra for units stacked in a way that they exceed
forage limits for the space they occupy. 

The British player is left in a most interesting predicament...as he has
no way to get to a different state to rally them to action (become
active). It is only when a state is active (ie attacked or rallied to
action) that the British player can get "instant" militia or move the
troops in that area. This limits immediate British power to the homeland
units rather than colonial troops. It took me til the end of turn 1,
until I began to realize I needed to buy a general right away;
preferably needing to draw one that can move "out of state" to have a
chance to rally other states to action (become active). 

When one looks ahead a bit in the rules, one can see that the money
thing shifts from the French to the British after the 7 Years World War
breaks out... So while it looks like the French get to kick some British
butt for awhile, the game shifts later to allow the British to press the
attacks. 

As we only managed to get through 2 turns, I am liking what we've
discovered so far. The random events will give boosts to either side
from time to time to give advantages. The other interesting part is how
many options as to what kind of units one can build in the game. This
enables one to get the feel for building/defending the colonial holding
of both powers. There is a fair bit of detail in this area of the game
(ie engineers, cannons) and when coupled with the 2 different CRTs
available make for some great period feel and options. These CRTs depend
on one's breakdown of regular vs. colonial troops/light infantry. 

This is a topic of great interest for me, and I intend on getting a
complete game in with Brent before long. In fact, this may be the best
thing I've seen in S&T since Rise of the Ottoman Empire (likely my best
S&T of the last 2 years). Again, thanks to Joe M. for bringing us
another S&T classic. I hope to have a legit AAR for S&T #231 French and
Indian War, shortly...