From: Roberto Chiavini Saratoga (GMT) Designer Mark Miclos made a good job in portraying the most interesting aspects of eighteenth century colonial warfare with this game on the first battle of Saratoga: with only a few dozens pieces, a big hexes map for the wooden terrain where the battle was fought and iconic graphics for the units, the game is simple to start and very pleasant to the eye. Units are rated for strenght, movement and morale, while leaders have a combat DRM and a Rally DRM. Units are mostly infantry of various kind, a few artillery, one cavalry (for the Americans) and one rifle unit for side. The game lasts a maximum of 12 turns, with sudden death victory conditions for demoralizing the enemy army (possible) or taking a single hex objective (very difficult to achieve). Otherwise, victory is based in occupying the area around Freeman's farm and eliminating enemy units and leaders (with Gates and Burgoyne more important than the rest). At the start of each turn, both players roll for initiative, the winning one being the first player for that turn. Sequence of play is movement (straightforward, with a sort of strategic movement in the form of double movement factors for units moving along road or trails without entering enemy ZOC), Rally (morale check for units disrupted or shattered and not in enemy ZOC to return to pristine status), Defensive artillery phase (with a 3 hex range, but normally very limited for the nature of most of the terrain that block the LOS), Rifle fire phase (limited to adiacent hexes and with only one unit for each side) and Close Combat. This phase is the most interesting of the lot, with several DRM for better morale, army morale, terrain, position, leaders and also a tactical matrix. Another interesting aspect of the design (that centers on this phase the most innovation for the system) is the concept of Momentum (that is gained through combat result), that may be accumulated and used for forcing re-roll in combat. The game seems free of major errata, it is enough innovative to be interesting to play, it seems very well balanced (even if in my first game, the rule for limiting the movement of Gates wing in the American army made for an early British victory – but it was caused by a too aggressive Arnold in face of a superior number of units) and fast enough to be playable in under three hours (perhaps even less than two). All in all, a good addition to anyone library of games, worth at least a 6 ½ in a 1-10 scale.