Advance Copy -- King Philip's War

    I got a solo play of King Philip's War in yesterday at Winter Offensive and it was a very rewarding session.   This game is not yet ready for release, but it's on the PrePub list with just shy of 300 orders.

    King Philip's War was the first major conflict of the British Colonies, taking place in New England and lasting about two years.  I have ancestral ties to the war (distant ones obviously) including a pretty harrowing letter describing a farm being overrun so the conflict has a bit more gravity for me.  A pretty obscure war, I don't think there are any other games based on it.  Point to Point movement, simple combat, restricted movement mechanics that makes places that look close farther away than you want them to be.  Two player only, likely to clock in at 2-3 hours.  My solo game from a stone-cold start ran a bit over 4.

    I started from scratch with no coach and got the opportunity to test the entire package beginning to end like a new purchaser.  I decided to use the opportunity to provide feedback to the designer who I have met at previous events, and I play-tested his game Caliphate (a euroesque multi-player wargame) at the World Boardgaming Championships this past summer.  I left feedback this morning; I've already received a response from him indicated the changes he has planned based upon his test groups today.  This will be part of the IGS series from Multiman Publishing, the host of Winter Offensive, their annual convention to benefit ALS.

    In short, in spite of the game still not ready for the printer it played very well. It forced my out of my game -- it required me to break up larger forces to go into the countryside and slash and burn similar to what happened in the actual war.  My initial intent was to build armies and chase after the early victory conditions but they proved elusive. For my first play the Indians had better luck early on, destroying settlements and keeping the colonists in check. The colonists just couldn't seem to get a break, damaging Indian villages but not destroying them (i.e., not limiting Indian provisions or scoring victory points.)  As the game burned on it became apparent that the Indians were in a better position to ravage English settlements, and the points race was on.  I resigned (if you can do that against yourself) with one turn remaining, the colonists well behind and the Indians four small points away from the required 30 for an early endgame.

    The map is plush and a pleasure to work with. The movement is easily worked out by just a scan of the available paths, and I found only one place with a technical flaw. Completely usable in its current condition though the colors don't match the text in the rules manual. My guess is the manual will change to the map.

    The instructions had a few oversights that are certain to be cleaned up, but the play is there. I took notes as I proceeded and once I began to understand the limitations on troop movement much of what I had written down as flawed or troublesome completely melted away.  Troop movement is tough -- each side cannot pass through the other player's settlements and there's more than a few of them often in chains that make for big barriers.  When I began to understand that the map became very tight, very risky, very interesting.  English settlements were off on their own, having to fend for themselves instead of depending on help from the far side of the colony.  Indian tribes were separate and non-aligned, though I still have a question out to designer Jon Poniske about the details of the move limitations.  If my suspicions are right there will be even more emphasis on skirmishing, a much better match to reality than what I was trying to foist onto the game, and a much better play overall.

    King Philip's war was about guerrilla tactics and politics.  King Philip, the Indian leader in the war spent much of his time wheeling and dealing with local tribes to get them to buy into the effort.  The English weren't to be left out of that part of the scenario and had their own allied tribes as well.  Tribes tended to fall in with the local power for safety and political advantage, and the game works that in well though in a very simple fashion.  King Philip spends much of his time simply moving, reaching each tribe to bring it into the game on his side.  While the Indian player goes after unprotected settlements with small bands (stacking limit is a merely TWO chits though each has a step) Philip does the grand tour.  The English player raises and deploys troops in four separate regions each turn and brings in Indian allies after a few turns as well, resulting in a fractured force that needs to cover a lot of ground.  The English start slowly and need to hold on for a bit.  Benjamin Church was a critical leader of the English colonists and in the game he arrives somewhere between turn 1 and turn 6, and in my case he arrived in turn 6.  With Church on the board the English move faster, develop Indian alliances and can move through terrain with the same efficiency as their Indian opponents. 

    This is when American colonists first learned how warfare in the Americas would work.  This play was when I learned as well.  Though I tried to fight a standard war, Indian troops were unable to penetrate Boston and Plymouth in spite of some pretty stellar rolls.  In theory that would have been a win for them, but alas it was not to be.  Instead they spent the final three turns sacking unprotected settlements whose troops were assembled into large standing armies in an attempt to win a decisive battle.  It appears I learn no faster than my ancestors of the 1600s.

    The game was good fun, and pushed me to play to the terrain. A solid emulation of North American warfare from the day, this was well worth the time.

                S.