The game begins with the Reinforcement Stage. Both player may at this time take any generals they might have in the “Captured Generals Box” and place them in the “Reinforcement Box.”
At the start of the game I have not yet succeeded at getting a general captured, so we can safely skip this step for now. Next, British players get to fill up their reinforcement box with combat units equal to the number found at the bottom of the turn record track.
The Vassal module has the British reinforcements already queued up in the numbered turn spaces on the turn record track. Note that British reinforcements are scheduled and limited. This has implications worth considering when playing the British. The American’s spend OPs to get reinforcements and are less limited in total number available. I will cover how American reinforcements work in more detail as opportunities to reinforce occur in the game. The British reinforcements are all set:
Like most war games we will be following the all-holy sequence of play. I find it useful when learning a game to look up each step on the Sequence of play as it occurs. It is easy to skip important steps in your first few playthroughs of a game. If you are not at least a little regimented on how you proceed through the turns, you are liable botch things.
Now that we have handled the reinforcement phase we can move on to playing strategy cards. Normally you deal cards in the “Strategy Card” Phase and then play them in the “Strategy Phase” which follows. I got excited and dealt out the cards early so we can skip to the Strategy phase and begin playing cards.
If the British have a campaign card, they can play that card to go first. If they do not have a campaign card or choose not to play one, then the Americans get the first play. The British did not get a campaign card in their draw for the first turn so the American’s get to play the first card.
The Yanks decide to reinforce General Nathanial Greene. He currently has only 2 Combat units and is located adjacent to British General Howe who is fully loaded with 5 British Regulars.
General Greene and his small army is a tempting target for a quick attack by Howe. I think bolstering this army makes sense. The 3OPs card is placed in the first Reinforcement card box on the map.
The American gets a combat unit for each OPs point on the card played for reinforcements. In this case it is a 3 Ops card so 3 combat units are placed with Greene. Note that all reinforcements for a given card must be placed in a single space. That space cannot contain a British combat unit or political control marker. Nathanial Green gets 3 combat units bringing him up to the maximum army size of 5 combat units.
The British are up next for their first card.
The American Armies are both just outside of Boston. This leaves the rest of the country without American armies. The Brits decide to start up a second army and deploy it in South in hopes of exploiting this lopsided deployment. The Brits spend 1OPs and place it in the British reinforcement box. Since any card will do, this is a good way for the British to make use of a lowly 1OPs card.
The British have used up their 1 reinforcement for the round but will get to place a general and 3 combat units. Cornwallis and 3 combat units land in Norfolk on the Virginia coast.
Deploying in any port without an American is an example of the British mobility advantage in this game. They can show up just about anywhere very quickly. The American player will have to consider carefully their next move. We will see what happens next in tomorrow’s blog post.
Strategic Buffoonery 