French & Indian War by Worthington: Review

Last week I managed to get my first and second wargame in for 2020. Yes, it's been that dry a year for me. Having been stranded in Tonga for most of 2020, my production hit record highs and my gaming frequency plumbed new depths. I played two Black Powder Napoleonic games on the afternoon of day one and the morning of day two with my life-long mate Grant. We played the same scenario, swapping sides between French and Prussian forces for 1813-14. Suffice to say I lived up to my handle, the Unlucky General. BUT, in the evening we played my new board game by Worthington, French & Indian War.

This is a hot-off-the-press game of which I was one of it's kick-start patrons: something I have never done before. It's taken most of the year to get to me but was well worth the wait. This is an absolute cracker.

It's a strictly two-player game and the fight takes place over three years. Each year is divided into 11-12 turns (I-go You-go) and each player gets to make one move per turn. I wont bore you with the details but it's one of those best-in-show games, the success of which lies in the elegance and simplicity of the system. The rules are only a few pages and the game runs swiftly at about 2-3 hours. It's that winning combination of simple to learn (rules) but complex to master (strategy).

Of particular interest to me from the start was the games potential as a campaign vehicle for miniature wargames. Both Grant and I reckon it's an absolute winner in terms of conversion - particularly for Black Powder. Illustrated above are the unit types in the game. Let's concentrate on the British Regular Infantry (the Jack) counter. In the game the strength or stamina is the same as the number of fighting dice a unit can roll as indicated at the top of the counter - in case of the 15th Foot illustrated above, that unit (Regiment/battalion) starts with four. When it takes a hit, the block counter is rotated anti-clockwise to three, then two with a subsequent hit, then one until the final hit when the unit is destroyed and removed from the game.

Both Grant and I reckon this easily represents unit Stamina in Black Powder. A table-top battle would occur when the board game battles occur (when occupying the same place). Any units which survive the miniature wargame remain in play for the next turn of the board game and if sustaining any loss to stamina, it is easily reflected on the board game unit blocks. As Black Powder units commence with 4,3,2 or 1 Stamina this is a perfect match.

Furthermore, we see this simple system being easily adapted to other periods or theatres of war. A similar and simplified map of the Spanish Peninsular (for instance) could be generated, with painted and home-printed wooden counters representing our armies easily replicated. We wouldn't alter the rules at all. There may need to be a couple of house variations to tie in the board game to the table-top wargame.

One such consideration would be enabling adjacent units on the board to join the table-top battle - effectively a free move in the campaign board game. Each turn in the board game represents roughly three weeks (assuming the winter to be three months duration). It would be easy to start over-complicating a set of 'bridging' rules but I'd keep it simple. I'd allow light troops to join battle for free (as they move two regions per turn in the board game) and others to risk a loss of stamina for forced marching (1-3 = Stamina loss on a d6 with nothing on 4-6) for regular sized units AND they enter the game after half-time.

All locations are at least towns. Some locations are fortified to varying degrees. If you have the models then by all means fight a storming/siege game but a table-top game could be fighting for control of the region and not necessarily in the town/fort itself. The attackers would still have to pay a penalty and one option could be a corresponding loss of starting Stamina across the attacking player's units (owner's choice) for fighting against a fortified zone.

The board game assumes artillery attached to Regular Infantry as they attack fortifications without penalty and are not otherwise represented. Anyway, a conversion addendum will be needed and this is neither time nor the place to go into that without proper consideration.

In summary, I couldn't be more satisfied with my involvement in this project. I don't play so many board games these days but this is an absolute winner for me. I'll be taking a closer look at Worthington's other projects.