Columbia Games War of 1812

I recently purchased Columbia games 2008 3rd edition board game War of 1812 (the original is from the 70’s)(this type of game is referred to as a block game) since as a Canadian the war between Britain and its colonial north american territories against the United states is quite popular/important.

Playing 2 games against my girlfriend (who is not a gamer but was a good sport) I got to play as both sides starting with the British.  The americans start off with slightly more units but its balanced between the british getting a special Tecumseh Indian unit if they take Detroit and getting more reinforcements later in the game simulating later in the war when Napoleon ceased to be as large a threat more regulars being shipped over to fight from europe.  Also the American player must deploy first giving the british the advantage of setting is pieces accordingly.

Each “block” represents different types of units, USA/british regulars, USA/Canadian militia, artillary+dragoons etc all of which have different stats stated on the blocks.  Regulars are better then militia but there is some variety among the different units depending on the general leading them.

The map is actually illustrated by eric hotz of hotz mats fame and while the material quality is thin and kind of flimsy the map itself is brilliant and quite nice looking with towns of various cities of the time around the great lakes with roads connecting them eliminating the standard square/hex board.  Different cities have varying victory points which at the end of a 10 turn year you check at the winter phase if the conditions aren’t met you keep playing another year until the end of 1814.  There is naval bases on each of the  lakes represented as well allowing you to gain “control” of 1-3 of the lakes for advantages and victory points.

Blocks face you not your opponent giving the game a fog of war effect, Playing the first game as the British I put enough units to take detroit gaining the special and powerful indian unit and was able to keep pushing all the way to the reinforcement town of pittsburgh cutting them off from future units at that point who instead had to fight me in the town to enter the game essentially giving me the victory early.  The rest of my units were focused at Montreal which holding is essential for victory.  My opponent focused on all 3 areas (the central canada/usa area I found to be quite useless to hold) and eventually got worn down for the loss.

The second game I put alot of units on detroit as the USA to deprive them of the indian units then the rest around striking distance of Montreal.  Being on the defensive (which is an advantage) I defeated superior armies with the luck of the dice(a inferior army is unlikely to win as the attacker but has a chance as the defender) and the game was over early in only 30 minutes as I took lower canada.

While I would like to try out the new academy games version the columbia games one was fun though im not sure how much overall strategy there is with the game revolving around 2 fronts essentially and even one of those isnt really that important.  The game lasts between 30-100 mins and is easy to set up it would be interesting to see them take some lessons from this for axis and allies board games since the victory point cities are kind of similar to IPC’s and those games could use a reduction in play time.  The game wasn’t girlfriend friendly I kind of crushed my gf by accident lol when I kind of wanted to throw her the win in the 2nd game she wasn’t terribly impressed with it overall.

The bottom of the map for the americans has pittsburgh in the west and albany in the east, but the map itself is quite small and could easily double in size and not be a large map.  But it would probably disrupt gameplay because those areas would for the most part be useless since the british probably can’t push that far from canada without leaving themselves exposed you would need a 1814 British atlantic invasion force (just like historically) to land deep into the USA and invade that area.

@Guerrilla:

@Gargantua:

Thank you for the Review.

It’s a bunch of Junk that this game doesn’t come with a whitehouse to sack and burn.

Typical Pro-Americanism and fear of the truth.

… or a Legislative assembly and a miniature model of York to loot and burn… Just to be fair. :wink:

GG

lol well york is in the game so if you occupy it as the americans i’m sure you can crack some york is burning jokes.

@Pacific:

I’ve been playing Columbia Games for years.  They are some of the best games I’ve ever played.  Quebec, Napoleon, 1812, Victory…the list goes on and on.  Just plain FINE products!!

Yeah I have to admit the block system is something I really like I bought hammer of the scots another columbia games product because I enjoyed 1812 I would be interested to see what alot of there games are like I imagine quite good.

@Pacific:

I haven’t found a clunker yet.  Unfortunately, some their games have become increasingly complicated over the years but it’s a very nice thing that they are still making the old ones for mentally stunted guys such as myself.  And some of their newest titles seem to have returned to an earlier, simpler mindset.  But Victory……now that is one of the very best games that I’ve played in my life.  It’s fun, suspensful, full of bluff and posturing.  It’s FUN!!!

Pacific victory? I have taken a peak at it, it does look very interesting