The year is 1775. The American colonies are outraged over new taxes imposed upon them by Great Britain. They begin to stockpile arms and organize militia. On April 18th, militia members ambush a column of 700 British Redcoats ordered to seize stockpiled arms. 273 British soldiers are killed or wounded before they reach safety in Boston. The American Revolution has begun! Now you and your friends command the armies of the British Redcoats, English Loyalists, German Hessians, American Regulars, Patriots, French Regulars and Native Americans to decide the fate of the Americas. Players from each faction cooperate to gain control of key towns and forts.
The map board represents the original 13 Colonies plus Maine, Nova Scotia, and Quebec. Each Colony is further subdivided into areas over which factions will struggle for control. A faction holds control of a Colony when only units of its side are present in the areas of a Colony. Player controlled factions include the Continental Army, Patriot Militia, British Regulars and Loyalist Militia. In addition to this the Allied French and Allied Hessian factions, who are controlled by American and British forces respectively, can be brought into the game by event cards playable by each faction.
Each game is played in a series of rounds. Victory conditions are checked for each side starting on round three and each game ends with victory points being tallied automatically on round eight if no one has won before then. Each round is subdivided into four turns, one for each side, which happens in order determined by a blind draw of the turn marker for each faction. It is entirely possible for a faction to go last in a previous round only to go first in the next.
Every Faction has a deck of cards consisting of Event cards, Movement cards, and one Truce card. Every turn, each faction will play a movement card to maneuver their troops and any number of event cards. When both factions of a side (British or American) have played their truce cards, the game will end! Each deck has a specific number of movement cards in it and managing them is an important part of the game.
Each faction has a Truce card which serves not only as a timer for the game but as a powerful Movement card. However, a game may end prematurely if both factions of a side are forced to play it early in the game.
Each faction, including Allies has their own faction combat dice. For each 'Hit' symbol, the opposing faction loses one unit. For each 'Flee' result you lose one of your units to the Fled Units box where it will return later as reinforcements. For each blank face rolled the player has a 'Command Decision' and may use that to retreat a unit in the battle to an adjacent area.
All faction units participate in a battle whether it is their turn or not! Each faction has different faces to their dice. Some factions are more likely to flee from battle to regroup later on. Other factions are more likely to score a hit or a command decision. American Continental Army are much less likely to flee, an have a higher hit percentage, but only have two dice per battle round. British Regulars have no flee results and hit on a high percentage, but will have no fleeing units added to their reinforcements each turn. Both sides Militia have three dice but higher fled results. Knowing your unit's strengths and weaknesses is key to victory! Battle across the Colonies with large armies or small. So long as each army group contains a unit of your faction, you may move units of your partner faction as well as Allied units with you from area to area. In a four player game, each faction must form a common strategy with their partner to maximize potential!
Note: All purchasable content is included in the PC & Mac Edition of the game.
