From: "Robert Vollman" Subject: Re: Fwd: 7 years world war Here is a Seven Years World War game/session review: Due to popular demand, I bring you the game/session review: 7 Years World War, from Strategy and Tactics I love magazine games: - Can be played in a 6-hour session - Maps that can fit on any table - A manageable set of counters that fit on a single counter-sheet - A short set of rules that can be learned by an experienced gamer in a couple of hours - Often cover a topic not covered anywhere else And, the best part - If it sucks, you still have a good magazine and you're only out 25$. There was no trouble getting interest when I started looking for opponents a couple of months ago. I'm guessing that is because of the global nature of this campaign, that it hasn't been done to death, and gamers weren't feeling overwhelmed by the complexity. The first session we opted for the "global" variant, and the sides were chosen randomly like so: England, Prussia: Robert Brooks France, Maratha Confederacy: Faisal Kassam Austria, Russia: Neil Goud Manchu Empire: Robert Vollman I quickly summarized the rules for everyone. There are 7 game turns, each one is divided roughly like so: 1. Collect money for places you occupy, and trade routes where you control both ends without enemy fleets interdicting (optional: increase taxes) 2. Draw your campaign chits (just like drawing cards in other games) 3. Build and place your units 4. Try to align neutral major powers (eg: Spain, Ottoman Empire, the Dutch) 5. Move your units, possibly using "Forced March" chits to move twice (or to be intercepted) 6. Declare and resolve combat (in typical CRT fashion), possibly using "Forced March" chits to attack repeatedly 7. Pay maintenance for any units that are overstacked or at sea. Victory is determined basically by adding up your totals from #1 and #2, and dividing by what you started the game with. The first turn was spent beating up minor countries, and not just for the monetary value of the conquered provinces (which also represent victory points), but because minor forces are weak, and if you win a battle decisively enough, you can automatically improve fresh recruit units into stronger veteran units, and draw campaign chits. After that first turn, however, the battles raged between players. India and North America were both scenes of heated battles between the British and the French/Indians, allowing the Russian/Austrians to march through Europe and take an early lead. That prompted the English and the French to declare a formal alliance. Heresy, I know! Robert decided to use Britain's mobility to strike the Russians right in the heart, and attacked the Russian capital of St. Petersburg directly, assuming France would follow up with a land assault into Germany, Austria, and beyond. He thought wrong. Instead, the French broke their alliance (there are punitive rules involving losing campaign chits when you do this), and successfully invaded London instead. And then it happened. The Manchu Empire, who had taken advantage of the previous war in India between the English and the French to seize Southern India, sailed a modest invasion force around Africa, all the way to Ireland. After brushing aside the Irish garrison, they used a "Force March" chit to attack again, and defeat the surviving French invasion force. You read that right. The Manchu Empire captured London. AND controlled the East Indies trade route! Unfortunately, that wasn't enough for the victory. One of the strengths of 7YWW is also one of its weaknesses. The strength is that you can always come back, no matter how bad your situation may be. But the weakness is that there is no incentive to do well early on, because only the last turn matters. And on the last turn, the English easily booted the Manchu Empire out of England, and helped the French/Indian alliance boot the Manchu's out of India. The Manchu sent large sums of cash to the Russians to boost them up, and to help them try to deliver a decisive blow to the French in Europe, but it wasn't enough, and the French won the day. This past Saturday, we reconvened for another session, this time the sides were randomly divided thusly: England/Prussia: James Istvanffy France/Russia/Maratha Confederacy: Neil Goud Austria/Manchu Empire: Robert Vollman The wars raged world-wide, right from the start in this game: In Central/Eastern Europe: The entire Prussian army attacked the entire Austrian army with bold 1-1 attacks for the first several turns. Chit draws and average die rolls resulted in minor Austrian victories. Eventually the Russians (who spent most of their time beating on Sweden) advanced into Poland and tempered Prussia's ambitions. In America: The British were economically and militarily weak because their repeated attempts to increase taxes in North America resulted in revolt. That kept the French around, pillaging the country side and holding key territory right up until late in the game where the Dutch allied with the English and helped them finally extricate the French from Montreal. In India: The British and the French/Maratha brutally exchanged blows in attempts to control India, and deny the other the wealth of the Indian trade routes. Just as the French had won, the Manchu Empire swept in and captured Bengal and North-Eastern India. The only dark side for the Manchu was having lost its entire conquered South Asian empire (Burma, Siam, etc) to minor country uprisings. But I saved the best for last. The French invasion of England. England had played things well. The art of playing the English is more than just controlling the valuable trade routes. It is to keep a strong enough force at home to deter a French invasion, and then using whatever forces can be spared to deal a focused blow in some other theatre, like America or India, that is beyond France's ability to counter. However, two things went wrong for England. Not only did the tax revolts in America leave them financially unable to play effectively, but France was played beautifully. They judiciously attacked the English to not only promote their units and gain campaign chits, but cost the British their campaign chits. When the invasion of London took place, it was so beautifully set up that only a '1' would fail, and England was not in a position to quickly retaliate. Want to guess what Neil rolled? I'll give you a clue, it was the same thing he rolled when he tried to align Spain the following turn (a 50/50 chance where a '1' results in a negative reaction). Neil took his bad luck in stride, after all it is just a game. He was even gracious enough to rate the game "4 out of 5." He would play it again, and especially with 4 players, where he thought the game was more balanced. He also agreed that the game rated very well in my latest metric of wargames: "Interesting choices per minute." James also enjoyed the game, but admitted that there may be too many critical "lucky rolls" or "lucky chits" for some people's liking. We totalled up the victory points, and the day was mine. Austria hadn't budged, but the Manchu's Empire controlling interest in India was sufficient for the victory. As a footnote, in an insult-to-injury note, I rolled a lucky '6' and aligned Spain on the last turn. I am convinced we can play an entire 7-turn game with 4 players, provided most of them had played once before, we started right at 10am, and kept the pace up. I will therefore schedule such a game maybe in July or August, if anyone is interested. If you wish to play sooner, James also owns a copy, and Gord still has one copy on sale. If you do play, here are some of my Tips and Tricks: 1. Don't be discouraged if you're losing, it is easy to go from worst-to-first. 2. Don't be encouraged if you're winning, that will just make you a target. 3. Instead, try to maintain a solid treasury, and a strong base in each theatre of relevance. 4. Try to deny the above to your opponents. 5. Beating up minor countries is fun because you get free promotions and campaign chits. 6. Occupying minor countries is no fun because the limits imposed by your force pool will leave you spread too thin. 7. In addition to those limits, the extra cash from minor countries don't really compensate for the cost of the regular uprisings. 8. Consider yourself lucky to draw many generals and admirals early, because they're rarely killed. 9. Trade routes are tremendous sources of both money and victory points. 10. Spain and the Dutch are tremendous sources of trade routes. Don't let your enemies align them! 11. Don't forget to save money for maintenance. 12. Hold onto some of the more critical chits (eg: Illuminati, Correspondence with Voltaire) until you absolutely need them, in order to deny them to your opponents. 13. Soften your enemies by beating up his spread-out forces, costing him campaign chits. 14. A good offensive requires lots of "Force March" chits, to be able to attack repeatedly with the same units. 15. Build costly forts in your most critical spots, then you can ignore retreats. 16. As the British, leave enough in London to deter invasion, and focus remaining forces somewhere outside French reach (America or India). 17. A fleet in Bermuda blocks the French trade route, and allows you to use a base/army for its defense. Same thing for the Dutch Cape Colony and the India trade route. 18. Defending against the British, keep a base away from the coast to avoid their fleet power. 19. You have to be lucky to get a Legion, but the Revolutionary table makes attacks at virtually any odds worthwhile. 20. A space can only be attacked by adjacent spaces, so it is immune to attack if all such spaces are occupied (except by those adjacent units of course) unless the opponent has a force march to clear a path. 21. Having the initiative isn't as good as it sounds - moving last is usually better!