This is a re-print of four previous single games, brought under one cover and given hard mounted boards.

The four battles are Germantown 1777, Monmouth 1778, Newtown 1779 and Oriskany 1777.

This is the ‘Battles of the American Revolution’ Series by GMT, which I have owned before and sold because I was not keen on the swinging results that a D10 combat system brought.

However, I might be changing my mind on such things. Eagles of France does something similar with 2D6, but I have always thought of that system as removing you, the commander, from micro managing the action. So we have the player giving out the general order that might be something like ‘attack that hill over there’ or ‘take that settlement’, but once those wheels are in motion, the commander (player) would have little influence over the actual fighting, the local colonels would be doing that and so perhaps swinging results better reflects that and the frustrations / hopes of the more senior command levels.

Anyway, it is a fine looking game, though it joins many fine games, all begging to be played!

As an aside, I recent bought the Monmouth Courthouse  1778 book from the Osprey Campaign Series, so that should give me something to help embed the history side of things.

With the newly released Tri-Pack 2 (above) picked up the other day, I had a good hunt around for a good copy of the now out of print Tri-Pack 1 and was lucky enough to fall upon this ..... unpunched and in excellent condition.

In addition to the Guilford, Saratoga and Brandywine games listed, the box also includes Eutaw Springs as part of the Guilford campaign.

I had forgotten that when this came out (2017) it included mounted boards.

So now, between the two Tri-Packs, the boardgame collection has gone from having no AWI games, to having 8 solid battles, bound by a set of common series rules.

The game scale is an hour per turn and units are regiments.

I am looking forward to breaking into these.

Against a background of now not having any boardgames that cover the period, I saw this being advertised for release in September.

It is a French magazine and the english version of the rules tend to follow 2 - 3 weeks after release, but in any case, it looks like something that will hit the table sooner rather than later, especially with its stated 2 hour playing time.

EDIT -  This issue has just dropped through the door and the game inside covers the Battle of Cowpens from the American War of Independence.

I only pre-ordered this about 3 weeks ago and paid around £15, which includes the postage from France to the UK.

The quality of the magazine is superb and you get a separate small rule booklet, die cut counters and a small map (double spread). The magazine and rules are in French, so I await the availability of the English rules translation, which normally follows the magazine by around a month.

I don’t really know anything about the system, but note there is a morale track on the map, I like that sort of thing. There are only 13 - 15 units per side and playing time looks to be around 90 - 120 minutes, so I mainly bought it as a short session game for our face to face meetings, plus I have a gap in my AWI game resources.

Judging by the rulebook, there is a fair bit to this, so hopefully a bit of meatiness lays behind what is otherwise a small game.

For those with figures, there are some rather nice AWI scenarios in the magazine covering 1780 - 81, giving the  battles for Camden, Kings Mountain, Cowpens, Guilford Courthouse and Hobkirks Hill. I will get the iPad translator software on these.

More to follow …..

Lee from his YouTube channel has started a project for AWI using NBM rules on a 2.5 x 2.5 foot card table. Of note is his use of magnetic sheet to make roads etc, very effective.

For anyone needing small footprint, fast play, low unit density games, this looks to be a very manageable project. 

LINK

https://youtu.be/r71lCFzXVCo?si=quac9D7cKoU-djlk

EDIT - a link to his blog showing a game in action.

https://napoleonictherapy.blogspot.com/2024/09/peter-pig-awi-range-5-in-action.html