Wilderness War - Playbook

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

SCENARIOS

WILDERNESS WAR has four scenarios:

• Annus Mirabilis (1757-59)—The Tournament Scenario

• Early War Campaign (1755-59)—Intermediate Scenario One

• Late War Campaign (1757-62)—Intermediate Scenario Two

• The Full Campaign (1755-62)—Extended Scenario

The scenarios that begin in the same year use the same counter

setups, and those that end in the same year use the same victory

conditions (see rule 13.1 How to Win).

Map Setup Abbreviations

As an aid to setting up, spaces on the game map are marked with

abbreviated setup instructions for 1757 (the starting point of Annus

Mirabilis and the Late War Campaign). Abbreviations are:

C: Coureurs

F: Fort

HL: Highland (4-4)

I: Indian

Ldr: Leader

MD: Marine Detachment (1-4)

Mil: Militia

P: Provinicial

R: Regular (3-4)

RA: Royal American (4-4)

Ra: Ranger

S: Stockade

Fort Under Construction

Note that the setup for the 1755 scenarios (the Early War Campaign

and the Full Campaign) differs from these markings on the map.

Unit Designations

The designations for the 3-4 Regulars, Rangers, and Coureurs are

for historical interest only—it is not necessary to set up units by

designation, as long as the right quantities and types are placed.

This is also true for the Provinicials, as long as Northern and

Southern units are discriminated. Indian units, however, must be

set up according to tribal name.

Set up all units at full strength.

Annus Mirabilis (1757-59)

Tournament Scenario

HISTORICAL NOTE: The British called 1759 the “Year of Mir-

acles” (in Latin, Annus Mirabilis) because the victory bells in

London that year seemed never to cease ringing. The British in

1759 captured French forts Carillon, St-Frédéric, and Niagara. In

Germany, they and their Hanoverian allies defeated a French army

at the Battle of Minden. Most importantly, General Wolfe took

Québec while Admiral Hawke broke the French fleet at Quiberon

Bay—these last events all but sealing the fate of Canada.

Length of Game

This scenario focuses in on the period of transition (historically)

from French to British ascendancy. It begins at the British low-

point in the war, 1757, and continues through the end of 1759,

when (historically) British victory was all but ensured.

This scenario involves just six hands of cards and can be com-

pleted in two to three hours. Play begins with the first French Ac-

tion Phase of Early Season 1757 and ends after Late Season 1759

(barring an earlier Sudden Death Victory).

Cards

Use only cards #1-62.

Set aside cards #63-70, which are marked “1755 scenarios.” They

are not used in this scenario. They are:

• One French Regulars

• One British Regulars

• one 1-value Highlanders

• Royal Americans

• Acadians Expelled

• William Pitt

• Diplomatic Revolution

• Intrigues Against Shirley

Then shuffle the deck and deal each player nine cards—the number

each will receive each season of this scenario (unless the British

play Quiberon to reduce the French hand to seven cards).

PLAY NOTE: As indicated on the Highlanders cards, preconditions

to play the Highlanders events apply only in the 1755 scenarios. In

this scenario (and in the Late War scenario), the British player is

allowed to play Highlanders events whenever he receives them. In

this and the Late War scenarios, the William Pitt and Diplomatic

Revolution Events are considered already to have occurred. Thus,

both players receive nine cards, and Highlanders, Amherst, Forbes

and Wolfe are available.

Markers

• “VP” at French 4.

• “Season - French First” on Early Season 1757.

• “Provincial Assemblies” at Supportive.

• “French Allied” at Mingo Town, Logstown, Pays d’en Haut,

Mississauga.

Important: The PITT event has occurred, so the Highlanders

events may be played.

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

Setup

This scenario uses the setup information marked on the map.

French Forts

• Ticonderoga (Fort Carillon)

• Crown Point (Fort St-Frédéric)

• Niagara (Fort Niagara)

• Ohio Forks (Fort Duquesne)

French Stockades

• Île-aux-Noix (Fort Île-aux-Noix)

• St-Jean (Forts Chambly and St-Jean)

• Oswegatchie (La Galette and La Présentation)

• Cataraqui (Fort Frontenac)

• Toronto (Fort Rouillé)

• Presqu’île (Fort Presqu’île)

• French Creek (Fort Le Boeuf)

• Venango (Fort Machault)

French Leaders and Units

• Louisbourg: Drucour, 3 x 3-4 Regulars (Marine, Artois, Bour-

gogne), 1 x Coureurs (Boishébert Acadian)

• Québec: Lévis, 3 x 3-4 Regulars (Marine, Guyenne, La Reine)

• Montréal: Montcalm, Vaudreuil, 2 x 3-4 Regulars (Béarn, La-

Sarre), 1 x Coureurs (Repentigny), Huron, Potawatomi, Ojibwa,

Mississauga

• Crown Point: 1 x 1-4 (Marine Detachment), 1 x Coureurs

(Perière)

• Ticonderoga: Rigaud, Bougainville, 2 x 3-4 Regulars (Langued-

oc, Royal Roussillon), 1 x Coureurs (Marin)

• Cataraqui: Villiers, 1 x 1-4 (Marine Detachment), 1 x Coureurs

(Léry)

• Niagara: 1 x 1-4 (Marine Detachment), 1 x Coureurs (Joncaire)

• Presqu’île: 1 x 1-4 (Marine Detachment)

• French Creek: 1 x 1-4 (Marine Detachment)

• Venango: 1 x Coureurs (Langlade)

• Ohio Forks: Dumas, 2 x 1-4 (Marine Detachment), 1 x Coureurs

(Ligneris)

• Logstown: 1 x Shawnee

• Mingo Town: 1 x Mingo

Important: Leaders Dieskau and Beaujeu are not used in this sce-

nario.

British Forts

• Hudson Carry South (Fort Edward)

• Hudson Carry North (Fort William Henry)

• Will’s Creek (Fort Cumberland)

• Shamokin (Fort Augusta)

British Forts Under Construction

• Winchester (Fort Loudoun)

• Shepherd’s Ferry (Fort Frederick)

British Stockades

• Schenectady (Forts Johnson and Hunter)

• Hoosic (Fort Massachusetts)

• Charlestown (Fort No.4)

• Augusta and Woodstock (Virginia fortification line)

• Carlisle, Harris’s Ferry, Lancaster, Reading and Easton (Penn-

sylvania fortification line)

British Leaders and Units

• Winchester: 1 x 2-4 Southern Provincials (Virginia)

• Shepherd’s Ferry: 1 x 2-4 Southern Provincials (Maryland)

• Carlisle: 1 x 2-4 Southern Provincials (Pennsylvania)

• Shamokin: 1 x 2-4 Southern Provincials (Pennsylvania)

• Philadelphia: 1 x 4-4 Royal Americans (1/60th)

• New York: Loudoun, Abercromby, 3 x 3-4 Regulars (22nd, 27th,

35th), 3 x 4-4 Royal Americans (2/60th, 3/60th, 4/60th)

• Albany: Dunbar, 2 x 3-4 Regulars (44th, 48th)

• Hudson Carry South: Webb, 1 x Rangers (Rogers), 3 x 2-4 North-

ern Provincials (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island)

• Hudson Carry North: 2 x 2-4 Northern Provincials (New Hamp-

shire, New Jersey)

• Schenectady: Johnson, 1 x 2-4 Northern Provincials (New York),

1 x 4-4 Highland (1/42nd)

• Halifax: Monckton, 3 x 3-4 Regulars (40th, 45th, 47th)

• Southern Militias: 1 x Colonial Militia

Leader Pool: Place Amherst, Bradstreet, Forbes, Murray and Wolfe

into an opaque container so that they can be drawn randomly.

Important: Braddock and Shirley are not used in this scenario.

Early War Campaign (1755-59)

Intermediate Scenario One

Length of Game

This scenario uses the same victory conditions as Annus Mirabilis

but begins with the landing at Alexandria of two British regiments

from Ireland and the arrival of six French army battalions at Lou-

isbourg and Québec. These regular reinforcements signalled the

onset in 1755 of direct conflict in America between British and

French crown.

The formal, European war has not yet begun and fewer forces are

available than in the 1757 scenarios. Montcalm has yet to arrive,

for example, and Pennsylvania and Virginia have not yet construct-

ed their border defenses.

Play begins with the first French Action Phase of Early Season

1755 and ends after Late Season 1759 (barring an earlier Sudden

Death). It should take (at most) five hours to complete.

Cards

Use all cards (#1-70). Shuffle and deal each player eight cards—the

number each player will receive each season, until certain events

that may increase either player’s hand size to nine cards or de-

crease the French hand to seven cards.

Markers

• “VP” at 0.

• “Season - French First” on Early Season 1755.

• “Provincial Assemblies” at Supportive.

• “French Allied” at Pays d’en Haut, Kahnawake and St-Fran-

çois.

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

• “British Allied” at Canajoharie.

Setup

The setup for this scenario differs from the 1757 setup shown on

the map.

French Forts

Crown Point (Fort St-Frédéric)

Niagara (Fort Niagara)

Ohio Forks (Fort Duquesne)

French Stockades

• Île-aux-Noix (Fort Île-aux-Noix)

• St-Jean (Forts Chambly and St-Jean)

• Oswegatchie (La Galette and La Présentation)

• Cataraqui (Fort Frontenac)

• Toronto (Fort Rouillé)

• Presqu’île (Fort Presqu’île)

• French Creek (Fort Le Boeuf)

• Venango (Fort Machault)

French Leaders and Units

• Louisbourg: Drucour, 3 x 3-4 Regulars (Marine, Artois, Bour-

gogne)

• Québec: Dieskau, Vaudreuil, 4 x 3-4 Regulars (Béarn, Guyenne,

La Reine, Languedoc)

• Montréal: Rigaud, 1 x 3-4 Regulars (Marine), 2 x Coureurs (Re-

pentigny, Perière), 1 x Caughnawaga, 1 x Abenaki

• Île-aux-Noix: 1 x 1-4 (Marine Detachment)

• Crown Point: 1 x 1-4 (Marine Detachment), 1 x Coureurs

(Marin)

• Cataraqui: Villiers, 1 x 1-4 (Marine Detachment), 1 x Coureurs

(Léry)

• Niagara: 1 x 1-4 (Marine Detachment), 1 x Coureurs (Joncaire)

• Presqu’île: 1 x 1-4 (Marine Detachment)

• French Creek: 1 x 1-4 (Marine Detachment)

• Venango: 1 x Coureurs (Langlade)

• Ohio Forks: Beaujeu, Dumas, 1 x 1-4 (Marine Detachment), 1 x

Coureurs (Ligneris), Ottawa, Potawatomi

Important: Place Leaders Montcalm, Lévis, and Bougainville

aside. They enter with the first French Regulars event.

British Forts

• Hudson Carry South (Fort Lyman, aka Fort Edward)

• Will’s Creek (Fort Cumberland)

• Oswego (Fort Oswego)

British Stockades

• Oneida Carry West (Fort Bull)

• Oneida Carry East (Fort Williams)

• Schenectady (Forts Johnson & Hunter)

• Hoosic (Fort Massachusetts)

• Charlestown (Fort No.4)

British Leaders and Units

• Oswego: 1 x 2-4 Northern Provincials (New York)

• Albany: Shirley, Johnson, 5 x 2-4 Northern Provincials (Rhode

Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, 2 x Massachusetts), 2 x

Mohawk

• Halifax: Monckton, 1 x 3-4 Regulars (47th)

• Alexandria: Braddock, Dunbar, 2 x 3-4 Regular (44th, 48th)

• Will’s Creek: 2 x 2-4 Southern Provincials (Virginia, Maryland)

Leader Pool: Place Abercromby, Bradstreet, Loudoun, Murray

and Webb into an opaque container so that they can be drawn ran-

domly.

Important: Place Amherst, Forbes, and Wolfe aside: they are not

available until the William Pitt event or 1759. Once the Pitt event

is played or at the beginning of 1759, place Amherst, Wolfe and

Forbes into the British leader pool.

Late War Campaign (1757-62)

Intermediate Scenario Two

This scenario uses the setup information marked on the map.

Length of Game

This scenario begins with the North American conflict in full gear

(as in Annus Mirabilis), but allows play to extend beyond the date

of Canada’s historical surrender (late 1760). The presumption is

that—without Britain’s spectacular victories in 1759 and 1760—

fighting could have continued until a European peace came within

sight in late 1762.

Play begins with Early Season 1757 and ends after Late Season

1762, barring a Sudden Death. This scenario could take as long as

five hours to complete if it goes all the way to 1762.

Cards

Use the same card deck preparation as found in the Tournament

Scenario, Annus Mirabilis.

Markers and Setup Use the same setup of units and markers as is

found in the Tournament Scenario, Annus Mirabilis.

The Full Campaign (1755-62)

Extended Scenario

Length of Game

This scenario covers the full period of general conflict in North

America.

Play begins with Early Season 1755 and ends after Late Season

1762 (barring an earlier Sudden Death). If it goes the full distance,

it may take as long as eight hours.

Cards

Use all 70 cards. Shuffle and deal each player eight cards—the

number each player will receive each season, until certain events

which may increase or decrease a player’s hand size.

Markers and Setup

Use the same setup of units and markers as is found in the Early

War Campaign Scenario.

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

Wilderness Battle

The Monongahela, 1755

The British player, having previously constructed a stockade at

Gist’s Station to provide a line of retreat, activates Braddock (2-

7-0) with a 2-value card and moves him with Dunbar (3-5-0), the

44th and 48th regiments (both 3-4), and two Virginia, one Mary-

land and one Pennsylvania regiment (four 2-4s) from Gist’s to

Ohio Forks—intent on besieging Fort Duquesne.

The French player decides to defend outside the fort, in order to

take advantage of his Auxiliaries in the wilderness—and of an Am-

bush! card he is holding. His force includes Beaujeu (1-2-1), Du-

mas (1-2-1), a Marine Detachment (1-4), a Coureurs des bois unit

(1-6) and three Indian units (all 1-6).

He plays Ambush! (which goes to the discard pile), allowing him to

fire first with doubled strength (5x2=10). He rolls a 6 (resulting in

a leader loss check), modified (+1 for Beaujeu’s tactics) to be less

than or equal to 7 on the 9-12 column on the Combat Results Table

(CRT). The result is 4 step losses.

The result means that the British player must reduce four units, so

he flips all his units but two of the Provincials. He then rolls once

for each leader to see if they are killed. Braddock rolls a 1 (he is

eliminated) and Dunbar a 3.

The British now return fire with a strength of 10 (four 2-4s and

two 1- 4s). The roll is a 1 (a leader loss check) modified –1 for

only Regulars and Provincials battling Auxiliaries in the Wilder-

ness. The “<0” row on the 9-12 column shows one step loss. The

French player flips the Marine Detachment (the first loss must be

from Drilled Troops) and rolls for Beaujeu, who is killed on a roll

of 1, and Dumas, who survives on a 2.

The French won (one step loss to four British steps) and so the

British must retreat to the friendly stockade at Gist’s Station. (If

no fortification were there, the six British Drilled units would be

eliminated and Dunbar retreated alone.) The French receive 1 VP

for defeating a force including Regulars (or consisting of more

than four units) in a field battle.

Raids on the Frontier

The Shenandoah Valley, 1756

It is the beginning of the Early Season of 1756. The French play-

er notes that the frontier of the Southern Department colonies is

sparsely defended, and decides to score some VPs with a series of

Indian raids. He has a fort at Ohio Forks, and so can play a West-

ern Indian Alliance event. He rolls a “3” and—having fewer than

5 VPs at the moment—must halve the roll and round up, placing

two new Indian units in their settlements. He also has a fort at Ni-

agara, so could choose Pays d’en Haut Indians, but selects instead

a Mingo unit and a Shawnee unit, placing them at Mingo Town

and Logstown, respectively, where he also places “French Allied”

markers.

The British player responds in his Action Phase by playing a Call

Out Militias event to place one full strength Colonial Militia unit

in the Southern Militias box.

The French player plays a 2-value card to individually activate the

two new Indian units (each count half a point to activate), plus

Dumas (1-2-1), who is at Ohio Forks. He moves the two units and

the leader each individually via Upper Monongahela to Allegheny

South.

COMBAT EXAMPLES

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

With the threat to Virginia evident, the British player uses a 2-value

card to build stockades at Augusta and Winchester. (There is al-

ready a Virginia Provincial unit at Woodstock.)

The French player uses a 1-value card to activate Dumas and the

two Indian units as a force and moves them to Augusta to raid

the stockade. (The French player could have individually activated

Indian units—or moved just one unit under Dumas—to Infiltrate

through Augusta to Culpeper, and the Provincial in Woodstock

could have attempted to Intercept into Augusta and/or Culpeper

and force a Battle.)

Because the raid target is an unoccupied stockade in cultivated ter-

rain, a Militia unit from the corresponding box may be deployed

to bring about a Battle. The British player decides to deploy his

new Colonial Militia unit to the Augusta stockade, so Dumas’ force

must attack.

On the CRT, the French are on the 2 column (DRMs of +1 for Du-

mas’ tactics and –1 for the stockade cancel out). The British are on

the 1 column. Each player rolls a 4, each causing one step loss. The

reduced Militia unit returns to the Southern Colonial Militia box.

The French player reduces the Mingo Indian unit to 0-6 and must

retreat Dumas’ force back to Allegheny South (tied results without

eliminating the defender mean the attacker loses).

The British player has another Call Out Militias event in his hand

and plays it to place a second Militia unit in the Southern Colonial

Militia box.

The French player is content to keep the British distracted and on

the defensive, and so with another 1-value card again activates Du-

mas’ force to repeat the strike on Augusta.

The British player deploys his new full-strength Militia unit to the

stockade, but this time only the French player scores a 1-step loss

on the CRT. The reduced Militia unit returns to its box and Dumas’

force remains in Augusta to carry out its raid.

The French Raid receives a +1 for Dumas’ tactics and a –1 be-

cause the target space is within a Department with at least two

militia units in its box. The French roll a 5 on the Stockade/Set-

tlement column—a Success and one step loss. The stockade is

eliminated and a Raided marker is placed in Augusta. The French

player decides to eliminate the already reduced Mingo unit. All

who participated in the raid must Go Home. The French player

decides to have the surviving Shawnee unit accompany Dumas

back to the fort at Ohio Forks.

Assuming the French place no additional Raided counters, the

Raided marker at Augusta will be worth 1 VP (half a VP, rounded

up) when it is removed at year end.

Amphibious Landing

Gabarus Bay and Louisbourg, 1758

The British player uses a 3-value card to activate a large force of

units and leaders under Amherst in Halifax, then plays an Amphibi-

ous Landing card to allow it to perform a naval move to French-

controlled Louisbourg and to place an Amphib marker there.

Louisbourg is occupied by Drucour and five French Regular units.

The French player decides to defend outside the fortress with this

force, in hopes of throwing the British back to Halifax and in order

to use a Fieldworks card he is holding, so a Battle occurs. In the

Battle, the British roll is modified by –1 for attacking amphibiously

and shifts one column left for the French Fieldworks marker.

If the British lost, they would retreat to Halifax (the space from

which they entered the Battle), the Amphib marker would be re-

moved, the Fieldworks marker would remain, and the French

would receive 1 VP for winning a Battle against a force that in-

cludes either Regulars or more than four units.

In this case, however, the British win the battle, and so the surviv-

ing French force must retreat into the fortress (there is no adjacent

space, and only the British may retreat by sea—and then only if

they have an Amphib marker). The British receive 1 VP for win-

ning a Battle against Regulars or more than four units, the Field-

works marker is removed, and a “Siege 0” marker is placed.

The space is now besieged and controlled by neither side. If the

French player were holding the Louisbourg Squadrons card, he

could no longer play it as an event because of the contested control

of Louisbourg.

Despite the contested control—and because of the Amphib mark-

er—the British could naval move additional forces to Louisbourg

from any other British port without another Amphibious Landing

card, or could naval move besieging units from Louisbourg to any

British port (including Halifax).

The British cannot, however, carry out an Amphibious Landing at

the three approaches to Québec until they capture the fortress at

Louisbourg and thereby control the Louisbourg space, because an

Amphibious Landing must come from a port they control.

If the British succeed in capturing the fortress before year end, they

will receive 3 VPs and be immune to Attrition there. However, if

the siege continues at yearend, both the French and British there

will suffer Attrition.

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

Battle Outside a Fortress

The Plains of Abraham, 1759

An army under Wolfe (1-6-2) is ensconced at Île d’Orléans on an

Amphib marker and a stockade, having been repulsed in a recent

movement into Québec. The British player activates the force

under Wolfe with a 1-value card. The force includes Murray (1-

5-0), Monckton (2-5-0), one full-strength 4-4 (one of the 78th

Highlanders), three full strength 3-4s (the 35th, 43rd and 48th),

three reduced-strength (3-4) Regulars (the other 78th, the 2/60th

and the 3/60th), four reduced (2-4) Regulars (the 15th, 28th, 47th

and 58th), a 2-6 Light Infantry unit (Howe’s) and a 2-6 Ranger

unit (Goreham)—a total of 34 strength points. The British player

moves the entire force into the Québec space. (For convenience, all

these leaders and units are in the Wolfe box, and only Wolfe moved

from the Île d’Orléans space to Québec.)

The French force at Québec already has a Fieldworks marker and

consists of Montcalm (1-6-2), Vaudreuil (3-5-0), Bougainville (1-

3-0), three full strength Regulars (the Royal Roussillon, Langued-

oc and La Sarre Regulars), three reduced (2-4) Regulars (Béarn,

Guyenne and a Marine unit); two reduced (0-6) Coureurs des bois

units and four full strength (1-6) Indian units (Ottawa, Huron, Al-

gonquin and Caughnawaga). The French player— not wanting to

leave any of this army bottled up inside the fortress, and wanting to

take advantage of his Fieldworks and a strong militia— decides to

defend outside with the entire force. A battle results.

The French player has four full strength Canadian Militia units (4

x 1-0) in the St. Lawrence Militia Box, and he decides to deploy

all of them to Québec for the battle, giving his force a total combat

strength of 23.

(He could not deploy them for the battle if there were any Raided”

markers in the St.Lawrence Department at that time, but earlier

raids by the British rangers into Baie-St-Paul and Rivière-Ouelle

failed.)

The British player plays a Fieldworks card, removing the French

Fieldworks marker (representing his army finding a way around

them). Neither player is holding any other response events (with a

brown background around its name).

The only modifiers are for the tactics ratings of each commander,

in this case +2 for each side for Montcalm and Wolfe. The British

player rolls on the >28 column and the French player the 22-27 col-

umn of the CRT, each adding +2 to the die roll. The British player

rolls a 6, resulting in eight French step losses and an leader check.

The French player rolls a 1, resulting in four British step losses and

a leader check as well.

The French player must flip his three full-strength Regulars and

eliminate one reduced Regulars, plus flip four other units, and in

this case he chooses the four Militia units. He must roll a check for

each of his leaders. Rolling a 1, Montcalm is killed (removed).

The British player must flip two of his full-strength Regulars plus

two other full-strength units, in this case choosing the Light Infan-

try unit and an additional Regular unit. The British player rolls for

each of his leaders. Rolling a 1, Wolfe is killed.

The French lost and must retreat. All militia are returned to the St.

Lawrence Militia box. The French could retreat into the fortress,

but the French player still wishes to avoid committing his main

army to a siege and so retreats to Bécancour, a cultivated space.

The British receive 1 VP for winning a field battle against Regulars

or more than four units. A “Siege 0” marker is placed on the Qué-

bec fortress, which will defend itself even though empty of units,

until taken by Siege and Assault (or a Surrender! event).

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

The Year 1757

A good way to learn how to play WILDERNESS WAR is to set up

and follow along with this full description of a sample year of the

game.

Two players have decided to play the tournament scenario, Annus

Mirabilis. They choose sides and agree not to use any Optional

Rules.

They place the units and leaders according to the scenario setup,

opting for convenience to ignore the historical designations, but

making sure to select the right types of units.

To be able to spread out the units more, they place Vaudreuil and

the units at Montréal in the Montcalm box, leaving only Montcalm

in the Montréal space. The French player also places Bougainville

and the units at Ticonderoga in the Rigaud box, for the same rea-

son. Likewise, Abercromby and the units at New York City are in

Loudoun’s box.

They place the “Provincial Assemblies” marker at “Supportive,”

the VP marker on the French section of the VP Track at 4, and the

Season marker on Early Season 1757, “French First” side up.

They prepare the deck, removing the eight cards that say “1755

scenarios” (#63 to #70), which are events considered to have been

played and removed (occurred historically) during 1755 or 1756.

Then one player shuffles and begins the first season, Early Season

1757, by dealing each player nine cards. The players receive the

following hands (card Activation values are in brackets [#]).

French Hand

#14 Foul Weather [2]

#24 Northern Indian Alliance [2]

#32 Treaty of Easton [2]

#36 François Bigot [2]

#37 British Ministerial Crisis [3]

#41 British Colonial Politics [3]

#44 Raise Provincial Regiments [2]

#46 Colonial Recruits [2]

#48 Victories in Germany [3]

British Hand

#5 Bastions Repaired [1]

#12 Ambush! [1]

#17 Amphibious Landing [1]

#22 Governor Vaudreuil Interferes [3]

#28 Iroquois Alliance [3]

#31 Cherokee Uprising [3]

#38 Provincial Regiments Dispersed for Frontier Duty [2]

#57 British Regulars [3]

#59 British Regulars [3]

Play then begins with alternating Actions Phases (card plays) start-

ing with the French.

At Start Situation

EXTENDED EXAMPLE OF PLAY

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

French Action Phase One

Hoping to prevent the arrival of Brit-

ish reinforcements, the French player

begins with play of #37 British Minis-

terial Crisis as an Event. Of the cards

listed on the Event, the British player

is holding only two British Regulars

and so must discard one of them. (If he

had had none of the cards on the list,

the French event would have had no ef-

fect.) Cards #37 and #57 both go into a

discard pile.

British Action Phase One

The British player now takes an Action

Phase, choosing to enter reinforcements,

playing his remaining British Regulars

(#59) as an Event. He first draws a leader

randomly from the British leader pool

(which, at this point, consists of five lead-

ers), drawing Murray. He then enters one

new 3-4 unit at New York City (placing

it in the Loudoun box), and Murray and

two more 3-4s at Halifax, to add to the

threat to Louisbourg. Because card #59

says “REMOVE” and has been played as

an Event, it is removed from the game

rather than placed in the discard pile.

French Action Phase Two

The French player could move Lévis’

force from Québec to Louisbourg, to

respond to the British build up at Hali-

fax, but he decides to rely on his Foul

Weather response card to block a Brit-

ish amphibious strike, and therefore in-

stead plays #24 Northern Indian Alli-

ance to build up his own strike force in

the Champlain region. He rolls one die (a

4), and because he has less than 5 VPs,

halves the result to 2. He chooses two

units—an Algonquin and a Caughnawa-

ga—and enters them at their settlements, Lac des Deux Montagnes

and Kahnawake, respectively. He also places French Allied mark-

ers on these two settlements to show that they are now susceptible

to British raids. Card #24 goes to the Discard Pile.

British Action Phase Two

The British player, holding an Amphibious Landing event and seeing

that the enemy has made no effort to reinforce Louisbourg, decides

on a serious effort to seize that fortress. He plays #31 [3] to activate

a force under Loudoun. (Even though the card has a French-only

Event, either player can use it for Activation or Construction.) The

card allows the activation of even a 3-initiative leader like Loud-

oun and also enables a force to perform a Naval Move. The Brit-

ish player designates Abercromby as subordinate (Abercromby’s

command value is no higher than Loudoun’s). Together, Loudoun

and Abercromby’s force activation limit is 14—more than enough

to command the three 4-4 and four 3-4 units at New York City.

Nevertheless, as not all these units will be needed for a maximum

strength attack on Louisbourg, the British player opts to leave one

4-4 Royal American and one 3-4 Regular at New York City, as a

reserve for the Hudson River corridor. He Naval Moves the two

leaders and the other five units to Halifax, a British port. (Because

the force was already in the Loudoun box, the player can simply

move Loudoun to Halifax, being sure to move one 4-4 and one 3-4

from the Loudoun box to New York City.)

French Action Phase Three

Despite the overwhelming force at Halifax, the French player press-

es on with his plans in the interior. He plays #44 [2] to individually

activate the Algonquin and Caughnawaga units (which each count

for half an activation), plus a leader, Montcalm. The Indian units

and Montcalm individually move to Ticonderoga (Fort Carillon),

using boat movement. Because Montcalm has left Montréal with-

out the units there, the player moves the units in the Montcalm box

to the Vaudreuil box and places Vaudreuil at Montréal.

French Action Phase 3: Montcalm arrives at Ticonderoga.

British Action Phase Three

The British player responds to the threat to the Hudson Carry by

playing #22 Governor Vaudreuil Interferes as an Event. He could

choose any two French leaders to switch. He chooses Montcalm

and Vaudreuil. The French player must place Vaudreuil at Ticond-

eroga and Montcalm at Montréal (shifting the units in Vaudreuil’s

box back into Montcalm’s box).

British Action #2: Loudon, Abercromby and five units naval move

to Halifax.

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

French Action Phase Four

The French player could use another card to move Montcalm back

into position, but decides instead that the force already at Ticond-

eroga is sufficient and plays #32 [2] to activate Rigaud—with Bou-

gainville, two Regulars, one Coureurs and two Indian units—and

moves the force (it is irrelevant whether by land or boat) into Hud-

son Carry North (Fort William Henry). Vaudreuil stays behind, be-

cause his initiative rating is too high for him to have been activated

with a [2] card and his command rating is too high to be a subordi-

nate to Rigaud. (Bougainville and all the units remain in Rigaud’s

box and the player simply moves Rigaud to the new space.)

The French force has entered a British-occupied space and must

stop. (The force is more than a lone auxiliary unit and so cannot

Infiltrate.) The British player must decide whether to attempt to

Avoid Battle out of the space, or Intercept into it, or neither. With-

out a leader in the space, only one of the two Provincial units there

could Avoid. Up to all four units with Webb—adjacent at Hudson

Carry South (Fort Edward)— could attempt to Intercept. However,

the British player does not want to commit to a large battle (los-

ing a battle involving more than four friendly units costs a Victory

Point). He decides to reinforce William Henry with only a single

unit, in this case, the Rangers. The Interception succeeds (roll of 4),

and the Rangers unit at Hudson Carry South is placed at Hudson

Carry North, and the French will attack at least the Rangers in a

battle.

Now the British player must decide whether the two Provincial

units will defend outside the fort along with the Rangers, or remain

inside. The British player decides to risk the units in a field battle—

in part because he risks no VPs with his small force, while a victory

would earn 1 VP, because the French force contains Regulars (and,

even if it had no Regulars, it has more than four units).

The players resolve the battle. The attacker (the French) has no

events that can be used in the battle. The British are holding an Am-

bush! event, but cannot play it because the French have more aux-

iliaries (two Indian and one Coureurs units) than the British (one

Rangers unit) in the battle. Players consult the Combat Results

Table (CRT) and each rolls one die. The French have nine strength

points and the British have six. There are no die roll modifiers

(DRMs): the space is wilderness, but both sides have auxiliaries;

and the French commander, Rigaud, has a tactical rating of 0. The

French player rolls a 3 for a result of two step losses on the Brit-

ish. The British player rolls a 4, resulting in two step losses on the

French. The British flip their two Provincial units to their reduced

sides (wishing to preserve the more valuable Rangers). The first

French casualty must be a Drilled unit, so the French player flips

one 3-4 Regular and then flips the Algonquin Indian unit. No one

rolled a natural 1 or 6, so there are no leader loss checks. Because

the defender wins a tie, Rigaud and his force must retreat whence

they came, to their fort at Ticonderoga, and the British receive a

VP, sliding the VP marker to French 3.

British Action Phase Four

The British player decides to draw on his reserve at New York City

to beef up the defense of William Henry. He plays #12 [1] to indi-

vidually activate the 4-4 Royal American. He uses boat movement

to bring the 4-4 up the Hudson river to Hudson Carry South, then

across the portage to Hudson Carry North. The French player could

have used the Foul Weather card he is holding to slow down the

Royal Americans, but holds it to block a prospective attack on Lou-

isbourg. French Interception at Hudson Carry North is not possible

because the space is already occupied by the British.

The 4-4 Royal American reinforces the British position at Hudson

Carry North.

French Action Phase Five

Having botched his attack on Lake George, the French player de-

cides to take advantage of political conflicts between the British

crown and its colonies to pressure their frontiers. He plays #41

British Colonial Politics as an Event. The Provincial Assemblies

marker is moved one box in the direction of the French edge of

the map, from Supportive to Reluctant. The British player finds

that he has only six Northern Provincials on the map—still within

the Northern limit—but must remove two Southern units to keep

within their new limit of two. He chooses to eliminate Southern

units at Shamokin and Shepherd’s Ferry.

Rigaud attacks Hudson Carry North with 9 SPs. The British player

successfully interecepts and sends the Rangers as reinforcements.

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

British Action Phase Five

The British player notes the thinning

of his defenses in the south, but never-

theless attempts to seize the initiative

by launching his major operation for

the season—an amphibious assault on

Louisbourg. He plays #28 [3] and states

that he is activating all leaders and units

at Halifax in a force under Loudoun.

The French player can see what’s com-

ing and immediately—before the Brit-

ish player moves his force—plays #14

Foul Weather (the Event’s name has a

brown background around it, and there-

fore can be played as a response in the middle of an Action Phase).

The British force is prevented from any Naval Move, and therefore

is stuck at Halifax for its activation.

French Action Phase Six

The French player now suspects that his opponent is indeed hold-

ing an Amphibious Landing card. The question remains whether

either of the other two cards in the British hand are 3-value cards

that could allow a Naval Move by more than an individual unit.

The French player decides to risk that possibility, to ignore the

maritime threat, and to press his border war on the British colonies.

He plays #36 [2] for individual activation of the Huron and Missis-

sauga (one activation point)—which each perform Boat Movement

(representing canoes, of course) along the seven spaces from Mon-

tréal to Oneida Carry West—and the Shawnee and Mingo units

(the second activation point)—which move to Allegheny South,

where they must stop. The British provincial at Winchester—a

Drilled unit—cannot intercept individual Auxiliary units entering

Allegheny South because the space is mountain.

French Action #6 moves four Indian units at the cost of 2 Activa-

tion Points

British Action Phase Six

Fresh out of 3-value cards, the British player must wait for the next

season before launching his naval assault. Instead he responds to

the threat to Virginia by playing #5 for Construction, completing

the fort at Winchester (Fort Loudoun)—where there is an in-supply

Drilled unit (the Southern Provincial)—so as to free up the South-

ern unit there for interception, chasing, or blocking the Shawnee

and Mingo.

French Action Phase Seven

The French play #46 [2] to activate the same four Indian units as

in the previous French phase. (He tilts the four unit counters as a

reminder of which units he activated, as he carries out the actions

of each in succession). (See illustration on next page.)

a) The Mingo Infiltrate through the stockade space Augusta (rather

than Woodstock, so as to avoid possible Interception from Win-

chester) into Culpeper. Having ended movement in an enemy cul-

tivated space, the unit must Raid and rolls on the cultivated column

of the Raid Table. There are no modifiers (there is only one unit in

the Southern Colonial Militias box). The French player rolls a 4—a

failed Raid and one step loss. He flips the Mingo and places him in

his home settlement, Mingo Town.

b) The Shawnee repeats the Infiltration and Raid against Culpeper,

rolling a 5—a Successful raid and one step loss. A Raided marker

is placed at Culpeper; the Shawnee unit is flipped and placed in

Logstown.

c) Next, the Huron at Oneida Carry West move by land through

Oneida Castle, Canajoharie and Schoharie—and daringly attempt

to Infiltrate the Albany space into Kinderhook. (Indian settlements

are no hindrance to movement; the Drilled units at Schenectady

and Albany cannot Intercept the lone Auxiliary Huron in any of

the traversed wilderness spaces; and the Huron auxiliary can enter

an enemy fortress space because it is attempting to Infiltrate.) The

British player can now attempt an Intercept in Albany with any one

unit or force in Albany, Schenectady or Hudson Carry South. He

does not want to redeploy any units, so attempts with a Regular at

Albany (but fails on a roll of 3). The Huron has passed through an

enemy cultivated space (Albany) and so must stop at Kinderhook,

where it Raids. The roll is a 6—a Success with no loss. A Raided

marker is placed in the space and the lucky Huron unit goes home

to Pays d’en Haut.

d) Finally, the Mississauga move by land due south to Station

Point, then East Delaware, and into the stockade space of Easton.

They cannot Infiltrate into Trenton or Reading because they are

out of movement points. Because the would-be raiders have ended

in an otherwise empty stockade space in the Southern Department

(Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania), the British may deploy a

Militia unit from that Department’s Militias box to Easton to force

a battle before the Raid attempt (unlike joining a battle involv-

ing other British units, which would be prohibited by the Raided

marker at Culpeper—note the distinction between rules 7.3 and

10.2). The Mississauga must attack the Militia in a battle, suffering

a –1 DRM because the Militia have a stockade. Both sides roll on

the 1 column of the CRT, in this case the Mississauga and Militia

each achieve no effect. With the result a tie, the Mississauga at-

tacker, having lost the battle, must retreat to East Delaware. The

Militia units returns to the Southern Militias box. If East Delaware

were a cultivated space, a raid attempt would ensue there, but it is

wilderness.

British Action Phase Seven

In his Action Phase, the British player cannot build any stockades

in response to the Raids (construction is not allowed with two cards

in a row). There are no longer any Indians nearby to chase off with

the Provincial at Winchester. So, he continues to reinforce William

Henry by activating the 3-4 Regular at New York City with #38 [2]

and boat moving it to Hudson Carry North. (A 2- or 3-value card

can individually activate only one Drilled unit.)

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

French Action Phase Eight

The French player plays his final card, #48 Victories in Germany,

as an Event. He has only one reduced Regular unit, in the Rigaud

box (meaning, at Ticonderoga), and flips it back to full strength.

British Action Phase Eight

The British player decides to hold his last card, #17 Amphibious

Landing, for the next season, to guarantee he will have such an

Event available for the planned assault on Louisbourg. He places

the British Card Held marker on the Early Season 1757 space of

the Year track as a reminder that he will not be permitted to so hold

a card in the following season.

Late Season 1757

The Season marker is advanced to Late Season 1757 and new cards

are dealt until each player again holds nine cards.

French Hand

#1 Campaign [3]

#2 Campaign [3]

#8 Coehorns [1]

#16 George Croghan [1]

#21 Louisbourg Squadrons [3]

#26 Western Indian Alliance [2]

#34 Small Pox [3]

#35 Courier Intercepted! [3]

#56 French Regulars [3]

British Hand

Held: #17 Amphibious Landing [1]

#4 Campaign [3]

#6 Surrender! [3]

#7 Massacre! [1]

#43 Raise Provincial Regiments [2]

#47 Troop Transports [3]

#49 Call Out Militias [1]

#54 Light Infantry [2]

#58 British Regulars [3]

The French player again has the first Action Phase.

French Action Phase One

Thanking his lucky star for drawing

#21 Louisbourg Squadrons just as

Loudoun’s army is bearing down on

the French fortress port, he decides to

risk the fortunes of the French navy and

play the event (even though its benefits

to him will last only one hand, because

it is already Late Season). He rolls a

5, so the card is discarded rather than

removed from play, and there is no im-

pact on French naval movement or Brit-

ish ability to play the Quiberon event.

The British player will not be able to

play Amphibious Landing events this season, and a Louisbourg

Squadrons - No Amphib marker is placed on the Season marker

as a reminder.

British Action Phase One

His offensive plan thwarted for the season, the British player re-

verts to defensive measures. He chooses #43 for Construction. (He

cannot play the Raise Provincial Regiments event, because Pro-

French Action #7: Four Indian Raids.

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

vincial Assemblies are Reluctant.) He cannot finish the fort under

construction at Shepherd’s Ferry because there is no Drilled unit

there. He can build stockades in empty cultivated spaces, doing so

at Ashby’s Gap, Virginia and Trenton, New Jersey, to help defend

against further Indian Infiltration. (He does not build at Culpeper,

to avoid offering the French any further VPs in the already Raided

space this year.)

British Acti on #1: The British player builds Stockades at Ashby’s

Gap and Trenton. Note Raid marker at Culpeper.

French Action Phase Two

The French player decides to take advantage of the rather ill-posi-

tioned British forces to resume the offensive on the central Cham-

plain front—this time with a full-fledged force. First, however, he

plays #34 Small Pox as an Event, designating Hudson Carry North

as the affected space, which qualifies because there are five units

there. The roll is a 3, halved (rounding up) to 2. The overcrowded

conditions at Fort William Henry result in reduction of the 3-4 reg-

ular and the 4-4 Royal American units (the British player deciding

to preserve the Rangers; the Provincials are ineligible because they

are already reduced).

British Action Phase Two

The British player anticipates the threat to the Hudson. With Lou-

doun too far away, he plays #4 Campaign as an Event to mass a

defense under Webb at Fort Edward. He designates the two forces

to be activated as Dunbar and his two 3-4 Regulars at Albany and

Johnson and his troops at Schenectady. First, he moves Dunbar’s

force to Hudson Carry South. Second, he moves Johnson with the

2-4 Provincial and the 4-4 Highlander to the same destination,

drops off the units there, and then continues moving with Johnson

(who has 6 MPs) and returns to Schenectady—to be in position

should an opportunity to recruit Mohawks or the Iroquois arise in

the future.

Johnson and Dunbar reinforce Hudson Carry North with four units

(12 factors). Johnson returns to Schenectady.

French Action Phase Three

Keeping up with—or, rather, surpassing—the British reinforce-

ment of the Lake George area, the French play #1 Campaign as an

Event. Lévis with his three 3-4s move by boat eight spaces from

Québec to Ticonderoga. Then Montcalm with his full army at

Montréal—two 3-4s, one Coureurs unit, and the Potawatomi and

Ojibwa—move by boat to join Lévis at Ticonderoga. (For conve-

nience, the French player consolidates all the leaders and units un-

der Montcalm—seven 3-4s, two Coureurs units, four Indian units,

and four leaders—placing them in the Montcalm box.)

The situation at Ticonderoga and Hudson Carry South after both

players have played Campaign cards to bring in reinforcements.

British Action Phase Three

With a true strategic threat facing Albany, the British player ex-

pends #47 [3] to return Loudoun’s army to the Hudson. Loudoun

with Abercromby, three 3-4s and two 4-4s conduct a Naval Move

to New York City, leaving Monckton and Murray behind at Halifax

with five 3-4 units.

French Action Phase Four

The French player wishes to try #35

Courier Intercepted! before launch-

ing his expedition against Fort William

Henry and so plays it as an Event. He

rolls a 4, allowing him to select a card at

random from the British player’s hand.

The card he chooses turns out to be #6

Surrender! and he adds it to his own

hand. (This card will cause a reshuf-

fle at the end of this hand, unless the

French player decides to hold it until

the next hand.)

British Action Phase Four

Judging that the army at Fort Edward is sufficient defense against

Montcalm for the moment, the British player uses the respite from

French operations to enter reinforcements. He plays #58 British

Regulars as an Event, removing it from the game. He draws the

leader Forbes from the pool and places him at Philadelphia (for an

eventual expedition against Fort Duquesne). He then takes three

new 3-4 units and chooses to place one at Philadelphia, one at New

York City and one at Halifax.

French Action Phase Five

The French player now launches his assault on the Hudson defens-

es. He plays #16 [1] to activate Montcalm and all the leaders and

units with him as a force, and moves the force into Hudson Carry

North (simply placing the Montcalm leader at that space).

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

The British player attempts to Intercept with Webb, in command

of all the units at Hudson Carry South. However, he rolls a 3 and

fails. He now wishes to defend inside the fort, but only four of the

five units at Hudson Carry North will fit, and he cannot attempt to

Avoid Battle because he has already attempted Interception into

the space. He decides to defend inside the fort, but leaves one unit,

in this case a reduced Provincial, outside to fight a battle (he places

the other four units underneath the fort marker). The French attack

is strong enough to guarantee eliminating the unit, but the British

player must roll to see if he causes any French losses. He rolls a 1

(No Effect). There is no leader loss check because no step losses

occurred. The Provincial unit is removed.

Because the space is occupied by French units and a British fort,

a siege begins. The French player places a Siege 0 marker on the

fort. He cannot roll yet on the Siege Table because his force did not

begin its activation in that space.

Situation after the British withdraw into Fort William Henry.

British Action Phase Five

The British player has no remaining 3-value cards and so cannot

activate either Webb’s or Loudoun’s armies to respond to Mont-

calm. Otherwise ill positioned to relieve the besieged fort, he de-

cides to leave William Henry to its fate. He plays #17 to continue

his construction of frontier defenses, placing a stockade at Wright’s

Ferry. (The Amphibious Landing is useless now, because of “Lou-

isbourg Squadrons” and because he may not hold any cards for the

next season.)

The British player builds a Stockade at Wright’s Ferry. This illus-

tration also shows Loudoun’s army at New York after it returned in

Action Phase 3 and the arrival of Forbes in Action Phase 4.

French Action Phase Six

The French player now prosecutes his siege of William Henry,

playing #8 [1] to activate Montcalm’s force. With Montcalm’s tac-

tical rating of 2, the French are guaranteed to reach Siege Level

1 and be able to Assault. But, because the French player wants to

avoid the possibility of casualties (including Montcalm) and wants

to capture the fort intact to speed his expedition toward Albany, he

plays #6 Surrender! (which has a name

with a brown background and therefore

is playable during the phase). He places

the event card face up on the draw pile

as a reminder that a reshuffle will occur

before the next hand. As a result of the

Surrender!, the British fort marker at

Hudson Carry North is replaced with a

completed French fort marker, and the

four British units there are moved to the

fort at Hudson Carry South. The French

receive 2 VPs, moving the VP marker

to French 5.

The British player takes advantage of

the fact that his fortification fell to a

force including both Drilled and Indian

units, and immediately plays #7 Mas-

sacre! (this event has a brown back-

ground around its name, and therefore

is playable during the French Action

Phase). The British receive 1 VP, mov-

ing the VP marker to French 4. The four

Indian units with Montcalm are elimi-

nated, and the French player removes

the FRENCH ALLIED markers from

Lac des Deux Montagnes and Kahnawake, because there are no

longer any Algonquin or Caughnawaga units on the map.

The situation after the Massacre! Montcalm in possession of Fort

William Henry but without his Indian allies. The four British units

from Hudson Carry North are now in Hudson Carry South.

British Action Phase Six

The British player enters more troops with #54 Light Infantry.

The leader he draws is Bradstreet, whom he places in Albany with

one 2-6 unit, placing a second 2-6 at Halifax.

French Action Phase Seven

Having lost Montcalm’s Indians to the unexpected massacre, the

French player reconsiders his campaign plan. Looking at his hand,

he decides that he would like to play both the Regulars and Indian

Alliance as events, leaving him with too few activations to drive

on Albany. Also, with British strength continuing to build along

the Hudson, he decides that it is time to shift to the defensive there.

Furthermore, a buffer of wilderness is desirable.

He plays #4 Campaign as an Event, using it to activate Montcalm’s

army, plus Villiers, at Cataraqui (Fort Frontenac), who will com-

mand a Coureurs unit.

a) Montcalm moves north by boat, dropping off a small winter gar-

rison for Fort Carillon (Bougainville, two 3-4s and a Couriers unit)

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

on his way through Ticonderoga. He continues with the remainder

of his force to Montréal for the winter. During his activation, the

French player demolishes the newly-captured fort at Hudson Carry

North in order to keep it out of British hands. This reduces VPs to

French 3.

b) With Villiers, the French player takes advantage of Montcalm

having drawn British forces away from the Mohawk River. Villiers

and the Coureurs move by

land over the six spaces to

Schenectady (whether via

Oswego or West Canada

Creek doesn’t matter) to

Raid. Bradstreet, at Alba-

ny, has a good chance to

intercept (on a 3 or higher

because of his Tactics rat-

ing) with his Light Infan-

try (Schenectady is culti-

vated, so the drilled Light

Infantry may intercept the

lone Coureurs unit). But,

capping a bad year for the

British player, he rolls a

2 and fails. There are no

Militia in the Northern

box to deploy. Johnson

is alone with enemy units

and must retreat, and is

placed in Albany.

Villiers and his Coureurs now raid the stockade. They receive a

+1 for Tactics and roll a 4 on the Stockade column. The result is

“Success/1”. The French player removes the stockade and places

a Raided marker (no VPs are received for destroying the stockade,

it was destroyed in a Raid). He flips the Coureurs unit to 0-6 and

places it with Villiers at the nearest fortification, Fort Carillon (the

Ticonderoga space).

British Action Phase Seven

The British player must now play his last card, #49 Call Out Mi-

litias [1]. He would like to add a Militia unit, especially to the

Southern box in order to receive a –1 against raids there. However,

he also wants to save at least one unit from the attrition looming

at the overcrowded Fort Edward. He uses the card individually to

activate the 4-4 Highlander unit at Hudson Carry South and moves

it to better winter quarters at Albany.

French Action Phase Eight

The French player now plays his remaining cards in succession,

because the British hand is empty. He plays #56 French Regulars

as an Event, placing two 3-4s at Québec and removing the card

from play.

French Action Phase Nine

He then plays #26 Western Indian Alliance as an Event. He still

has less than 5 VPs and must halve the die roll (rounding up). His

roll is a 1 which, halved and rounded up, remains a 1. He can flip

two reduced Indian units for every new unit he may place, so uses

the result to flip the previously reduced Shawnee and Mingo units

both back to full strength.

Indians & Leaders Go Home Phase

This was the last Action Phase of a Late Season, so the Indians &

Leaders Go Home Phase follows. There are no lone leaders and the

only Indians not in fortifications or their settlements is the Missis-

sauga unit at East Delaware. The French player places the unit in

the Mississauga settlement space.

Remove Raided Markers Phases

The French have three markers for 1-¹/2 VPs which, rounded up to

2 VPs, moves the VP marker to French 5.

Winter Attrition Phase

All units outside friendly cultivated spaces are in fortifications and

in stacks of four units or fewer, except for Webb’s army of ten

units at Hudson Carry South. The Ranger unit (an Auxiliary) is

unaffected. Three drilled units are already reduced, of which the

British player must eliminate two (every odd unit—the first and the

third). He chooses to eliminate the reduced Provincial and the 2-4

Regular, leaving a reduced Royal American unit in place. He then

flips the remaining six Provincial and Regular units in the space to

their reduced sides. The British have lost more troops this year to

deprivation and sickness than to battle.

Victory Check Phase: Neither player has more than 10 VPs, so

the game proceeds to 1758. The Surrender! card has appeared, so

the players shuffle the discard and draw piles together to form a

fresh draw pile for Early Season 1758.

The year 1757 has seen poor planning and mishandling of oppor-

tunities by both sides. Although the French made only small gains,

they did manage to keep the British off balance in what must have

been a disappointing year for King George. In 1758, the British

must make better use of their growing superiority in forces, per-

haps with major expeditions up the Hudson, to Louisbourg, or in

the west to destroy the bases of the French and Indian frontier raid-

ers. Now it’s time for you to carry the flag forward and improve on

this record!

Situation at the conclusion of the Action Phases. Montcalm is back

at Montréal, and the British have 10 units at Hudson Carry South.

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

STRATEGY NOTES

General

WILDERNESS WAR explores the interplay between the conven-

tional European military methods of the 18th Century and the

raiding and other forms of petit guerre common on the American

frontier. Consequently, there are two general methods of gaining

victory points in the game. During the course of their campaigns,

players will have to decide between throwing their resources into

the massing of conventional armies and the capture of fortifications

and cities or into the border war of frontier raiding and skirmish-

ing.

The tradeoffs will not often be obvious. Capturing a fortress or

string of forts and stockades can yield a large cache of victory

points quickly. But the constant trickle of a victory point here and

there from raids—which are cheap and low risk—can add up to a

war-winning lead, even before a more cumbersome and often risky

conventional offensive yields results.

Similarly, activating a large force under a single leader can be a

very efficient way to move troops. But the effectiveness of activat-

ing individually—especially with Indians—for dispersed raiding

operations should not be underestimated.

Construction will play a key role in either method of conflict. The

first means of countering raids is to protect cultivated spaces with

stockades. Alone, they increase losses among the raiders. Used in

a system—built to complete coverage and backed by militia and

(if using the Intercept rule) a scattering of drilled troops—they can

thwart individual raiding parties almost every time.

For a conventional offensive, stockades and forts facilitate move-

ment by drilled troops through the wilderness and allow a garrison

to remain through the winter without attrition. Defensively, forts

slow down an enemy campaign by forcing him to stop and siege.

But be careful how many you build and don’t neglect to demolish

them when necessary, for otherwise their loss will yield victory

points to the enemy!

Beyond the two styles of warfare, players will have to decide upon

which geographic axes to center their efforts—and how, and to

what degree, to counter enemy efforts along each.

The importance of the maritime axis—Halifax to Louisbourg to

Québec—is evident. It contains two of New France’s three for-

tresses, which are worth 3 victory points each and cannot run away

nor be demolished. And loss of Louisbourg can cut the French

army of regulars off from European reinforcement, either by lead-

ing to the loss of Québec or by tilting the naval balance decisively

against France at Quiberon.

A maritime campaign is a high stakes affair for both sides, how-

ever. Every amphibious landing by regulars that is repelled costs

the British a victory point; siege and assault of a fortress is not a

trivial challenge; and if a large British army is still sitting outside

the walls of Louisbourg or Québec when winter comes, attrition

will be devastating.

Meanwhile, what is happening in the interior? Both players have

multiple axes available for conventional campaigns—principally

defined by the waterways. The Lake Champlain-Hudson corridor

in the center is the most direct route to enemy fortresses. But the

West should not be ignored: lucrative targets at Ohio Forks and

Niagara beckon the British; the French must secure their waterway

westward should reinforcement of these posts become necessary;

and control of the West—from Ohio to Oneida—governs control

of the various Indian tribes who live there.

In general, it is advantageous to pursue operations in more than one

theater at a time, so as to make use of Campaign cards that allow

the activation of two forces in one Action Phase.

A third strategic decision facing both sides, after conventional

or brush warfare and where to strike, concerns the speed of cam-

paigns and the degree of attendant risk to be accepted. A conserva-

tive approach means building fortifications as you go, principally

to guarantee a route of retreat if a battle goes awry. But sometimes

the bold approach—the quick march over wilderness trails or the

long-distance strike by boat— must be risked to take advantage of

a fleeting enemy vulnerability . . . or simply to get the job done in

the time (that is, the number of cards) available.

The French

The first puzzle for the French player is what to do with Louis-

bourg. Losing it early can go a long way to preventing a French

victory—but losing it with a large French force trapped inside can

be even worse! Slow down any British amphibious campaign with

Foul Weather or (if you’re willing to risk an early Quiberon) Lou-

isbourg Squadrons if you have them, and by putting pressure on the

enemy in the interior. Eventually, you will have to decide whether

to defend in force—including on the shore—or pull back to the

St.Lawrence and prepare to defend there. Even without a garrison

of regulars, the fortress can burn up British cards to capture, espe-

cially if left in the hands of a tactically adept leader.

In the interior, you start out with superiority in leadership, in auxil-

iaries, and (barely) in regulars. You should be on the offensive for

much of the game—with raiders, or a regular army, or both. Parry

British thrusts by moving quickly along rivers and lakeshores,

which effectively provide the French interior lines. Key targets for

you are British fortifications at Hudson Carry or, in 1755 scenarios,

at Oswego and Oneida. Control of Oswego is particularly impor-

tant to protect the long French lines of communication to the West

and to block a British-Iroquois alliance.

You will have the far greater opportunities for raiding of the two

sides, and you must take maximum advantage. In the 1755 sce-

narios, the early years are open raiding season—before the Brit-

ish mobilize border defenses of stockades, militia, and provincials.

Use this period to generate a lead in victory points (which can help

recruit even more Indians) and force the British to invest in de-

fenses.

But even if the British seal up the frontier, don’t give up on raiding

entirely. Every raid will have some chance of success, and late in

the game a single added victory point can make all the difference.

The border war is often a battle of attrition, and if you have more

auxiliaries than the enemy has militia you can win. Against a solid

defense of stockades and militia, try a tactically capable leader in

command of several auxiliaries: they will have a good shot at de-

feating any militia that deploys and have a decent shot at a suc-

cessful raid. If they destroy the stockade—and the enemy does not

immediately rebuild it—send more raiders through the gap!

If your raids and campaigns have won you a lead, you will have

to decide whether to go for a Sudden Death or to switch to the de-

fensive and hold out to the end. Watch the British player’s buildup

carefully—you can lose your advantages in numbers and leader-

ship quickly if he gets the right cards. Keep an eye on your own

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

losses as well: British capture of Québec or, depending on how the

naval war is going, play of a single card (Quiberon), can cut you

off from the ability to restore regulars. And don’t forget to build up

your militia, which can play a key role in the defense of Canada.

Knowing when to evacuate and demolish your posts is a key skill

for the French player. If a British offensive gets rolling along a line

of French forts and stockades, you’ll lose your lead in points very

quickly. Remember that every little French Marine detachment that

gets caught in the field can cost you a victory point as well.

Fort Duquesne at Ohio Forks is a special case. It is difficult to de-

fend because it is more than one move away from the St.Lawrence.

But don’t surrender it too early—it is the key to the border war in

the west and can lead to a domino-like loss of French fortifications

to its north—including Niagara. Consider sending reinforcements

to Duquesne if the British begin a build up in Pennsylvania or Vir-

ginia. Harry British progress across the Alleghenies by auxiliary

attacks on stockades along his march route. Consider holding an

“Ambush!” card into a subsequent hand if you don’t have a chance

to use it immediately—one successful ambush can turn around a

campaign, especially in this remote part of the map.

The French global strategy which you are to support in America

involves simply achieving a stalemate. In the end, you have the

luxury of time. If you made use of your early advantage, the British

will be on a tight schedule. You can lose battles and territory and

still win the war. Even when British forces seem overwhelming,

you can win through delay, harassment, raiding, and just making a

nuisance of yourself.

The British

Britain has her navy, and the sea via Louisbourg looks like the

direct route to the vitals of New France. But it is only one pos-

sible approach to victory—and not necessarily the easiest. Always

consider the option of dedicating a large force to an amphibious

campaign, but don’t get fixated upon it to the degree of ignoring

opportunities or dangers elsewhere.

A flexible approach is to mass reinforcements at Halifax and test

the enemy’s resolve to hold at Louisbourg. Even if you don’t hap-

pen to be holding an Amphibious Landing card, the French player

usually cannot be sure. You may force him into either reinforcing

or evacuating the fortress. The ideal is to trap a good portion of his

army there in a siege. But if the defense is too strong, you can al-

ways redeploy to New York or the Southern Department and head

inland.

Your first task in the interior probably will be dealing with French

and Indian raiders. There are many ways to do so. Militia may

seem humble, but once there are two in a Department—or if they

back up a solid line of stockades—they can cut French successes

sharply. It helps to post a provincial or regular unit every few spac-

es along the frontier to intercept raiders as they come through.

If your opponent is nevertheless bent on raiding, consider offensive

remedies as well. If you have rangers or Indians of your own—you

can pounce on enemy raiding parties as they stop on a mountain

space. With rangers or Indians, try some raids on enemy Indian

settlements while the tenants are away. Otherwise, the most di-

rect and lasting remedy is to launch a campaign to occupy enemy

Indian settlements or—especially—the French forts that support

alliances and raiding activities.

A final option is to ignore enemy raiders and focus on conquest

of French territory. Capture a few forts or a fortress, and you’ve

compensated in victory points for a lot of raiding. But until you

have decent leaders and superior numbers of drilled troops, it will

be easy enough for the French to react to your offensive. So watch

that French automatic victory level carefully if your offensive does

not pay quick dividends!

Lake Champlain is often the main front, but don’t disregard other

theaters. As long as British fortifications span the Oneida Carry,

you pose an immediate threat to Niagara or the upper St.Lawrence

that is difficult for the French player to ignore. British presence

here also opens the possibility of the Iroquois joining you, and they

can be a great help to your regulars in the wilderness, and a threat

to the cultivated areas around Montréal. If the French control the

Oswego-Oneida corridor, the Iroquois could join them—and turn

on the Pennsylvania or New York frontiers.

Don’t be overly deterred by what happened to Braddock on the

Monongahela. Fort Duquesne is actually quite vulnerable and

a rich prize for you. If the French don’t demolish it, its value in

points is the same as Montréal or Québec; if they do, you’ve won a

bloodless victory. Moreover, British occupation of Ohio Forks usu-

ally will eliminate the raiding problem in the South. Once taken,

you can press north—but watch your garrison of the Ohio, or an

enterprising enemy is likely to try to retake it!

As the British player, it is easy to forget to raid. You will need what

auxiliaries you have to protect and guide your drilled troops in the

wilderness. But if you can spare some rangers—or Mohawks with

Johnson in command—they can make terrific raiders. (And why

should the French player have all the fun?) In addition to victory

points, raiding can eliminate Indian units and prevent that bother-

some French militia from deploying for the defense of Québec or

Montréal.

Most of all: keep moving! Time is against the British—especially

in the Annus Mirabilis scenario. You must take risks. Sometimes,

you will not be able to afford all the construction prudence would

dictate. You may have to risk that battle without a retreat route in

order to seize the next French fort on schedule. You may even—on

the odd occasion—need to suffer winter attrition.

You don’t want to look for such situations, but neither can you shy

from them if the only alternative is to let the clock run out on the

war. Don’t be lulled by the historical outcome: the pressure of time

is upon you. In light of the rules that require supply for sieges and

allow a slippery Frenchman to avoid battles and infiltrate stockade

lines, the tyrant of time can make the British side the more chal-

lenging to play in Wilderness War.

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

CARD NOTES

Activation values are listed in brackets [#]. The 70-card deck con-

sists of:

23 1-value cards

19 2-value cards

28 3-value cards.

ACADIANS EXPELLED (#66) [2]: British deportation of the

French speaking population of Nova Scotia in 1755 removed the

need for a large British garrison but hardened the resolve of French

Canadians to resist the British.

AMBUSH! (#11-12) [1]: The advantages in scouting and screen-

ing afforded by large numbers of frontiersmen could provide deci-

sive advantages of stealth and surprise in the wilderness.

AMPHIBIOUS LANDING (#17-20) [1]: Many preconditions—

naval transport, escorts, supplies, landing boats—had to coalesce

to make possible a major British amphibious operation.

BASTIONS REPAIRED (#5) [1]: During a prolonged siege in

the European style, defenders would attempt to destroy the besieg-

ers’ works with bombardment or small-scale sorties, while work-

ing to repair damage to their own fortifications.

BLOCKHOUSES (#13) [1]: Colonists sometimes built them-

selves fortified sanctuaries that enemy raiders in search of captives

would either bypass—prolonging their exposure in hostile terri-

tory—or assault at the risk of casualties.

BRITISH COLONIAL POLITICS (#41- 42) [3]: Colonial as-

semblies’ support for the war fluctuated—reaching a low point in

1757 under Loudoun’s imperious policies, such as forced billeting

of regulars.

BRITISH MINISTERIAL CRISIS (#37) [3]: The fortunes of

Newcastle, Pitt, and other ministers in London was beset with

peaks and troughs between 1755 and 1758, disrupting material

support for the war in America.

BRITISH REGULARS (#57-59, 64) [3]: Britain’s ability to send

a larger portion of its much smaller army than could France across

the Atlantic was a key to eventual victory.

CALL OUT MILITIAS (#49-52) [1]: Royal or provincial com-

manders often called on county or other local militiamen to aug-

ment defenses against raiding activity and—in the case of Cana-

da—for major battles.

CAMPAIGN (#1-4) [3]: Both sides—but particularly the Brit-

ish—sought to develop multiple, simultaneous axes of operations

against the enemy.

CHEROKEES (#30) [1]: A southern Appalachian Indian people

having long-friendly relations with their British neighbors, the

Cherokee briefly sent some 700 warriors to Pennsylvania to serve

with Forbes as auxiliaries.

CHEROKEE UPRISING (#31) [3]: The falling out with Forbes

and incidents with British settlers along the warriors’ return route

southward escalated into a British-Cherokee war that diverted as

many as 1,300 regulars to the Carolinas.

COEHORNS & HOWITZERS (#8) [1]: These indirect-fire

weapons were particularly useful against fortifications—if larger

pieces and their ammunition could be hauled through the wilder-

ness in any substantial number.

COLONIAL RECRUITS (#46) [2]: With pay and provisioning

of colonial units irregular at best, the ability to fill gaps in the ranks

was equally irregular.

COURIER INTERCEPTED! (#35) [3]: Wilderness communica-

tions depended on individuals crossing often unfamiliar, enemy-

inhabited territory. A military situation could turn on an intercepted

message—as at Fort William Henry in August 1757.

DIPLOMATIC REVOLUTION (#69) [3]: The alliance in 1756

between ancient enemies France and Austria—soon to include

Saxony, Russia and Sweden—imperiled British interests on the

Continent and heralded French mobilization for global war.

FIELDWORKS (#9-10) [1]: Numerous battles—including those

at the Hudson Carry, Ticonderoga, Louisbourg, Québec and La

Belle-Famille—turned on the defender’s use of breastworks or the

attacker’s ability to overcome or circumvent them.

FRANÇOIS BIGOT (#36) [2]: Both crowns’ interests suffered

throughout the war from individuals who were at once key officials

and avaricious speculators—but from none as flagrant as this cor-

rupt royal Intendant (chief of finance and civil administration) of

Canada.

FRENCH REGULARS (#55-56, 68) [3]: Despite fielding a huge

army, France’s strategy of seeking decision in Europe, plus British

naval superiority, meant that only a handful of French battalions

reached America.

FOUL WEATHER (#14) [2]: Nature could derail the command-

er’s most well-conceived plans—particularly at sea.

GEORGE CROGHAN (#16) [1]: Croghan, Christopher Gist, and

other British frontier traders sometimes provided Indian guides for

British forces—or acted as wilderness guides themselves.

GOVERNOR VAUDREUIL INTERFERES (#22) [3]: Canada’s

Governor-General quarreled with the military commander-in-chief,

Montcalm, over strategy and the assignments of favored subordi-

nates. (If Vaudreuil has been eliminated in the game, the event rep-

resents actions by a successor.)

HIGHLANDERS (#60-61, 63) [3,1,1]: In part as a result of a sug-

gestion from Wolfe and the influence of Pitt, the crown raised and

dispatched Highland units to take part in the American wilderness

fighting, in which they proved themselves a force of particular es-

prit.

INDIANS DESERT (#33) [2]: More self-interested allies than

subordinates, Indian war parties could declare an end to their own

participation in a campaign—out of pique or if sated with the tro-

phies already won.

INTRIGUES AGAINST SHIRLEY (#70) [2]: Governor Wil-

liam Shirley of Massachusetts ran afoul of political conflict with

other colonial authorities and was removed from command after

the largely unsuccessful 1755 campaign.

IROQUOIS ALLIANCE (#28) [3]: Except for the staunchly pro-

British Mohawk, the Six Nations sought to maintain their neutral-

ity, until British dominance of Iroquoia became evident in 1759.

LAKE SCHOONER (#15) [1]: Both sides built and operated flo-

tillas of lake sloops and schooners, whose firepower could devas-

tate a bateau-borne enemy force or destroy supply or munitions

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

barges accompanying a force marching along the shore.

LIGHT INFANTRY (#54) [2]: Inspired by the forces of European

opponents such as the Habsburg Croat Grenzer who fought in open

order, the British fielded light infantry companies in regular regi-

ments and then whole light regiments recruited from Britain and

the colonies.

LOUISBOURG SQUADRONS (#21) [3]: French augmentation

of naval forces at Louisbourg helped stave off Loudoun’s amphibi-

ous plans for 1757, but the more aggressive French naval posture

also risked tipping the balance in other naval theaters.

MASSACRE! (#7) [1]: Indian auxiliaries’ pursuit of their antici-

pated captives and booty among surrendered troops often embar-

rassed European officers—particularly Montcalm—and could feed

enemy propaganda.

MOHAWKS (#29) [1]: Allied to the British through personal

bonds to New York grandee William Johnson, Mohawk warriors

served as the only substantial force of native auxiliaries available

to Britain during the first half of the war.

NORTHERN INDIAN ALLIANCE (#23-25) [2]: French author-

ities had long had mutually beneficial relations with tribes of the

St.Lawrence region, many under the influence of missionaries, and

with Great Lakes tribes through trade via French forts.

PROVINCIAL REGIMENTS DISPERSED FOR FRONTIER

DUTY (#38) [2]: Several colonies responded to devastating Indian

raids by garrisoning strings of stockades with small detachments

of provincial troops—who proved as much targets as hindrances

to the raiders.

QUIBERON BAY (#62) [3]: When the French navy, pressed by

lack of success elsewhere, in late 1759 attempted a concentration

in support of an invasion of Britain, British Admiral Hawke en-

gaged and destroyed a major portion of the French fleet southeast

of Brest, thereby severing New France from Old.

RAISE PROVINCIAL REGIMENTS (#43- 45) [2]: Britain had

a 10-to-1 advantage over France in colonial population, but was

unable to bring it to bear, until Loudoun’s removal and new poli-

cies healed crown-provincial relations in 1758 and bolstered pro-

vincial ranks.

RANGERS (#53) [1]: In an effort to counter French and Indian

auxiliaries, the British formed elite companies of backwoodsmen

who were to “range” along the frontier and beat the enemy at his

own game.

ROYAL AMERICANS (#65) [3]: Raised in 1756 in four 1,000-

man battalions of mostly Pennsylvanians and New Yorkers office-

red by Europeans, the 60th Royal Americans were a creative way

to take advantage of colonial manpower.

SMALL POX (#34) [3]: Inoculation against this disease had yet

to be invented, and it ravaged Europeans and Indians alike—most

famously the William Henry garrison in 1757.

STINGY PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLY (#39-40) [2]: Provincial

ranks became depleted when disinterested assemblies failed to pay

or provision them—a problem relieved by more enthusiastic pro-

vincial support for the war effort after 1757.

SURRENDER! (#6) [3]: Eighteenth Century sieges often ended

in a negotiated parole of the garrison rather than an infantry as-

sault, if the besieger believed honorable resistance deserved such

terms—or simply wished to avoid casualties—and if the defenders

were willing to give up their post.

TREATY OF EASTON (#32) [2]: With Forbes within striking

distance of Fort Duquesne in October 1758, representatives of

Pennsylvania and several Indian nations negotiated a peace be-

tween the British and the Western tribes.

TROOP TRANSPORTS & LOCAL ENLISTMENTS (#47)

[3]: Small contingents of regulars arrived from Europe throughout

the war to fill depleted ranks and, as often, regular units recruited

locals as a supplement.

VICTORIES IN GERMANY (#48) [3]: Brilliant battlefield

command by British allies Frederick of Prussia and Ferdinand of

Brunswick meant that Britain could feed the European war largely

with subsidies rather than British bodies—but more French, Rus-

sian or Austrian victories might have reversed this effect.

WESTERN INDIAN ALLIANCE (#26-27) [2]: The French were

able to impress the initially reluctant western tribes with their rapid

fortification of the Ohio region, but these alliances lasted only as

long as French military presence at Fort Duquesne.

WILLIAM PITT (#67) [3]: De facto prime minister in late 1756

and, after a hiatus in 1757, for the duration of the North Ameri-

can war, William Pitt reorganized British resources under a global

strategy and expanded British war aims to include the full conquest

of Canada.

HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY

The small number of Indians that we have here, realizing the need

we have of them, are extremely insolent. This evening they wished

to kill all the General’s hens. They forcefully take away barrels of

wine, kill the cattle, and we must put up with it. What a country!

What a war!

—Capt. Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, June 1758

The war that would bring an unprecedented level of European-style

military operations to the wilderness of the North American Indian

began as an escalating diplomatic conflict—first between Virginia

and Canada, and then between London and Paris—over competing

claims to the country around the Ohio River and its tributaries. Fort

construction there by the French and a Virginian expedition to evict

them led to military clashes in 1754, of which the Virginians took

the worst. With undeclared war underway, Britain dispatched two

regular regiments of foot to Virginia while France sent six battal-

ions to Canada and the New World’s “Gibraltar,” the mighty stone

fortress and naval base of Louisbourg.

War would be declared in May 1756, eventually ensnaring the ma-

jor powers of Europe and spanning the globe. Observers at the time

clearly saw the military events in America and Europe as tightly

meshed, but both its beginnings and its greatest effect would be in

North America.

The following chronology summarizes those events as they might

occur in a game of WILDERNESS WAR—season by season, with

corresponding victory point levels.

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

Early Season 1755

Capitalizing on their recent construction of the four-bastioned Fort

Duquesne at Ohio Forks, the French seal alliances with the Indian

tribes of the Ohio region, whose war parties begin to gather at the

fort.

Major General Edward Braddock, at Alexandria with the recently

landed 44th and 48th Foot, marches to Will’s Creek, where he is

joined by Virginia and Maryland provincials for an expedition via

Laurel Ridge and Gist’s Station against Fort Duquesne. Massachu-

setts Governor William Shirley raises a largely provincial army for

a planned strike at Fort Niagara from Oswego, while New York

Colonel William Johnson is to take a mixed provincial and Mo-

hawk force north against Fort St-Frédéric at Crown Point.

Late Season 1755

The French at Duquesne decide to attempt an ambush of Braddock’s

army as it approaches the fort. What results is more of a meeting

engagement than an ambush, but the smaller force of French and

Indians use the cover of the surrounding wilderness to shoot down

Braddock’s tightly packed columns of redcoats for a decisive Brit-

ish defeat (VPs to French 1). Braddock and the French commander,

Marine Captain Daniel de Beaujeu, are killed.

The French begin work on a new fort (Carillon) at Ticonderoga

south of Crown Point. The French commander-in-chief, Baron de

Dieskau—deferring a planned strike on Oswego in order to meet

the threat from Johnson—takes an army of regulars, Canadians,

and Indians up Lake Champlain. The opposing forces meet in

battle near the north end of the Hudson Carry, where Johnson’s

troops also are building a fort (William Henry). In the engagement,

Dieskau is shot and captured and his army turned back. (VPs to

French 0).

British forces under Brigadier Robert Monckton subdue French re-

sistance in Nova Scotia and expel the French speaking population

of Acadia.

With Duquesne secure, the French send their Delaware and other

western Indian allies on a campaign of frontier raids against the

Southern Department (VP to French 1). Pennsylvania begins con-

struction of a defensive screen of stockades.

Early Season 1756

Coureurs des bois and Indians, traveling along frozen rivers on ice-

skates, raid and destroy Fort Bull at the Oneida Carry, demonstrat-

ing the strategic vulnerability of the British position at Oswego.

French-led Shawnee raid the Virginia frontier, where construction

ensues on a line of stockades along the Shenandoah valley, each 20

miles from the next.

Shirley—since Braddock’s death the senior British officer in Amer-

ica—is relieved of command and the British war effort languishes

while awaiting the arrival of the new commander-in-chief, John

Campbell, Earl of Loudoun. Meanwhile, the Marquis de Montcalm

lands at Québec with battalions of the La Sarre and Royal Roussil-

lon regiments and takes command of French forces.

Late Season 1756

The British form four battalions of regulars from colonial recruits,

the “Royal Americans,” while an independent unit of Rangers un-

der New Hampshire Captain Robert Rogers begins operating out of

forts William Henry and Edward. Loudoun lands at New York city

with additional regiments from Britain.

A 3,000-man force under Montcalm (Béarn, Guyenne, La Sarre,

plus auxiliaries) arrives a short distance from Oswego, a British

schooner operating out of the British position on Lake Ontario hav-

ing failed to spot the French force until already ashore. Montcalm

quickly invests the fort, taking the garrison prisoner after a brief

artillery duel (VPs to French 3). He subsequently loses control of

his Indian auxiliaries, who take a number of British captives, and

scalp sick and wounded in an hours-long massacre (VPs to French

2.) Montcalm razes the British fortifications and returns to the St.

Lawrence River.

British Colonel Daniel Webb, in route up the Mohawk River to re-

lieve Oswego, decides instead to demolish the British fortifications

at the carry and pull back to New York.

In the aftermath of Oswego, Iroquois delegates at Montréal offer

some support to the French, but the Iroquois Confederacy (other

than the pro-British Mohawk and a few pro-French Seneca) re-

mains neutral.

Alliance between France and Austria leads to the beginning of

general war on the European continent. The forces of France and

her allies greatly outnumber those of Britain’s ally Prussia and

Britain’s possession in Germany, Hanover. Meanwhile, William

Pitt becomes de facto British Prime Minister and sets in train the

beginnings of a strategy maximizing British commitment to the

conflict in North America. The strategy includes the raising of new

Highland units to be sent to the New World.

Delaware Indian raiders destroy Fort Granville, a stockade built by

Pennsylvania on the Juniata River. (The British frontier stockades

are proving as much targets as impediments to the French and In-

dian raids.) In reprisal, Pennsylvanians successfully raid the Dela-

ware settlement of Kittaning, forcing the Delaware to pull away

westward (net raids bring VPs to French 4).

Early Season 1757

Bickering between an imperious Loudoun and self-interested co-

lonial authorities (such as over the issue of where to house Brit-

ish regular troops) leads to a growing reluctance by provincial as-

semblies to support what they are coming to see as the crown’s

war—rather than their war—against France.

Impressed by French victories, large numbers of Indians from the

upper Great Lakes (pays d’en haut) and the St. Lawrence mission

settlements gather at Montréal.

A force of 1,600 Canadians, Indians and French regulars—led, at

French Governor Vaudreuil’s insistence, by his brother, François-

Pierre de Rigaud—tracks over the ice of Lake George for a surprise

attack on William Henry. The attackers damage some buildings,

boats and supplies, but are unable to overcome the fort’s garrison

and withdraw (VPs to French 3).

Southern Department provincials and militia struggle against con-

tinued French and Indian raids. Meanwhile, Loudoun assembles a

sizable force of regulars for a strike on Louisbourg.

A ministerial crisis temporarily ousts Pitt and delays reinforce-

ments for America. On the European Continent, Britain’s ally King

Frederick of Prussia is proving a nimble opponent, but he suffers

a major defeat at Kolin, taking pressure off the Franco-Austrian

alliance.

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

Late Season 1757

Loudoun assembles an overwhelming force of regulars at Halifax,

but foul weather and reinforcing French naval squadrons at Louis-

bourg delay the planned amphibious operation against Louisbourg

until the season is too advanced to proceed.

The few new troops the British provinces are willing to mobilize

are busy defending the frontier against French and Indian raids.

This diversion, together with the British concentration at Halifax,

give the French an opportunity for local superiority in drilled troops

wherever in the interior they might choose to mass them.

Montcalm takes advantage of this superiority, and of his abun-

dance of Indian auxiliaries, to launch an overland invasion toward

Albany. Six battalions of army regulars, plus marines, Canadians

and some 800 Indian warriors ascend Lake George from Carillon

in bateaux and canoes or march through the woods along the shore-

line. Montcalm’s force (of almost 8,000 with heavy mortars and

cannon) faces a garrison at William Henry of fewer than 2,500 ef-

fectives, principally the 35th regiment plus provincials. (Small pox

had recently struck the British.)

After a six-day siege, and bombardment which destroys most of

William Henry’s cannon, Montcalm offers the British terms. The

fort’s commander accepts after Montcalm produces a message

from Webb at nearby Fort Edward making clear that no relief is

coming (VPs to French 5). As the French soldiers attempt to es-

cort surrendering British troops away from the fort, Montcalm’s

Indians again rebel and another massacre ensues—principally the

taking of captives and booty—following which the Indians return

home (VPs to French 4). Without his Indian auxiliaries and fearing

over extension in the approaching fall, Montcalm demolishes Wil-

liam Henry and returns north (VPs to French 3).

French raiders destroy frontier settlements near Schenectady (to-

gether with earlier raids, VPs to French 5).

In Germany, brilliant victories by Frederick against the French

and Austrians offset an ignominious Hanoverian surrender to the

French at Kloster-Zeven. The stalemate works against France’s

strategy of seeking decision on the Continent and allows Britain to

keep Hanover and Prussia afloat with subsidies while sending fresh

troops to America.

Early Season 1758

This is to be the year that Pitt’s global strategy gains full stride. He

replaces Loudoun with the latter’s second, Major General James

Abercromby; promotes to general rank the militarily competent

Jeffery Amherst, James Wolfe, and John Forbes and dispatches

them to America; and repairs relations with the provincial assem-

blies. He also tightens the Royal Navy’s blockade of France, set-

ting the stage for a showdown at sea. In America, Pitt’s policies

have infused the British war effort with a new superiority in regular

army and provincial manpower.

Forbes in Pennsylvania is to finally put a stop to the incessant In-

dian raids plaguing the southern colonies by seizing Duquesne. He

assembles an army which will eventually grow to 6,000 Pennsyl-

vania, Virginia and regular troops (including the 1st Royal Ameri-

can battalion and the 77th Highlanders). He begins to construct

a road and a series of stockaded depots westward from Carlisle

(including Fort Bedford at Raystown and Fort Ligonier just beyond

Laurel Ridge). As many as 700 Cherokees from southern Appala-

chia join Forbes, but quickly become alienated from the British in

disagreements that eventually escalate into a full-scale border war

southwest of Virginia.

Western Indian raids ravage the Pennsylvania and Virginia fron-

tiers.

Abercromby concentrates 15,000 men, with 890 bateaux and

whaleboats to carry them, at the British end of Lake George for his

principal thrust of the year: an attack on Fort Carillon. The regulars

include the Highlanders of the 1/42nd Black Watch and the provin-

cials include large contingents from Massachusetts, Connecticut,

and New Jersey.

Meanwhile, Amherst assembles a new Louisbourg strike force at

Halifax, 12,000 men including the 15th, 28th, 35th, 47th, 48th,

58th Regiments of Foot, the 78th Highlanders and the 2nd and 3rd

battalions of Royal Americans. Braving French fieldworks, a bri-

gade under Wolfe forces a landing two miles from the fortress and

a formal European-style siege ensues (VPs to French 4).

Late Season 1758

French Marine commandant Augustin Drucour defends Louis-

bourg fortress steadfastly with his Marines and the Artois, Bou-

gogne, Cambis and Volontaires Étrangers regular battalions. Seven

weeks of British siege craft and bombardment from land and sea

reduce the French fortress to submission (VPs to French 1).

Back in the interior, Montcalm receives ample warning of Aber-

cromby’s preparations on Lake George and concentrates eight reg-

ular battalions at Ticonderoga. Despite nevertheless being heavily

outnumbered when Abercromby’s force arrives, Montcalm makes

a stand behind well-built fieldworks in front of the fort. Abercrom-

by orders frontal assaults on Montcalm’s abatis and breastworks.

All are repelled with heavy losses (VPs to French 2).

Out of other options, Abercromby authorizes Colonel John Brad-

street to re-establish British presence at the Oneida carry and

threaten the French on Lake Ontario. In a daring dash past the

French lake fleet, Bradstreet seizes and destroys Fort Frontenac

(VPs to French 1).

A mixed British vanguard heading toward Duquesne is ambushed

(VPs to French 2), but a subsequent French and Indian attack on

Fort Ligonier is defeated.

The Ohio Indians decide that Forbes’ advance is unstoppable and,

at a congress with Pennsylvanians and the Iroquois at Easton agree

to a treaty removing them from the war. Forbes advances toward

Duquesne, which the outnumbered French demolish before retreat-

ing northward (VPs to French 1). The British occupy the Forks and

begin construction of a new, five-bastioned fort (Fort Pitt), secur-

ing their frontier from Ohio Indian raids and opening the way west-

ward (VPs to French 0, then to French 1 for Early Season raids).

Early Season 1759

In a series of conferences, William Johnson and his agents per-

suade the Iroquois Confederacy to join the British side in the war.

Launching a campaign against Québec, Wolfe lands on the unde-

fended Île d’Orléans in the St. Lawrence estuary with some 9,000

troops: eight battalions of regulars plus the oversize 78th Highland

Regiment, light infantry and American rangers.

New France’s defenders had been reinforced just before Wolfe’s

expedition by several transports carrying replacements that slipped

past the Royal Navy, and by Canadians enlisted into the ranks of

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

the depleted regular regiments. To hold Québec, Montcalm is able

to muster five regular regiments of troupes de terre, various Marine

units, more than 1,000 Canadian and pays d ’en haut Indians still

with the French, several thousand militia from regions of Québec,

Trois-Rivières and Montréal—and even 150 Acadian volunteers.

Montcalm also has fortified the approaches to the city with artillery

redoubts and other formidable fieldworks. Wolfe makes an attempt

at the French defenses at their northeastern extremity, Montmo-

rency, but is bloodily repulsed (VPs to French 2). Wolfe also sends

his rangers to raid the Baie-St-Paul and Rivière-Ouelle areas in a

largely unsuccessful effort to induce Canadian militias to desert

Montcalm’s army.

Late Season 1759

Having succeeded Abercromby and transferred his headquarters to

the Champlain front, Amherst is in position to take advantage of

Montcalm’s concentration against Wolfe. British strength on Lake

George forces the French to abandon Forts Carillon and St. Fred-

eric (VPs to 0). Amherst moves deliberately, beginning construc-

tion on a large, five-bastioned fort at Crown Point.

William Johnson leads a British force that includes some 1,000

Iroquois warriors in an investment of a weakly-defended Fort Ni-

agara. Using concealed fieldworks in a skillful ambush at La Belle-

Famille, he defeats a mixed French relief force moving up from the

Ohio forts (VPs to British 1). Niagara falls, and with it France’s

“Gateway of Nations”, its link to pays d’en haut allies and trade

(VPs to British 4). The French abandon Forts Machault, Le Beouf,

Presqu’île and Rouillé.

In Germany, a Hanoverian-British victory under Prince Ferdinand

at Minden causes thousands of French losses and stabilizes the

situation for London’s allies. The battlefield success helps siphon

French resources from a planned invasion of England and obviates

the need for large contingents of British regulars either to reinforce

the Continent or defend the homeland.

At Québec, Montcalm stymies Wolfe for another six weeks after

Montmorency. However, Wolfe’s army finally circumvents Mont-

calm’s fieldworks around his right, through a combination of ruse,

audacity and luck, and assembles for battle on the Plains of Abra-

ham outside the fortress city. Montcalm decides to engage in a field

battle with his force (roughly equal to the British in numbers, but

not in training). Controlled British musket volleys undo the ragged

French advance, resulting in a major British field victory (VPs to

British 5). Wolfe and Montcalm both fall in the engagement, and

Vaudreuil withdraws up the St. Lawrence. A besieged Québec ca-

pitulates in six days (VPs to British 8).

Setting out from Amhert’s fort at Crown Point (still under construc-

tion), Robert Rogers’ New Hampshire rangers infiltrate French de-

fenses to raid and destroy the Abenaki settlement at St-François

(VPs to British 9). A much-reduced ranger force returns down the

Connecticut River to Fort No.4.

Off the French coast southeast of Brest, British Admiral Edward

Hawke pursues his French counterpart, the Comte de Conflans, and

a major French fleet into the restricted waters of Quiberon Bay.

Under gale conditions, Hawke destroys or runs aground most of

Conflans’ ships—one of the most decisive naval victories of the

century and a fitting close to Britain’s “Year of Miracles.” This

strategic victory ends the threat of invasion of England, and Cana-

da is cut off from any resupply or reinforcement from France.

Early Season 1760

The escalating war with the Cherokee forces the British to dispatch

regulars from the 1st and 77th regiments to the Carolinas. Virgin-

ia provincials are already fighting the Cherokee in the southern

mountains.

Intent on retaking Québec, French commander François-Gaston de

Lévis regroups a French army of 7,000 at Montréal, sails down

river, and meets a disease-ravaged British army under James Mur-

ray on the Plains of Abraham—inflicting a defeat and besieging the

city (VPs to British 8). Lévis’ siege makes little progress for want

of guns and especially ammunition, for it is the British Royal Navy

and not the French Marine that controls access to the St. Lawrence.

After three weeks, Lévis lifts the siege and returns up river to de-

fend Montréal.

Late Season 1760

The British begin a campaign of coordinated convergence on Mon-

tréal. While one British force pushes north from Crown Point and

Murray leads his up the St. Lawrence from Québec, Amherst trans-

fers his command to the upper St. Lawrence and captures a French

stockade (Fort Lévis) at Oswegatchie (VPs to British 9).

The French abandon Île-aux-Noix on the Champlain front, hoping

for an opportunity to use their central position at Montréal to de-

feat the three approaching British forces in detail. The opportunity

never arises, as the British pincers approach Montréal simultane-

ously. With French forces and Montréal’s defenses unfit to sustain

a hopeless siege, Vaudreuil and Lévis surrender the city (VPs to

British 12). The British army ends the year in occupation of the

entire St. Lawrence Valley, Ohio Forks and Lake Ontario—the war

for French Canada is finished.

DESIGN NOTES

WILDERNESS WAR is an adaptation of Mark Herman’s card-driven

wargame system, first introduced in the game We the People. Mark

Simonitch’s Hannibal: Rome vs.Carthage refined the strategy card

mechanics and showed that the system could be felicitously adapt-

ed to widely different historical eras. Finally, Ted Raicer’s Paths of

Glory took the system in new directions in options of strategy card

use, combat systems and named units and reinforcements.

WILDERNESS WAR also owes a great debt to Rob Markham’s pio-

neering game on the French and Indian War, Montcalm and Wolfe.

Among several innovations, this handy little game meshed raiding

by France’s native-American allies with other activities and objec-

tives in the game in a way that was both consequential and fun—an

effect I had tried but failed to achieve in a paper campaign of the

war that I had run for my gaming group in the early 1990s.

In WILDERNESS WAR’S mechanics for raiding, I have built on

the success of Rob Markham’s design. With the variety of raiders,

raid targets and effects of success—not to mention the defensive

options of militias, stockades and posting Drilled Troops in tar-

get areas—the frontier border battles come alive in WILDERNESS

WAR as a game within a game. Infiltration and interception rules

add further twists.

One historical aspect missing in Montcalm and Wolfe is the con-

struction and demolition of forts in the wilderness—one of the

principal strategic activities of the war and objectives of its cam-

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

paigns. A second such activity was the construction of roads—such

as those of Braddock and Forbes—typically studded with supply

depots along the way. The design puzzle for me was how to allow

players the option to carry out all this essentially logistical activity

without complication and tedium.

The answer was to combine both functions—fortification and road

building—into a card-use option that would supplant placement of

political control markers (which do not apply to a wilderness con-

text). Fortifications in the game offer not only defense and bases

for raiding, but also speedy movement over mountain and forest.

Players are free to take their armies anywhere they would like in

the wilderness—but they must either spend the time to hack out a

supply route (and potential refuges for retreat) or risk losing that

army to a disaster. A side can repair a captured fort and use it it-

self—but risk its recapture by the enemy—or can choose to demol-

ish it and return home (as Montcalm did at Oswego and William

Henry).

In the game, stockades generally represent small, palisaded places

which are as important in their role as supply depots as for their

defensive benefit. Forts represent earth and wood (or stone) con-

struction with bastions, ditches and artillery embrasures. Both for-

tification marker types in the game also represent such activities as

road building and the movement and accumulation of supplies—in

short the logistical activity needed to support a European army in

the American wilderness. Fortresses represent particularly large

and permanent fortifications, as well as cities large enough to pro-

vide their own local defense.

Because so much in the war revolved around these forts, many

of the larger engagements were sieges rather than field battles. So

WILDERNESS WAR pays particular attention to siege-craft. Roll-

ing on the Siege Table represents construction of approach trench-

es and battery positions close enough for effective bombardment

and assault.

To explore the differences and interactions of the European-style

troops that carried out such construction and sieges—and the fron-

tier auxiliaries who pursued the petit guerre of raids and wilderness

ambushes—WILDERNESS WAR departs from the simpler, generic

strength points for troops and introduces seven different troop

types, all differing in their capabilities. This part of the design saw

much evolution during Rob Winslow’s able development of the

game—mostly in the direction of streamlining and lessening the

differences. I hope that players will agreed that we achieved the

right balance between accessibility and period character.

One note on French unit types is necessary. French Canada had a

numerous and relatively well-trained “militia” (milice), rather dif-

ferent than that of the decentralized British colonies. In the game,

much of this militia is represented by the Coureur units and part of

the strength of the French regular units. The game’s Canadian Mili-

tia units represent emergency local augmentations of the milice.

There is too much to say about the composition of the various

events, so I will not attempt that here—with two exceptions: Qui-

beron and Small Pox.

Linking the far away event of Quiberon Bay to the amphibious

struggle for Louisbourg may at first seem odd. The premise of

the linkage is that the success or failure of French naval actions

off North America are a barometer of their success globally—and

therefore of the pressure on them to take the risks off European

waters that led to the defeat in November 1759.

Small Pox originally had generated normal winter attrition, but in

game development evolved into its own form. Players may initially

question how it treats Indian units—in particular, that the afflicted

side is allowed to choose step losses from Indians which are to be

eliminated anyway, thereby in effect shielding non-Indian troops.

However, it should be noted that the Indian units add to the stack

size that draws a Small Pox event in the first place, and that their

very vulnerability does so as well. For the side playing the event,

choosing whether to inflict the disease on a stack with lots of In-

dians is more interesting for having to consider that all Indians are

automatically eliminated, but that any European troops are likely

to remain unaffected. The historical premises are that Indians were

particularly susceptible and that warriors wouldn’t hang around if

their comrades are dropping to the Pox.

The WILDERNESS WAR map is largely based on period maps (see

Evans in Selected Sources), though judgment calls were of course

needed with regard to which spaces are cultivated and which not,

which rivers are substantial enough to depict, and so forth. A major

decision was which theaters to include and which to leave out.

Far from being the channelized conflict that some have viewed it,

the war saw major action over the course of six years along numer-

ous fronts from Ohio in the west to Louisbourg on the seaboard—

and that does not even consider the interminable raiding and coun-

ter-raiding that spanned the frontier. There was much to cover on

the map; some things I decided to relegate to offmap events. These

included the Acadian campaign of 1755 in Nova Scotia and the

Cherokee border war of 1759 and 1760 in southwestern Virginia

and the Carolinas.

The area around Québec saw a major change during develop-

ment—the addition of a space for Île d’Orléans. The added space

made a closer facsimile of Wolfe’s famous 1759 campaign more

likely in the game. Note that the French player would be able to

receive European reinforcements at Québec even if British Units

were in Île d’Orleans but not Québec—the British historically were

not able to establish firm naval control of the approaches to Canada

until Québec was in their hands.

A great deal of discussion, testing and thought went into the victory

conditions. More than most other aspects of WILDERNESS WAR,

these were not only streamlined considerably during development

but altered repeatedly in direction. With too much focus on Mon-

tréal and Québec, players would tend to ignore historic scenes of

action in the west. With too little, and the British player could ahis-

torically ignore populated Canada—and the French player could

similarly ignore its defense. With too little victory-point incentive

to raid, the border war never happens; with too much, the British

are unable to make up with territorial gains for the damage the

French raiders are likely to do in the first years of the war. Finally,

the victory levels—including sudden death— required almost end-

less tinkering to achieve what we hope is a historical and balanced

contest. We cannot expect the typical game to recreate Britain’s

phenomenal “Year of Miracles” in 1759, but it is possible.

What should the British player be expected to accomplish to win?

French global strategy during the Seven Years War—of which the

French and Indian War was but a part—sought to defeat Britain’s

allies on the European continent while holding British gains in the

colonies to a minimum. If New France could hold out—and inflict

enough pain on British colonists—France could hope to regain any

lost territory at the peace table, as she had in the previous war.

WILDERNESS WAR’S victory conditions reflect both the holding

action assigned to New France and the progressive fraying of rela-

Wilderness War — PLAYBOOK

SELECTED SOURCES

Anderson, Fred. Crucible of War—The Seven Years’ War and

the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766 (2000).

Touted as an analysis of the war as a precursor to the Revolution,

it also offers an engrossing narrative of the campaigns. Critiques

of the commanders are rather harsh on Montcalm, Wolfe and

Rogers.

Bird, Harrison. Battle for a Continent (1965). Handy chronolo-

gies of raids, battles and unit arrivals.

Chartrand, Rene. Québec 1759. The most helpful of the many

Osprey books relevant to the war, particularly in its individual

histories of each of the units that participated in the Québec cam-

paign. Another Chartrand Osprey title, Ticonderoga 1758 (2000)

provides the clearest view available of the maneuvers involved in

Abercromby’s debacle.

Eckert, Allan. Wilderness Empire (1969). A Shelby Foote for the

American colonial and Indian wars. Narrative peppered with long

extracts of letters and such, but also with enough ostensibly inside

thoughts of the participants to raise skepticism. Use with caution.

An alternative in this vein is Dale Van Every, Forth to the Wilder-

ness: The First American Frontier 1754-1774 (1961).

Evans, Lewis. A General Map of the Middle British Colonies, in

America (1754). The all-around most useful of the period maps

relevant to the war, spanning Kentucky to Montréal and replete

with Indian place names.

Gipson, Lawrence. The British Empire Before the American Rev-

olution, Volumes VI & VII (1959). Rich discussion of the war in

the context of British global strategy.

Parkman, Francis. Montcalm and Wolfe (1884). The classic Eng-

lishlanguage treatment of the war. Luscious prose; consciously

pro-British in his disappointment with what became of a great

French empire.

Stacey, C.P. Québec, 1759—The Siege and the Battle (1959, An-

niversary edition).

Steele, Ian. Betrayals—Fort William Henry & the “Massacre”

(1990). Could have been called “Last of the Mohicans: The True

Story.” In addition to the events at William Henry in August

1757, good lead-up narrative on the action along the Champlain

corridor. Interesting discussion of competing Indian and French

agendas.

Washington, George. Papers. Primary source on aspects of the

campaigns in Virginia, Pennsylvania and the Ohio country in

which Washington participated—including his frustrated efforts

to thwart French and Indian raids on the Virginia frontier in 1756

and 1757 while commanding the 1st Virginia Regiment. If you

haven’t got the chance to stop by the Library of Congress, check

them out on line.

For those who share my particular interest in Virginia’s role in the

war, see James Titus, The Old Dominion at War (1991), Hayes

Baker-Crothers, Virginia and the French and Indian War (1928),

Louis Koontz, The Virginia Frontier, 1754-1763 (1925), and, for

oral histories, Samuel Kercheval, History of the Valley of Virginia

(1925).

tions between Britain and her colonies, should the British crown

prove unable to protect colonial frontiers. Victory points represent

in part perceptions—among the colonial population, back home

and by the Indians—of who is winning the war. If the British can

hold things together (avoid a French automatic victory) and gain

enough territory to make the suffering seem worthwhile—at least

to the classes that mattered—the war can be called a British vic-

tory.

WILDERNESS WAR owes a great deal to the veteran designers al-

ready mentioned above. I have been amazed at how effectively their

original concepts combined to produce the game on the French and

Indian War that I have always wanted to play. The game also re-

flects the efforts of Rob Winslow and his multiple teams of testers,

who guided the design to something that gamers—who may or

may not be devotees of the colonial era—will enjoy. GMT Games’

continuing philosophy of bringing the less-often treated historical

eras to the gaming public has played its decisive role here. Finally,

I dedicate this design to Jill, Daniel and Andrew—who have pa-

tiently put up with all those years of fife and drum music.

—Volko F. Ruhnke

Vienna, Virginia

January, 2001

GMT Games, LLC

P.O. Box 1308, Hanford, CA 93232-1308