As you may know, I really enjoy the history of the American Revolutionary War. I have read dozens of histories on the subject, with my favorite being Robert Leckie’s George Washington’s War: The Saga of the American Revolution, and it never ceases to amaze me how a group of ragtag rebels were able to best an entire global Empire in open rebellion. The reason for that was the patriots resolve and their ability to run away when outmatched to fight another day when they had a better advantage.

We have played plenty of games on the American Revolution but still have many more that are waiting in the wings to be played. In this post, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite games on the subject. I will be honest, I tend to gravitate more toward the Operational or Strategic level of games on this subject as they tend to deal with more of the issues central to the conflict such as support for the rebellion, supply, sea travel, courting allies, traitorous cabals (looking at you Thomas Conway), and wintering armies. Here are my Best 3 Games with…The American Revolution!

3. Campaigns of 1777 from Decision Games (found in Strategy & Tactics Magazine Issue #316) (2018)

As you know, we really enjoy Harold Buchanan’s approach used in his Am Rev games (Liberty or Death and War in the South from C3i) and he had a new one last year that appeared in a wargaming magazine. Campaigns of 1777 is a two-player, point to point movement wargame in which playes control the Patriots or the British in the northern Colonies during 1777, which was a critical year in the American War for Independence. As you know, the Patriots scored their first major victories at Saratoga that year and this was enough to bring in the French on their side.

We really enjoyed the game and found it to be a very interesting look at the battles fought in the northern Colonies including the Sieges of Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Stanwix, the battles of Brandywine, Germantown and Saratoga as well as the surrender of Burgoyne’s army at Saratoga. The game uses point to point movement so there are only a few ways that the British can come down from Canada to attack the Patriot and the Patriot player knows this and must maneuver their forces well to intercept and slow their advance down before they are beaten by the overwhelming British forces. I really liked playing as the Patriots as I had to pick my battles well and try to slow their advance rather than chasing them off the field in an overwhelming victory.

The objective of the game for the British player is to control certain spaces in order to fulfill their Victory Conditions. The Patriot player’s objective is simply to prevent the British Victory and this really makes for some interesting choices on the very well done map. There were two elements that we found very interesting including sea movement and the way that the Patriots could recruit forces.

Each turn, there are 13 chits that can be blindly drawn and include 2 supply chits, 2 event chits, 5 British Primary Leader chits and 4 American Primary Leader chits. The Leaders have a certain amount of Leadership points that can be used to take certain actions like marching, forage and recruiting. The players will have to keenly manage these limited actions in order to make sure that progress is being made.

I also liked that there are several key forts on the British route down the Colonies and the Patriot can put up a pretty staunch defense by planning out moves and thinking about how to force the sieges to take one more turn than the British player expected. Of course, the British can use sea movement to quickly marshal their forces to appear in key locations to put more pressure on the Patriot player and force them to take actions they don’t have to take. Overall, a great game of cat and mouse that felt very thematic and true to history.

Check out our unbagging video to get a better look at the components, including that gorgeous map and our video review for our thoughts on the game.

For more information on the game, please visit the game page on the Strategy & Tactics  website: https://shop.strategyandtacticspress.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ST316

2. Washington’s War from GMT Games

Washington’s War is a war game, make no mistake about that. But, it is virtually impossible to win the game by focusing only on the field of battle. For that to happen, the Patriots need to completely drive the British forces out of the 13 colonies or the British need to wipe the American forces off the map. Both are extremely difficult and I would be surprised if any more than 1 out of 30 games ended in such a way. Rather, the ultimate goal of the game is to have political control of the colonies. If at the end of the game the Patriots control 7 colonies, while holding the British to control of less than 5, they win. If not, the British win. Simple as that. So, you can see that battle is not the main goal but control is. And more importantly political control.

I really like this about the design and feel that the real core of the American Revolution was the groundswell of patriotism and the desire to live free from the shackles of an overseas monarch who cared little for the American way of life. This desire led great men of the time to sacrifice themselves, their livelihood and their families to further the true cause of liberty and build a truly free and democratic nation where individual liberty and freedom was prioritized over anything else. And yes, I realize that this nation was not perfect, not without contradiction but the concept of liberty helped to form a country that would lead to the ultimate freedom of all people.

Washington’s War is a Card Driven Game or CDG, and as such, relies on cards to provide to players the actions needed to play the game. The cards contain OPS Points which can be used to drive various actions, including such things are activating leaders, who in turn will then move with forces to attack, and also contain written text in the form of events. These events can be played only by the side they are intended for and if drawn and played by the opposing side, they can only be thrown away while granting a few possible actions, such as placing or removing Political Control markers.

As a self professed lover of the CDG mechanic, I really like this implementation of that system and must now say that Washington’s War is solidly in my Top 5 CDG games. The fact that this game is well designed and implements the CDG mechanic well should come as no surprise though, as it’s designer, Mark Herman, is the Godfather of CDGs. This game is really solid with low complexity and a relatively quick play time, but offers players with deep and meaningful choices about how to wage the war for the “minds and hearts of the people”.

For a whole lot deeper look into this game you can read my review. You can also check out our video review as well.

For more information on the game, please visit the game page on the GMT Games website: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-735-washingtons-war-3rd-printing.aspx

1. Liberty or Death: The American Insurrection from GMT Games

I already mentioned this earlier but I simply love Liberty or Death: The American Insurrection! The fifth volume in GMT’s COIN Series is the series’ first foray into non-modern warfare and takes us to the 18th Century and the days of the Brown Bess musket, the 18 pounder siege cannon and nice and tidy formations better suited for a gentleman’s war. The focus of the game is the struggle of the American Patriots against their mother British government as they have made their intentions clear to become independent with the Declaration of Independence. The game is a multi-faction treatment of the American Revolution, which includes the Patriots and their allies the French against the British and their reluctant allies the Indians. And each of these factions is totally asymmetric, winning the game and prosecuting the war in their own way with their own separate goals that share some similarities but diverge when it matters most. This is accomplished through a unique set of Commands and Special Activities that players will use during their turn to establish their presence on the board, defeat opponent’s troops in open combat or raid and terrorize the local population.

Liberty or Death is a 1 to 4 player game focused on all aspects of the struggle including financing operations with Rabble Rousing, infiltrating British held cities to Skirmish, blockading major cities with the mighty French fleet, Raiding the frontiers with the Indian nations, the spread of propaganda to build support for the revolution, fort building and small scale battles. So, with this short description you can see that this game is not a “traditional” wargame but does contain some armed conflict. So a game about the American Revolution that isn’t focused on battle you say? How can that be? Well, I will tell you that this game is probably a perfect representation of the multifaceted struggle that wasn’t necessarily decided on the field of combat, but by the little actions of many behind the scenes characters. Yes battle will decide the control of major areas of the board and decide the fate of troops as they must be concerned about being in supply through a network of forts but the game is so much more than just rolling some dice and consulting a CRT!

That is why I think LoD is my number 1 game on the American Revolution. It does a fantastic job, very similarly to Washington’s War, of capturing the focus of the real issues and how the war was eventually won by a rag tag band of farmers, merchants, blacksmiths and school teachers.

For a deeper dive into the game you can read my review.

If you are interested in how the game works, you can check out my recent COIN Series Workshop article on the Indian Faction.

For more information on the game, please visit the game page on the GMT Games website: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-582-liberty-or-death-the-american-insurrection-2nd-printing.aspx

Those are my 3 Favorite games on the American Revolution. There are so many games out there on the subject and I am always going to play new ones that come up so I am sure that this list will change in the future. What games do you like on the American Revolution?

-Grant