I have a passion for games covering the American Revolution….period. I have played well over 15 different games on the topic, but despite that, I am always on the lookout for a new and interesting design on the subject. While we were attending Buckeye Game Fest at the end of April 2023, we got a quick look at the components for an upcoming game from Blue Panther called Road to Independence: The American Revolution, 1775-1783 designed by Stephen Kling of The Historical Game Company. The game looked fantastic and covers the entirety of the war, including the various campaigns and skirmishes on the frontier,…and also uses custom dice. We reached out to the designer Stephen Kling and he was more than willing to take the time to answer our questions on the game.

Grant: First off Stephen please tell us a little about yourself. What are your hobbies? What’s your day job?

Stephen: I am a practicing business attorney and president of a mid-sized law firm in St. Louis, Missouri. I write military history books and articles and design historical games as my main hobby/side business, and though I recently acted as co-curator of a museum exhibit based on my The American Revolutionary War in the West book. One of my other books on the Battle of St. Louis in 1780 was made into a historical documentary which won the St. Louis Filmmakers Award and a Mid-American Emmy for best historical documentary. My books are full color with specially commissioned art and include many maps as my biggest gripe about many military histories is the lack of maps.

Grant: What motivated you to break into game design? What have you enjoyed most about the experience thus far?

Stephen: I have been a student of military history since my teens. The 2008 recession resulted in a lot of work for me as an attorney, and after that wave had passed I decided to make some time to write some books and finish some designs of games I had been working on for some time. I had previously done some design and development work for some other companies like White Dog Games but started my own company The Historical Game Company in 2014 to do my own publishing.

Grant: What is your upcoming game Road to Independence about?

Stephen: It is a low to moderate complexity strategic game on the American Revolutionary War in the West. It is based upon a game on the French and Indian War I released using this same system in 2019 called French and Indian War. The system is highly playable and is considered to be an introductory wargame. The Blue Panther team approached me about publishing this game with Ryan Heilman doing some development work and Tim Allen doing the map.

Grant: What is your design goal with the game?

Stephen: To introduce people into this history, particularly the neglected and little known Western Theater of the American Revolutionary War. Most strategic games on the American Revolutionary War ignore or pay little attention to the Western Theater, so I wanted to do a strategic game on the war which included it. Of course, at the same time, I wanted the game to be fun and not too rules intensive.

Grant: Why was this a subject that drew your interest?

Stephen: I have been interested in the American Revolutionary War for a long time. The focus on the Western Theater of the war probably began when I discovered I had an ancestor at the 1780 Battle of St. Louis. I have published four books and several articles specifically about the American Revolutionary War in the West. That interest continues. With some local chapters of the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution, I have organized a major history conference covering the war in the Western Theater with experts from all over the US and from Spain. The conference will be held over the weekend of October 27-29, 2023 in St. Louis and will include a private party at the American Revolutionary War in the West Museum exhibit. Information on my website here: https://www.thgcpublishing.com/conference-2023.

So I am all in on this topic!

Grant: What research did you do to get the details correct? What one must read source would you recommend?

Stephen: I did an enormous amount of research for my book The American Revolutionary War in the West drawing almost exclusively on primary sources from the British, Virginian and Spanish archives. The book is groundbreaking in terms of coverage of this lesser known theater of the war and I involved several national experts as co-authors. I acted as editor and co-author for the book. The war in the east is better known and there are lots of good books out there and I own several of them but there are considerably fewer on the Western Theater.

Grant: What is most important to model from the American Revolution?

Steve: On a strategic level, the fact that the war had an Eastern and Western Theater. While the Eastern Theater was the most important, the Western Theater had a lot of action and an important part to play in the war and at the peace table.

Grant: What is the scale of the design? Force structure of the units?

Steve: The game is strategic in scope and there really are few units. The game does involve conquest but by die rolls against the strength of various locations on the game map. Special dice are used for the game with faces of different types of troops.

Grant: What is the anatomy of the unit counters?

Steve: The counters are few, mostly to show where attacks are selected, control of locations and some garrisons. There are a few other markers to show France and Spain’s entry in the war.

Grant: I notice that both France and Spain are included. Why was it important to include them?

Steve: They both had an important role to play beyond material supplies. France’s troops were deployed in the east and most people know about that. Spain’s contribution is lesser known and is covered extensively in my The American Revolutionary War in the West book. The Spanish tied down a number of British regiments and British Native American allies in the west. Both countries contributed massive material aid to the American war effort.

Grant: How do each of these nations enter the war?

Steve: By successful die roll beginning on specified turns. So the exact entry is not certain.

Grant: Also how did you represent the Native Americans?

Steve: There are a number of dice with different colors in the game. Some of the dice faces portray Native American icons as do some of the location defenses. The dice, location defenses plus the few garrison units that have to be carefully placed, are the abstraction of the Native military strength.

Grant: What areas does the map cover? What are the different theaters and how did you decide to split them up in this way?

Steve: The map covers the entire American Revolutionary War on the North American continent. The Eastern and Western Theaters are divided on the map following the general historical dividing line. Generally, anything outside of the original 13 colonies and Montreal, Quebec and Nova Scotia, are in the Western Theater.

Grant: What is the function of Location Cards?

Steve: The Location Cards correspond to a historical location on the game map and detail the defenses of the location. They also have a Victory Point value. Generally the higher the Victory Point value, the more difficult it is to conquer the location.

Grant: How does each theater affect the game function? Why was this important to model?

Steve: Different die are used for each theater to represent the different makeup of troops. The locations have different defense capabilities, based on several factors including accessibility, fortifications and numbers of troops, and the cards often specify events or combat benefits that will only happen in a particular theater.

Grant: How does combat work?

Steve: Combat is by die roll attempting to “conquer” the defenses of each location including any additional garrisons, and often aided or impeded by card play.

Grant: What is the makeup of the custom combat dice?

Steve: Red, black and green dice are British dice – red for the dice representing British regular troops and the British navy, black for “Hessian” mercenary troops, and the green for British auxiliaries such as Loyalists and Native American allies. The American dice are light blue representing Continental and other trained American regular troops, brown for American and Spanish auxiliaries such as militia and Native American allies, white representing French allied regular troops and yellow for Spanish regular troops. It was important for me that the dice be of good quality.

Grant: Why is each side limited to 3 attacks per turn? What does this represent from history?

Steve: It is a game construct to control the flow of the game and approximate the ability of forces to conduct multiple campaigns during that war. The cards will sometimes give an additional attack or take 1 or 2 away. As a game on such a large strategic level that is meant not to be overly complex, there are several abstractions like this. The predecessor game, French and Indian War, actually had fewer attacks per turn as the geography was more limited and it better approximated the abilities of the belligerents during that war. In this game, the country is more developed, the armies were larger, and the war was more far ranging. Even in the west, the rivers provided the “highways” for campaigns.

Grant: How does the game use cards?

Steve: Each side has a deck of Event Cards and one is played each turn. They are historically themed to various historical events and possibilities of the war. There are more Event Cards than turns so you are never fully sure which cards will turn up in each game. This was purposeful.

Grant: Can you give us a few examples of these cards and explain their effects?

Steve: The cards vary the number of attacks, may limit the attacks to a certain theater or against certain locations and may allow additional die rolls during combat. For example, the “New Ireland” card allows the British player to re-roll 2 auxiliary die for any attacks against Concord or Maine locations that turn. The “Trust the French” card allows the American player to conduct 2 attacks with French die instead of the normal limit of 1 for that game turn assuming the French are in play.

Grant: What is the general Turn Sequence?

Steve: The British and American players alternate turn. The sequence is: 1. Naval Move Die Roll for the British or Special Event Die Roll for the Americans; 2. Draw Event Card; 3. Identify Locations to Attack; 4. Combat; 5. Strategic Move.

Grant: What is the purpose of the British Naval Move Die?

Steve: To give the British the historic ability to land forces in a port from the sea. The roll tells you if you can do it or not that turn. It is not certain each turn.

Grant: What is the reference to Von Steuben training? How does this affect the game?

Steve: Von Steuben was a Prussian with military training (though not as much as he represented) but he brought discipline and training to the Americans which made them better soldiers. Once Von Steuben Training is in effect, the makeup of the American dice being rolled each turn becomes more deadly.

Grant: How is victory achieved?

Steve: The British Player wins by controlling Locations worth at least 30 Victory Points at the end of the Game, which must include 4 out of the 7 following Locations: Boston, Charleston, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Yorktown. Otherwise, the American player wins. There are only 10 turns so the game plays out quickly and often initial strategies have to be changed by mid-game.

Grant: What are you most pleased about with the outcome of the design?

Steve: That it is a fun game to learn about history that even young gamers can enjoy. Prototypes of the game were play tested by several teenagers besides older gamers, and they all seemed to really enjoy it and became interested in the underlying history.  

Grant: What type of experience does the game create for players?

Steve: It is a beer and pretzels type of game that involves a fair amount of die rolling, but the die rolling and choices how to use the die, make it tense. Having said that, more history is worked into the game than in most beer and pretzel type games.

Grant: What other designs are you currently working on?

Steve: As I think you know, the main designs I do are on battles, often on ones that are lesser known. The battle games all use the same base system but have special rules, counters, cards and maps specific to that battle and can be played in about 90 minutes. I have about 20 of those games released and several more in development. Future games in the series cover Sedan 1870, Sekigahara, Vienna, First Siege of Ayutthaya, Wagram and Tenochtitlan. Isly, Kandahar, Waterloo and Adowa are also mostly finished but I don’t have those posted yet.

Often I get assistance from people from other countries such as on the Ayutthaya game where I have received information and pictures of weapons from academics, other experts and history enthusiasts from Thailand and Burma. More information about games in development is here: https://www.thgcpublishing.com/games-in-development and on my company Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/THGCPublishing. 

My Facebook page is updated more often. I worked with Steve Jones at Blue Panther to design a general template to produce these games. The maps are a nice thick canvas type material too and the counters are thick in the typical Blue Panther fashion. Blue Panther has done an excellent job with my games. If Road to Independence turns out to be popular, I have a similar design on the American Civil War.

It was really nice to make your acquaintance Stephen and thanks for the look inside this very cool game on the American Revolutionary War. I can feel your passion for the game and its history and believe that this will shine through in the game play experience. Keep up the good work and we look forward to talking with you about your future upcoming game projects.

If you are interested in Road to Independence: The American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783, you can order a copy from the Blue Panther website at the following link: https://www.bluepantherllc.com/products/copy-of-dawn-of-battle-coming-soon

-Grant