New York 1776

Bruce dropped by this afternoon to play New York 1776 by Worthington Games. This game reprises Washington's withdrawal from Long Island to Manhattan and then north to White Plains. To win, the British must occupy New York and have knock the American army down to 20 strength points in 20 turns. The Americans win by avoiding this outcome.

The set-up is above, with the British all starting on Staten Island (top left). The American has some flexibility in his set-up--I chose to deny the British access to the main sealanes.

Bruce initially chased most of my troops off Long Island and drove me out of New York. I kept troops in Jersey to threaten him which slowed his advance.

Battles are fought on a separate battle board a la Napoleon. One of the kickstarter extras were terrain and tactics block (meh). A better extra would have been an army organizer so only the leader blocks (or unled blocks) would be on the board--having all of the blocks on the board obscures the map. An easy home fix, I suppose.

After some back and forth and some awful dice for both of us, I managed to sneak an army back down Manhattan and jump across to Long Island, Bruce gave chase (as he had to grind me down). And then I jumped back north, at which point we called it (not enough turns left for him to make a go of it.

A tough game for the British, I think. You need to be aggressive and that makes you vulnerable to spoiling attacks or a withdrawal by the Americans (which is historic). I'm keen to try my hand at the British. Washington is a slippery rogue!

Up next: I have some late 5th century 1/72-scale Roman cavalry that I have moved to basing. I am also reorganizing my hobby room before emoting onto to paint some 1/72-scale WW2 French.