1775: The American Revolution
words & pictures by Mike Travis

The 1775 board game is from ACADEMY GAMES and can be played by up to four players. Sides are British Regular (Red) Tory Militia (Yellow) Continental (Blue) Continental Militia (White), French Regular (Purple) – allied to the Continentals, Hessians ( Orange) – allied to the British, Native Indians (Green) – see below for allegiance.

Once setup there are eight possible turns. Victory conditions are assessed at the end of each game, after turn two. The game can end earlier if any side plays their TRUCE cards. Victory conditions are simple, the person with the most COLONIES wins. There are sixteen colonies with varying amounts of areas to control. You gain control, and place a related flag token, when you occupy at least one area and there are no opposing factions in any of the remaining areas of the colony.

Note: Native Indians can be allied to both sides. If your faction moves in to an area which contains Native Indians then they then become allied and can move and fight with your army. If you leave them alone then they could become allied to whoever next comes in to their area. If not allied then they count against your faction controlling a colony.

Faction coloured dice are put into a bag and drawn. That drawn faction then goes. Each turn the faction colour gets four reinforcement’s and whatever is in the FLED UNIT  holding area. These must be place in a city, in a colony, you control. This makes for some interesting games as you cannot place them anywhere. You need to think and plan ahead of time and make sure you control colonies. Each player ( Red,Blue, Yellow, White) have eight movement cards and a number of event cards. A movement card is then played which indicates the amount of armies and areas you can move to. Up to two event cards can also be played during the factions turn. Although there are a few which can be played if you are attacked.

At the end of movement battle commences if different opposing factions are in the same area. Each faction has its own coloured dice which determines combat results. Possible results are Hit, Flee, or Miss leading to either Stay or Withdraw. The number of dice rolled is determined by the amount of blocks of each colour in a battle and allotted dice. i.e. the British regulars have a maximum three dice. If they have say five blocks then they can only throw a maximum of three dice per round. Battle continues until there is only one side left in the area.

That’s about it

So how did our game go?

The Continentals fared well around the central board, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, kicking the Brits out of Boston. The British gained control of the North and clung on to the South. However with the arrival of the French in the South the British and Tories were sent packing. This now meant that the British and Tories could now not reinforce the South.

With the South gone the British now made in-roads in to Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and retook Boston. There was plenty of back-and-forth fighting which saw, as with the British and Tories in the South, limited re-enforcing opportunities for the Continentals.

The game ended before turn eight as the Continentals played both their truce cards and made two sea born attacks from the South leading to Maryland and Rhode Island falling. This tipped the balance, five colonies to four, and the Continental Rebels won the day.