King Phillip's War

King Phillip's War is a two player wargame about the 1675-78 conflict between the indigenous First Nations of New England under King Phillip (the Wampanoag sachem, Metacomet) against the New England colonists and their First Nation's allies. A wikipedia article is here.

The game starts in the midst of the Plymouth colony lands, due to the allied tribes under Metacomet.

The board is fairly empty otherwise because the non-aligned First Nations tribes need to await the success of Metacomet against the colonists. Certain tribes join into the conflict based on the number of colonist habitations that have been raised to the ground. This expands the area of conflict with more units on Metacomet's side across the colonies and frontier. The colonists counter this by raising villages to the ground of those allied with Metacomet and eventually certain tribes drop out of the fight depending on number of villages raised. 

The game focuses on the time between summer of 1675 to the summer of 1676, the time period of the most critical of the conflict. Each turn is either the start or end of a season or the entirety of winter. Fallen troop units can enter play for the colonists the next turn and fallen leaders can enter play two turns later. 

Colonists are limited in moving by ports (a colonist exclusive ability) or paths with a single white dot surrounded by red. Metacomet's forces can move by river or any trails, but the cost of moving on a trail is the number of white dots on the trail. The combat system is unique and reflective of the early combat of the time. The attacking player takes the two dice, each in different player's colours, with the special die and rolls them. If the results come up doubles, no combat takes place for a variety of reasons. If not, if the result is even the special die affects the colonists and if odd King Phillip. The special die is one of six events such as spy, reinforcements, and panic. The results of the special die are applied at different times but generally before combat results are applied. The number on a side's die is compared to the strength of the side in battle on a chart. Each side takes casualties and victory as well as provisions tokens are moved.

At the beginning, Metacomet can move more stacks of units and therefore conduct more activities on the map board. However at the start of each turn, a die is rolled by the colonists to see if Benjamin Church comes into play, whom was the creator of the type of unit that would become the US Rangers. He was the creator of light mixed colonist and friendly First Nations people to better raid Metacomet's allies and lead forces through the wilderness. At that point in the game, colonists can move up rivers and the trail one dot restriction is lifted.

For this first game I as the colonists, through bad luck by my friend as Metacomet, prevented him from achieving the second raised to the ground colonist village. Therefore he never gained the support of the next First Nations tribe. By slowly encircling his remaining forces and restricting options, again through bad luck, the game was decided before the winter of 1675. In an average game, Metacomet would have achieved support of many tribes and been able to put the colonists on their backs and have it be much tougher to win.

Historically this conflict was horrible for the colonists and deadly for the First Nations of the New England colonies. It did elevate the idea of the possibility of independence on both sides, setting the stage for First Nations support for the French against the English (King William's War and the French and Indian War) as well the American Revolution.

I would like to play this game again to more explore this important historical period that shaped the history of Canada and the United States.

Watergate

Watergate is a clever two player game that takes only 30-45 minutes. Its theme is the events surrounding the Watergate scandal of the Nixon presidency and the Washington Post journalists that were trying to uncover evidence linking Nixon to the break-in.

In the theme of the subject matter, one player plays the side of Nixon and his circle of influence and the other side is that of the Washington Post and their circle of influence. Each turn, an initiative and momentum marker is placed on the zero space along with three face down tokens of evidence. If the evidence is moved, it is flipped face up making it easier for the Post side to move it on their side of the track. At the end of a round, any tokens or evidence on their side of the track is utilized in order of the player that now has the influence for the next round. Momentum is placed on the player's card of which the Post side activates one time actions. Then evidence is placed on the board on the web, face up for the Post and face down for Nixon. Then the initiative and new momentum token is placed on the zero space with three face down evidence tokens and a new turn begins. 

Nixon wins by either getting five momentum tokens or exhausting the momentum token pool of nine. The Post wins when they connect two revealed informants to Nixon with a trail of evidence tokens. Evidence tokens are either blue (checks for Nixon's re-election campaign), yellow (the ground plans for the Watergate complex), green (transcripts of the Nixon White House tapes), or colour combination tokens.

The game is intense, as the cards often have either/or selections with many of the selections removing the card from the game if that specific action is used. Over time, that means that there will be less and less cards in your deck which limits options in your hand as the game reaches the final turns. 

The board above is the results of one game. The game art is depicted to look like a cork board in the Washington Post. The face down evidence tokens or informants are redacted in black showing options for lining the evidence or knowing what avenues are blocked. Each card comes with flavour text and are each about critical events that shaped this time period and event in American history. The rulebook also has history and details on people and timeline of the Watergate scandal. An excellent game with strong flavour. Highly recommended, especially to switch sides after playing a game, as each have their own strategies. 

Caverna

Caverna is a great boardgame for one to seven players. In the game you play dwarves with a cave home and each turn you take turns placing your dwarves on action spaces on the board. The results of the actions expand as the turns go on, which can include mining areas out, building farms, gathering resources and/or animals, furnishing your cave system, expanding your dwarf family, and adventuring. The dwarf family with the most gold at the end of the game wins.

Here is what the game area looks like after a solo game. It might seem that there is a lot going on, and there is at the end of the game, but like many games out there it is about choices. With limited selections for your two dwarf family tokens, you have to plan to feed your family and expand your options for long term success. As the game continues, your earlier choices lead you to certain paths for success. In games with more than one player, those choices may get taken away from you if they choose what you want to do before you select it. 

There is a cave and an outdoor section that you have to manage. You also get negative points at the end of the game for each space you have not used and also for animals you have not gotten. You do get bonus points for quantities of different species of animal and for certain room/outdoor space tiles selected.

The selections you can have during a game are always the same, so players can devise various strategies for synergy. However, as mentioned, that can be foiled by other players choosing selections before you do. Not to worry too much as the player tokens are removed after each turn.

The room tiles are also the same each game. The options seem staggering but should be selected to benefit from other choices you made earlier or are about to make.

This game has been played before and will be played again. Recommended.