Bayonets and Tomahawks

Bayonets & Tomahawks is a 2-4 player game about the North American conflict between the French and British empires known as the French and Indian War.

For this first game, we played the first year scenario to get used to the rules for the next time we played. The rules were straight forward, except for the combat rules. This is because it is an innovative system for enabling varied results on the conflict, especially when overwhelming forces are not brought to the battlefield. More on that later.

The board has the area of the British and French colonies and the disputed wilderness battlegrounds in between.

The triangular light units can move more easily through the small paths and byways distinguished by the dotted lines. If moving heavier square or circular units, light units must accompany them. The light units are weaker in combat though but it is important to bring mixed units when going into combat.

During combat, each unit rolls a die, grouped by the types of units they are. In order to score hits on your opponents units, the red splatted die with the shapes must be rolled and match the unit shape that is rolling. The flag adds to the battle result. The crescent is used when rolling to see if a leader has been killed, and the bayonet & tomahawk gains combat results for any unit. It took a while during the game to get used to this mechanic. It gives a fog of war to the battle and means that you need to have more forces that you may think or you can take a chance.

This game also has a logistics mechanic, with semi-random reinforcements coming at different times at the beginning of each year. You also require your non-light units to trace supply lines at the end of each action period of the year and during the winter phase must head back to large communities or forts. 

Bayonets & Tomahawks has many aspects that are different than other games I have about this historical event and I look forward to playing it more.