Stripped Down for Parts: The Battle of White Plains (Battles of the American Revolution series)

 

 

GMT Games recently had their yearly Thank You Sale. This use to be known as the Summer Sale, but after the company’s fans stepped up to help them through the COVID lockdowns of 2020, GMT wanted to find a way to give back to the community that had supported them with extra orders and understanding over shipping delays. Under the Thank You Sale rules, anyone can order a single game at 50% off using a code mentioned in their promotional emails. On top of that, for each P500 game you’d ordered in the last twelve months, you could order another game at 50% off the sticker price. I’d had to cancel a bunch of over the course of this year, but I was surprised when I went through the list that I’d actually received about eleven P500 products (it helped that mounted boards counted toward the number). So, I took the opportunity to grab some of the games that I otherwise would already have had if I didn’t have to cancel my order for them.

One of these was the The Battle of White Plains: Twilight of the New York Campaign, October 28th–31st, 1776 (GMT Games, 2023). This is the tenth volume in Mark Miklos’s Battles of the American Revolution (BoAR) series. I came late to the party, but I have the American Revolution Tri-Pack* (GMT, 2017), reprinting the Battles of Guilford, Saratoga and Brandywine, and The Battles of Rhode Island and Newark (GMT, 2020).

I’m a big fan of the series; that is, I pretty sure I’m a fan. Thus far, I’ve only taken a couple of them out for a two-handed getting-to-know-you spin, and to my recollection, never a complete game. But I do like the cut of its jib. BoAR is a relatively simple and robust system that still manages to capture the style and nature of Eighteenth-Century warfare at the regimental scale. It’s a game of manoeuvre and sharp combat, and the series has looked at some of the pivotal battles of the War or Independence (US preferred name) or the American Revolutionary War (as it’s referred to in the UK), as well as some of the lesser-known actions.

The Battle of White Plains, however, is the first time the system has been taken to the realms of the hypothetical. I’ll come back to this point later. Right now, I’d loke to look at what the box tells us.

The complexity rating for the game is rated as a six out of nine, the high end of Moderate. I guess this feels about right; the series rules I’d put at a five out of nine, but every game has its own exclusive rues that can increase the difficulty-level a little. Solitaire suitability is rated three out of nine. I think I’d concur with this as well. It’s not unplayable in two-handed solo-mode, but given combat relies to a degree on hidden information the use of tactics cards that are revealed simultaneously), it’s not ideal.

The map-scale is 200 yards to a hex, the turns roughly an hour. Each Strength point equates to roughly 100 men or two field pieces. Now we’ll take a look at the Game Components as they appear on the list.

Two mounted map boards. There is a lot to like about the play area for Battle of White Plains. As a two-mapper, this is the largest footprint game thus far in the series, but there’s a lot packed into those two maps. The hexes are a forgiving one-inch across. The map itself is really quite attractive. the colour scheme is rich but muted; there won’t be any competition for your attention when the action starts. It adheres to the conventions of the previous games in keeping terrain to hard hexes. Lakes and forests are all kept in bounds, streams and ridge-lines adhere to hex sides to make movement and line of sight that much easier to establish. The whole thing is really beautiful, and consistent with the presentation style of the previous games.

The Map-board also contains the Turn track, Army morale track and a strength-point loss table. The spaces on the turn track are large enough to hold reinforcement counters and are filled with handy written reminders about events or prohibitions for different rounds. The whole thing is clean and functional. My only gripe would be that the matching edges are just a tad off, maybe 1.5 mm or so. The hex-edge on my copy of the map-boards make for a slightly elongated centre hex line. I’ve heard of other people having this kind of problem, but this is the first time I’ve experienced it myself in all of the joining map-boards; if anything, I’m amazed that this isn’t an issue with mounted boards more often.

One full-size counter sheet; One half-size marker sheet. For such a large play area, the counter density of the game is quite small, with barely one sheet of unit counters, and a second half-sheet of markers. The units and leaders are well-presented and easy to read, printed on good grey-core card-stock. The counters are on the larger side, maybe 5/8ths. The British and Colonial forces are differentiated by a background colour – beige and light blue respectfully, with a bolder-coloured stripe at the top to differentiate troop types (e.g. red for British Regulars, green for Hessians, ecru for Loyalists). Leaders are graded by a number of stars along the right-hand side to denote seniority. The markers are clearly marked, and denote a variety of game effects and functions, from manoeuvre orders and rally reminders to earthworks and weather conditions. The counter-set also includes two replacement counters, one each for Eutaw Springs and Monmouth Courthouse

Opportunity cards (sample).

52 Opportuity Cards; 16 Tactics cards. The game comes with two sets of cards. The Opportunity cards haven’t always been a feature of BoAR games, having been introduced with The Battles of Rhode Island and Newark. As the name suggests, they offer minor advantages to the holding player in given situations. No plan survives contact with the enemy, but a good officer is alive to the opportunities that present themselves in the situation to hand.

Tactics cards (sample).

The Tactics cards are two matching sets of cards representing the various tactical orders a player can allocate to their troops in the game. These reflect the nature of martial doctrine in the mid- to late eighteenth century. You have to keep in mind that, especially in the earlier battles of the war, the British and Colonial forces held very similar doctrines because so many of the officers and professional soldiers had fought alongside each other protecting British interests and projecting British might in the French and Indian War.

In the event of close combat, each player chooses a Tactic card for their side. Once each has chosen a tactic, both are revealed, and the matrix on the card consulted to find the appropriate DRM for the chosen tactic against the tactic chosen by the other player. A complete matrix of DRMs can also be found on the Player’s Aid Card.

PACs, front and back.

And interior spread.

Two 11” by 17” Player Aid Cards. The game comes with two identical bi-fold PACs. This is one of my favourite PACs for layout and usefulness; I’d wager that once you’re familiar with the rules and played it through a few times, you’ll rarely need to refer to the series rules. These are printed on good cardstock (as are the Opportunity and Tactics cards, I neglected to mention earlier).

Battles of the American Revolution Series Rulebook / Battle of White Plains Exclusive Rulebook. The BoAR series rules are clear, easy to read and to comprehend, and run to a mere 16 pages (really 14, plus a cover page and expanded Sequence of Play on the back cover). The series rules say on the cover that they are the June 2022 version, but after a quick comparison between this copy and the January 2020 version from Battles of Rhode Island and Newport, I don’t believe there are any particularly drastic changes; maybe some changes in wording for clarity, but no significant changes in the workings of the rules.

Playbook sample page.

The Exclusive Rules are a little more extensive than previous games (from memory). It comes to a whopping 36 pages, with six pages of preliminary notes and series rules variations, five pages of Special Rules, and a couple of pages outlining the special units introduced in the game. The game’s two scenarios are covered in six pages, and Mark Miklos’s illuminating design notes take up another three. The Exclusive rules also include a seven-page essay by Miklos outlining the historical situation and background of the New York campaign, a full order of Battle, and a representation of the counter sheets.

The scenarios include The Battle for Chatterton Hill, a representation of the historical action (4 ½ turns) and a hypothetical scenario, Howe’s Grand Assault (the expected assault that never came) covering ten and a half turns. Both scenarios look interesting, with the first probably playable inside of two hours (not counting set-up time) and the hypothetical scenario completable in an afternoon (the box says eight hours, but I think it would be doable in six or seven with no meal breaks).

Two ten-sided dice. Yes, the game even comes with dice; one red, one blue, so thematically appropriate.

That covers all the goods. The Battle of White Plains is shaping up to be really interesting game. The BoAR games tend not to be too counter-dense anyway, but with around 60-80 units a side over two maps, there shouldn’t be any congestion problems (well, maybe on the roads; it can happen with bad planning).

 

* It warrants noting that the first run of the American Revolution Tri-Pack,Vol. 1 sold out but is slated for a reprint (on GMT’s P500 print schedule), and at a second Tri-Pack, reprinting the battles of Monmoth, Newton and Germantown is also slated for publication. These tripacks (each set actually contains four games, on double-sided mounted boards) represent excellent value and dozens of hours of play.