I must admit – I love exploring new boardgames. You can see this by variety of titles on my blog and YT channel. Still, each year we are getting so many new, fresh games – however, many of which will not survive the test of time. On the other hand, some will become the so called all time classics. And believe me, despite playing numerous new titles each year, I still have many gaps in that category too!

So when my Dear Friend Clio asked me if I would like to try another game which landed on Rally the Troops – Washington’s War – I did not hesitate even for a moment. Mark Herman design, American Revolutionary War plus Card Driven Game – well, count me in! Let us see how it went!

The Platform

Rally the Troops is an online site where you can play board games in your browser, with fully automated rules enforcement. Play live or asynchronously with friends or strangers, or explore the games on your own. It is free to play, and you do not have to look at any ads – which is impressive.

The platform develops and grows all the time. At the moment when I am writing this article, Rally the Troops consist of 24 wargames from various publishers; we have a pretty wide array of the most iconic and prominent designs in our hobby, but you can also find some of the less known. It is rapidly expanding, and we are getting a new position every couple of months – based on the bandwidth of its main developer, Tor Andersson. There is a forum and Discord server where you can discuss the next titles in pipeline, ask the rules questions or simply express your gratitude to the team!

The Game

Washington’s War is the re-design of the original card driven game, We the People. Washington’s War, like its predecessor, pits the forces of a world power (England) against its rebellious American colonists as they fight for their independence.

The game features a dice-driven combat system that quickly resolves combat and is very friendly to Internet play (Rally The Troops takes great advantage of this – we have here minimal downtime). The game also features a new CDG discard mechanic that makes every card in your hand playable by allowing your opponent to buy his discarded events for an operations card.

In comparison to We the People, Washington’s War puts a lot of emphasis on the asymmetrical capabilities of the two sides. The British are a conventional army with a dominant naval capability that gives them great strengths in the coastal regions. The Americans are an unconventional force with a small Continental Army led by George Washington who yearns for French intervention. While the British struggle to expand their influence inland, the Americans struggle to keep their militia forces in the field. In the end it is the side that is better able to play to their strengths and protect their vulnerabilities that prevails in Washington’s War.

Session Reports

I will share my impressions, firstly providing some updates and information on our sessions. The idea was to play four times – the first two will be more exploratory, with me and Clio switching the sides of course. The third and fourth game assumed pretty decent knowledge of both sides of the conflict, its strengths and capabilities so we could fully explore that game! Let us see!

Game 1 – my introductory game of Washington’s War in which I led British, I learned a lot and was… utterly defeated! Well, that was a hard lesson – how to estimate the retreat paths, how to evaluate possible battle scores, how to isolate the Political Control markers, where to put pressure, what to control easily and what to contest. But I admit I got hooked by the game!
Game 2 – I tried to more or less follow the learnings from the first game; playing as Americans was a completely different experience – all those dispersing militias, good quality leaders, great possibility to go last in most of the turns. That was not easy but I managed to achieve victory. Hurray!
Game 3 – source of my utmost pride and satisfaction. As British, I put enormous pressure on American forces from the onset, focusing entirely on the North. Multiple revolutionary armies were crushed, George Washington captured and sent to Tower of London and the revolution quickly and swiftly crushed. As Clio said, this was not a mere victory but a total annihilation of the uprising.
Game 4 – in my last game, as Americans, we fought mainly in South; once I saw I cannot achieve much there I went for… Canada! That was a great gamble which started a chain reaction resulting in another American victory!

First Impressions

That was a real fun playing Washington’s War and familiarizing with another of the Mark Herman great designs. Let me share my impression and experiences after four games:

  • I believe the best way to describe this design is that it is very elegant. It captures the essence of the Revolutionary War, phases it wen through, struggles both sides faced and uncertainty experienced in many cases.
  • I love how asymmetric the game is; it uses few core mechanics for this and achieves tremendous effect – with all-powerful British struggling to expand their influence to ad-hoc, militia-type forces of America which appear and disappear constantly.
  • The short time to play – 90 minutes should be completely enough once you know the rules – allows the game to be played twice in one evening, switching the sides.
  • Of course, the Rally The Troops implementation is wonderful and makes for such an easy and streamlined experience; great module!
  • The potential luck factor when drawing the cards might have a big impact on your ability to perform any meaningful actions during the turn; in our four games we had several difficult situations; still, not once the final result was skewed by it.
  • The cards art – well, one can see that this game (published already in 2010) is based on its classic predecessors (We the People . For me this is a bit too far, too austere; I definitely would love much more elaborate graphics, however understand source of decision.

As you can see, I enjoyed that design and games with Clio. It was great to discover another classic and pretty thoroughly play it – four games, with possibility to lead each side twice gives a good portion of insights and experiences! Make sure to try yourselves: https://rally-the-troops.com/washingtons-war!