Or so I hope...
<PERSON> and I have played a number of games of ‘A Few Acres of Snow’ in the last week. This is a fascinating game, with a mechanic that is focused on card management, combined with a theme that evokes very asymmetric capabilities of the French and British colonialists in the so-called French and Indian War 1754-1763.
There may be debate over whether AFAoS is a ‘wargame.’ On the one hand, the elements of play do not align the strength and locations of military forces or assets on a fixed time schedule. On the other hand, the game is essentially conflict based, as the French and British act mostly at the expense of each other as one under-explored continent is not big enough for the both.
AFAoS has a familiar Wallace feel, where early decisions on resources impact game outcomes even near the finish, and one never feels like there is enough capability to do everything that is needed.
The components:
The board is a map of the North American coastline and interior, spanning from Norfolk, VA to northern Lake Huron to the St Lawrence seaway. The various bits provide for money, villages, towns, and fortifications. Each player has a series of color specific cards (red/pink for British, blue/light blue for French) from which to draft cards for play. There are also green colored cards that may be drafted mutually by either side.
A perusal of game questions on BoardGameGeek will reveal that some location connections are not easy to interpret, which I attribute in at least one case to a misprint in the Quebec card’s listed connections. The bits are attractive, if a bit small (I purchased the limited printing that had more intricate shapes). The game is attractive and the player aid sheets are very helpful. Aspects of connections for the raiding mechanism (below) has also been difficult for some to interpret.
The Mechanics:
The mechanics center around the each player playing cards from a hand that usually consists of five cards. The hands are replenished from decks -- there is a French deck and a British deck. The players alternate turns with two actions apiece, with actions involving playing down varying numbers of cards, depending on their availability and the action taken. Players fill the hand back to five cards after every turn.
Cards come in two types: Location cards represent the villages and towns that players control and variably provide resources such as population, military (land and naval), transportation (naval, bateaux, or wagons), and money/trading (via direct payouts or selling of furs). Most of the start cards are location ones based on the beginning locations -- additional ones are added through the game as villages are settled. Empire cards are available that provide specific capabilities and allow critical card management actions; these may be drafted through use of actions and usually expenditure of money. 92
Through the course of the game, the available deck grows for each player, and may have to be modified to best respond to the conflict with the opposing player. In his designer notes, <PERSON> states he adopted this approach from the game Dominion.
Cards are played to settle villages, grow villages to towns, attain money, and manage decks. Villages provide additional cards (as described), help control key areas on the board, and help victory point tallies at the end of the game. To settle, a player needs to play a card from a controlled town adjacent to the location, the means for transportation between the two locations, and sometimes additional population -- thus a settle action requires either two or three appropriate cards. Towns are grown to improve victory points. Fortification cards may allow placement on towns or villages for added protection. Money supports card play, and is essential to acquire additional cards and to allow deployment of certain cards within an action. The deck may be managed by certain cards that allow additional draws (‘Home Support’), removal of cards from the deck (the ‘Governor’), and picking from the discard pile for the French (the ‘Intendant’ card). One may also place cards into a reserve that may be bought back (for money) to supplement a player’s hand at the appropriate time. Finally, cards may be discarded. Used cards are placed into a discard pile. Newly acquired location and empire cards are also placed into the discard pile so they are not immediately available. When the draw deck runs out for a player, the discard pile (with newly acquired cards) is shuffled and forms the new draw deck.
There are two forms of active conflict that is played out on the board. Sieges are the one type and the only one that uses traditional army/navy function. There may be only one French initiated siege and one British initiated siege on the board at any time. 937