Played 1775: Rebellion (Academy Games) for Family Game Night again this past weekend. This time, we were able to get the oldest RockyMountainNavy Boy to play. He is more a video gamer than a boardgames, but Mom “mentioned” to him that 1775 could be used for learning about history too. Since he wants to be a teacher he decided to try it out….
This was our first 4-player go at the game and it pitted the Oldest RMN Boy (Continentals) teamed with myself as the Colonial Militia versus the Youngest and Middle RMN Boys as the British and Loyalists. The game was easy to teach and the Oldest RMN Boy caught on quickly to the game mechanics. Strategy was a bit harder to teach, and I let him make many the decisions during his turn with just limited advice. There were a few points I should have intervened more forcefully, but I have to balance the personal desire to win with the parental need to teach and nurture. Of the two, the latter is definitely more important; all the more so with the Oldest RMN Boy who needs valuable teaching points.
The game ended in the 7th Round with a narrow British/Loyalist win of 3-2. Some of the more memorable events during the game included:
- An indecisive offensive by the Continental Army against New York City early in the war the was narrowly defeated
- See-saw control of Rhode Island and Connecticut; kicked off by the use of Benedict Arnold to turn the sole Continental Army unit in Newport to the British
- A Contiental/Militia “Southern Strategy” that was stymied by a single Loyalist group in North Carolina (Mountain Boys?) that refused to die
- In a key late-war battle to grab control of Pennsylvania, the entire Continental/Militia army fleeing.
Once again I can’t say enough just how much theme this game packs into its simple game mechanics and Event/Movement cards. That said, as much as we all love this game I think we may have to park this one on the shelf for a bit because the Youngest RMN Boy has studied all the cards and was “card-counting” in the game – pointing out that the Continentals had not played the Warship Movement card yet and they needed to careful. Is that meta-gaming or does it reflect a good intelligence network in the game?
Rocky Mountain Navy Gamer 