| Designer | Volko Ruhnke |
| Publisher | GMT Games |
| released | 2001 |
| Players | 2 |
| Playing Time | 4+ hours |
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by Moritz Eggert
Many of you wondered what has become of the long announced challenge Eurogamer against Wargamer that the great Jason of Point-2-Point took in great spirit. Now the game has been decided on, it is the excellent "Wilderness War" by Volko Ruhnke, a card-driven wargame about the French-Indian War in North America.
We are now playing the Tournament Scenario, which starts in 1757 and which has only 4 turns, so it should be finished in a couple of shows. It is the goal of the French to defend an initially strong position against an increasingly powerful British army. If the French can keep the British at 0 VP they win, if the British get even only 1 VP to their side, they win. The game starts with the French at 4 VP, so the British need to get at least 5 VP. VPs are earned by conquering forts and winning battles and many other things, but as the rules of this game are ca. 167 pages I won't go into any detail.
But this "short" scenario is a good suggestion by the experienced Jason, who knows of course that most card-driven wargames on ACTS take an average of 3 years to complete. I'm exaggerating, but that's these darned wargames for you! May they be punished!
We determined randomly who takes which side. The dice decided that I, the peaceful Eurogamer, would play...ze French. And Jason, the warmongering American wargamer, would play... the British.
The game has just started, this is what happened so far.
Ze French start ze game by moving peacefully with their canoe and a little scouting army to Oswego. It is a peace expedition, designed to bring love and happiness to the Native Americans.
The British react by deploying two of their most powerful armies on the French border.
Ze French again build a little stockade at Oswego, an act of peace and love. They share their bread with their Native American Friends.
The British, realising that this might bring many of the native Indian tribes in the area to the French side, strengthen their Northern border Militia. Probably a wise move by General Jason.
And yes, mon capitain Maurice sends a call to the Iroquois Indian nations, and the Karaghiyadirha, Cayuga, Oneida and Onondaga react positively by assembling little scouting parties.
The British, unphased, assemble the biggest army the North has ever seen and march into the direction of France's vulnerable fort at Ticonderoga.
Ze French, zey get a little scared, so zey retreat to the Green Mountains to plant some apple trees.
The British continue with their policy of power, putting a deserted Ticonderoga, only populated by innocent women and children, under Siege.
But now, ze devious French reveal zeir true plan. In one single move the innocuous green mountain army falls in the back of ze British, putting their Hudson Carry South fort under siege and continuing on into the British heartland. They release some Coureur de Bois, Wood Rangers in French, to raid alone there, but apart of killing some chicken the French don't achieve anything.
Now cut off supply for their siege of Ticonderoga the British react violently by simply sending a contingent of the siege army to kill the sieging French while sending out the task force of Schenectady stockade to get into the back of the invading French army. This is successful, the first battle of the game results in the complete annihilation of....one meek French army. But apparently the battle was only a ploy to assassinate the leader of the British contingent: Commander Webb is killed by a "stray bullet" and his army sits around leaderless, always a bad situation in this game as activating single units costs a lot of operation points.
Now the French react with their own campaign. The army at Oswego advances to the now empty Stockade Schenectady, conquering it and garnering the first VP for the French, which now have 5. Sadly they have also lost a VP for the mock battle with Webb, so the count is still 4 VP.
The small scouting force in the British heartland continues on to Trenton, in a mad attempt to annoy the British behind their own lines.
This is where we leave the action for now, more to come...
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