Washington's War

Washington's War is a redesign of We The People, the first card-driven war board game ever made, by Mark Herman in 1994. Because the rights for We The People are held by Hasbro, who have no interest in publishing a wargame, We The People redesign was renamed but in essence Washington's War is We The People reborn. I was thrilled when I heard news last year when Herman announced that he was working on a redesign of We The People--the first card driven game and by the designer of the card-driven system.

Herman's goals were "... not just a re-tread ..., but a true re-design that is keeping the basic feel while simplifying and speeding up what was already a fast paced game." He achieve that goal by changing the combat system to from card based to dice based combat system. This key difference makes Washington's War playable in 90 minutes. My first game played little over 90 minutes, so I believe after more plays it is definitely playable under 90 minutes. Dice based system also is better for turn-by-tun internet playability which is in demand by serious wargamers. Herman also noted that, he sees lots of Euro games being played at conventions and wanted to targeted them as well as the wargamers. GMT, the publisher helped the Eurogame crossover appeal by increasing the production quality. Many wargames look like they were designed on home computers and produced in a garage. The production quality of Washington's War is one of the highest I have seen for wargames--mounted board, laminated cards, color rulebook and playbook, color box and more. Short play time and high production value is key when trying to offer crossover appeal to Eurogamers. We The People is one the few real war games (considered as wargames by wargamers) that are on par on short play time and in quality production values equal to eurogames. The mounted board and component quality are exceptionally high for a small press wargame.

Greg Costikyan described card-driven game extensively in his review of Napoleonic Wars: Card-driven systems have two advantages over the round-robin turn systems ("IgoUgo") of most wargames. First, the use of command points means that the game can be structured to allow a player to make some moves, have another player interrupt, and so on -- creating something closer to the continuous action and reaction that is reality, rather than the strict sequencing of typical games. Second, the events are a means of adopting the virtues of an "exceptions game," a game in which some rules on components alter or interrupt the usual rules of the game, which allows for greater complexity without greater effort in learning the rules initially, and also far more variability of play. It does have the drawback, of course, that players are often, in a game sense, responsible for initiating events that in reality the position they represent had no control over. By way of example, the "Serbian Revolt" event might be played by the British player, but it is far likelier that a Serbian revolt would result from local grievances than from the actions of British agents, so there's a degree of ahistoricity here.

Each card in Washington's War has multiple functions, that do two important things: encourages clever combination play and limiting luck by allowing more permutations of card play via good hand management. For instance a Operation Point card can be used to move a general and his army, buy reinforcements, or expand political control. Each turn is full of tough, meaningful choices especially deciding to focus on a political war or military campaign.

There are few things that bug me about We The People. Many card-driven games from GMT like Successors or Twilight Struggle, have operation value and event on one card so you can use the card for Operation Points or an historical event. I do not understand why Washington's War Operation Points and events are on separate cards. When I played Washington's War, some hands were series of obvious choices, something I never encounter when I played other card-driven, wargames. Washington's War cards still have multiple functions--combat modifier, removing opponents Political Control markers, get reinforcements and move generals but because Operation Points and events are on different cards, some card plays were obvious. The next thing is the cards and shuffling there are numerous events cards that cause the deck to reshuffle, I was reshuffling constantly, it is annoying because the deck is 110 cards which require shuffling in two batches. Finally the level of luck was little more than I like. Every battle general has a "coin toss", roll 1-3 your general fights at half strengths and roll 4-6, your general fights at full strength. I do not see what Herman was trying to simulate with that coin toss--a sick day, mood swings, or what?

However these are minor issues, I wholeheartedly recommend this game as one that every gamer should own because it is a great gateway wargame. It plays fast, easy to teach, has superb component quality.

BTW Like many wargames, playing Washington's War will teach you a few things like...did you know that Benedict Arnold was an American war hero, before the betrayal?