''We the People'' is a board wargame about the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

, published by

Avalon Hill Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the company ...

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

and designed by

Mark Herman Mark Herman (born 1954) is an English film director and screenwriter, best known for writing and directing the 2008 film '' The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas''. Life and career Herman was born in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. H ...

. ''We the People'' was the first wargame to use cards as the primary way to control the pace and tempo of play, with a strong element of

fog of war The fog of war (german: links=no, Nebel des Krieges) is the uncertainty in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations. The term seeks to capture the uncertainty regarding one's own capability, adversary capability, ...

through the hidden card information. This started a new genre of wargames that have emphasized competitive play and a strong historical narrative.

Influence

The card-driven and point-to-point system pioneered by Mark Herman in ''We the People'' has been implemented in a number of subsequent games, including For the People which was a sequel.

GMT Games GMT Games is a California-based wargaming publisher founded in 1990. The company has become well known for graphically attractive games that range from "monster games", of many maps and counters, to quite simple games suitable for introducing new ...

has produced a number of games implementing this system, including The Napoleonic Wars, Here I Stand, Virgin Queen,

Twilight Struggle ''Twilight Struggle: The Cold War, 1945–1989'' is a board game for two players, published by GMT Games in 2005. Players are the United States and Soviet Union contesting each other's influence on the world map by using cards that correspond to ...

, and upcoming Tanto Manta.

Gameplay

One player represents the interests of the British, the other the Continentals/Americans. The game board for ''We the People'' represents the portion of the 13 American colonies and Canada in which the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

primarily took place. The map shows a web of cities and towns connected by lines along which armies can move. Each player’s objective is to control a majority of colonies by occupying city and town spaces with political control markers. During each one-year turn of the game, players alternate playing strategy cards. These allow use of operations points or special events to affect the political and military situations. Players field armies consisting of manpower points which are led by historical generals (represented by vertical game pieces bearing a general’s image and stats). When armies battle, players are dealt cards from a separate battle deck - each card represents a tactical military maneuver and its counter, i.e. “Flank Attack Left / Refuse Right Flank”. Each round of battle, the attacker plays a card which the defender must match with his/her own identical card or else the defender loses. After each round, if the defender has survived, he/she rolls a die to attempt to become the attacker for subsequent rounds of combat, with better generals having a greater chance of passing the die roll. Although armies are useful tools for maintaining political control, military dominance does not necessarily assure victory, a game concept which mirrors the historical failure of the British Expeditionary Force to pacify the rebellion.

References

External links

* {{Avalon Hill American Revolutionary War board wargames Avalon Hill games Board games introduced in 1993