Beaver Wars in Ohio playtest: Turn 6

 My Erie tribe had a "bonus battle" this turn. After initially confirming they could attend on our arranged date at the pizzeria, three players had something come up. Two of them obligingly matched up against each other in the strategic phase, and were able to schedule a makeup game. The third I fought with my Erie on another date, as well, despite also fighting a battle on the regularly scheduled meeting at the pizzeria against a different opponent. I reasoned that since I did not fight a battle due to the odd number of players last turn, that no one would mind if I made that up with an extra one this turn. In fact, my players have been incredibly flexible during this playtest. If two players can't make it, the others leave their tribes alone so that they can match up against each other. It would be a disadvantage to fight fewer battles over the course of the campaign, although the rules will have mechanisms to make that fair.

    Rival Shawnee and Susquehannock warparties close beneath the trees of the Eastern Woodlands of Ohio

The first and second place tribes continued to roll, both winning major victories this turn. The Neutrals were the tribe I fought on our Saturday morning at the pizzeria. The battle was going well, at first. I was using my warriors with the Marksmen trait and our matchlocks to good effect. The turning point came, though, in one of those cinematic moments that seem to occur so often in games of Song of Drums and Tomahawks. One of the Neutral warriors dashed forwards towards my warriors to collect a scalp. One of my matchlock men fired at him and knocked him down. Another of my warriors rushed forwards to dispatch him with a "Powerful Attack" (using two actions in one attack, which makes the opponent -1 to its die roll). Despite having a +4 to +1 advantage, Keith won the die roll and knocked my Erie brave down! It was still my turn, so I had another warrior rush forward. Once again, I had a +4 to +1 roll on opposed six-sided dice. Another loss. A third warrior ganged up on the heroic Neutral warrior and also could not finish him off. I had just lost three straight six-sided dice rolls with an advantage of +3 to my rolls! I don't even want to calculate the odds of that occurring. The heroic warrior popped up on Keith's next turn and finish off an attacker. Soon, all three of my attackers lay dead at the mighty warrior's feet.

    Susquehannock hunters race to rescue one of their brothers who has been captured by the Shawnee

Just as you would expect, my warband was demoralized after this display of ferocity. We had gone from being ahead on enemy casualties to faltering fast. Keith ended up winning 15-3 in scenario victory points -- another major victory for his tribe, and yet another defeat for mine.

    A raiding party from the Neutrals tribe is surprised and strung out by an unexpected ambush by Erie hunters

Other battles raging at the pizzeria included a bloody clash across a creek between the Seneca and Kickapoo. The Kickapoo continued their run of success, winning their last three engagements. They notched a major victory, 12-6. The Miami tribe finally recorded their first win of the campaign. They fought against the Honniasont "All Youth" force. Bruce, our newest player, has been trying out new tactics. This one saw one veteran chieftain leading a force of 16 Youths. The Miami were outnumbered, and despaired of being able to kill enough of their enemy to force a morale check (where Youths are at a disadvantage). It took more than two hours -- which is actually a long game for thees size battles -- but eventually the persistent Honniasont fell below 50% losses. Within a turn, all their troops had fled the field. The exhausted Miami howled in triumph, victorious 19-10.

    Warriors from the Neutrals tribe fearlessly close with my Erie warparty

One of the rescheduled battles pitted the Susquehannock against the Shawnee. Joe, who has not lost a battle yet, has a completely different strategy than Keith -- whose Neutrals are in first place. Joe uses his upgrade points to make his warriors Marksman, and tries to gun down his opponents at range. Keith's Neutrals have settled in on the opposite strategy -- upgrading his warriors to Strong so that they are +1 in melee. Doubtless, the two will clash again before the end of the campaign. However, in this battle, Joe managed to win more of the melees against the Susquehannock. The battle was fairly even, with each player taking out one of the opponents on each of their bounds for several turns in a row. On one disastrous bound, though, Steve's Susquehannocks engaged in three melees -- all of them at an advantage. Two of his three braves fell to adverse die rolls, though. After that point, the Shawnee began to steadily grind their opponents down until they began to take morale checks and withdraw from the field.

    This hero of the Neutral tribe would fight off all three of my Erie warriors who surrounded him -- even when he'd been knocked to the ground!

My "bonus battle" saw my Erie warriors ambushing the scout leading a Mohawk raid on one of our villages. Dave's troops were strung out and relatively vulnerable, according to the scenario deployment. I concentrated on the forward end of his column, but my activation rolls failed me and he was able to regroup without any losses. In fact, his warriors shot and killed two of my Youths who had unwisely advanced to the forefront of my force. The Mohawk strategy in the Beaver Wars campaign has been to use Hunt cards as opposed to War cards. In six turns, he has played only Hunt cards. The effect is that he leads the tribes in the number of Beaver pelts obtained over the course of the campaign. This translates directly into the number of figures you can upgrade from Bow to Matchlock. With this turn, Dave reached the point where all nine figures in his force (he took a Chieftain and all Warriors, no Youths) carry a Matchlock. This is a major advantage, and one he made good use of in our game. I was able to kill three of his Mohawk and force a tight battle, but once things began to collapse, my Warriors and Youths were falling left and right. The end result was yet another Major Defeat for the Erie.

Tribe	Place	Victory Points
Neutrals	1st	26 points
Shawnee	2nd	23 points
Mohawk	3rd	22.5 points
Kickapoo	4th	17.5 points
Seneca	5th	13 points
Miami	6th	11 points
Susqehannock	7th	10 points
Erie	8th	9 points
Honniasont	9th	3 points

Our top two stay in the same place, but the Mohawk make a jump into 3rd place

It is a source of amusement for my friends that I wrote the rules, but have a long history of struggling to win games with them. I point to the fact that my dice rolling is notoriously bad. Witness the three consecutive losses with a +4 to +1 advantage against Keith. In fact, my first attack against one of Dave's Mohawk that I had knocked down -- another +4 to +1 roll -- saw me come up short again! I joke that I'm not supposed to win my own campaign playtest, so having a tribe at the bottom of the standings doesn't bother me. Plus, you could always say I am just being a gracious game master, and letting my players win the laurels of victory. However, I know the truth is I DO try to win. It is just those little incidents in the game that inevitable turn the tide of battle against me.

Tribe	Prestige Points (PPs)
Neutrals (Keith Finn)	16 (5 MajV, 1 MinD)
Shawnee (Joe Merz)	15 (3 MajV, 3 MinV)
Kickapoo (Andy Swingle)	10 (3 MajV, 1 MinD)
Mohawk (Dave Welch)	10 (3 MajV, 1 MinD)
Seneca (Mike Stelzer)	9 (1 MajV, 3 MinV)
Erie (Mike Demana)	5 (1 MajV, 2 MinD)
Miami (Jenny Torbett)	5 (2 MinV, 1 MinD)
Susquehannock (Steve Phallen)	4 (1 MajV, 1 MinD)
Honniasont (Bruce Adamczak)	1 (1 MinD)

 
Still, everyone continues to have fun with the Beaver Wars playtest. The scenarios continue to provide new and interesting challenges to the players. I scrupulously ask players for feedback on every scenario, and we are making tweaks to each as we agree are needed. I'm particularly happy that no major changes in the campaign rules have been required. This second "reboot" of the campaign rules seems to working like a charm. I will probably try to have a post-game session soon, though, and if no changes appear to be needed, begin putting the rules into the publication process.

Tribe	Scenario Victory Points (SVPs)
Neutrals (Keith Finn)	97
Shawnee (Joe Merz)	86
Mohawk (Dave Welch)	61
Seneca (Mike Stelzer)	60
Kickapoo (Andy Swingle)	59
Miami (Jenny Torbett)	55
Susquehannock (Steve Phallen)	45
Erie (Mike Demana)	38
Honniasont (Bruce Adamczak)	15

Tribe	Beaver Pelts
Mohawk (Dave Welch)	41
Neutrals (Keith Finn)	33
Shawnee (Joe Merz)	32
Kickapoo (Andy Swingle)	29
Susquehannock (Steve Phallen)	25
Miami (Jenny Torbett)	22
Erie (Mike Demana)	22
Seneca (Mike Stelzer)	20
Honniasont (Bruce Adamczak)	19