A Few Acres of Snow

[Bozimus]

I must doff my tricorn hat to the English leader. As much as it pains me, I must admit that he is both a capable and audacious strategist.

[ixnay]

The glove has been thrown! My natives were next to useless, no matter how many times I pointed them at the timbered walls of Oswego. But finally my first troop of proper English Rangers finished training and found their way around that infernal hardpoint. I had pushed my settlements out into the weeds of Fort Duquesne, and indeed further on to Fort Venango. I heard reports that during clear sunsets, one could catch reflections off the glimmery waves of Erie.

My green rangers snuck along the shores of that great water and found the surprisingly large encampments around Niagara. In honesty, I must credit the french, for I had not thought it possible that such a proper town could be founded so far west, so early in our shared history. It was so large, that my daring raid only managed to knock them back a few months. A broken cistern here, a burned bakery there, we managed to score a hit, but still they linger, and now so close to one of my precious frontier holdfasts.

I sent a priest into the north, to see about recruiting away some of the natives they'd been shanghai-ing of late, but he only managed to garner a few field reports on french troop movements. Time is no friend to either of us, but space is no foe. It is nigh impossible to predict what will happen tomorrow...

[Bozimus]

Congratulations to the English! He played superbly and out maneuvered me at every turn! Well fought, monsieur!

[ixnay]

There was fire, from both musket and longbow. But, fortunately, never a shot was fired by the siege cannons the french had shipped over, at terrible cost, from the continent. Such a thunder would not shake the American colonies until the war of 1812. But that is another game...

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Great game Boz! I tried a tactic for the brits that would normally risk getting Boston sacked -- I went with a settlement strategy instead of a military one. This perhaps encouraged you to do the same, which can work for the French, and for a time it looked like you might pull it off. You made 2 newbie mistakes, though, and I failed to warn you about them - a most unsportsmanlike conduct on my part, for which I only forgive myself because I tried a risky gambit myself.

Newbies have a strong tendency to view aFAoS as a game of territory and control, but all the actions are tied up in the deck. If you don't manage and groom your deck, you will eventually find your hand so full of useless junk that your tempo slows to a crawl. You have to do some combination of:
- Home Support (to grab new cards)
- Intendant (to grab a spent card back)
- Governor (to remove dud cards)
- Reserve (to bank specific cards)

You did some of this, but above all of these should be caution and consideration before taking insignificant territory to begin with. Particularly for the french. You gain very little by making many small encampments, unless you are trying to run out the supply of villages/towns for a sprint to game-end. You benefit from having a smaller deck and cycling through cards quickly.

The other general mistake was failing to leverage the native Americans, who work better with the french. If you deploy them early and often, it knocks the brits off balance. In our game, I was highly vulnerable to this, because we had so many settlements within 2 spaces of each other, but your focus on territory and guns allowed me time to fortify the border (which blocks natives).

You played very well, and held the lead in points for a good portion of the game. Clearly you're a good strategist, and would likely now be much more of a threat in a 2nd game. Which I'd be HAPPY TO PLAY if you're up for it. Same sides, swap sides, or play with the "random rules generator (which enacts 3 randomly-selected variants - 1 to benefit each side, and one that is "neutral") to inject some chaos.

I am a medium-level player - there are veterans who eat guys like me for continental breakfast at this game.