Ok, not really.  More like Voltaire quips as a title.  The theme of A Few Acres of Snow is the French and Indian War (if you’re of the American Persuasion, or the Seven Years War, or the War of Conquest. . .), one of America’s “forgotten wars.”  Let’s see what Martin Wallace has in store for us with this new addition to the Treefrog line.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should state up front a bias of mine.  I own 22 of Martin Wallace’s games, and have caused friends to get 2 more.  If I were to rank my owned games, almost every one of these would be in the top half, with Age of Steam, Automobile, Struggle of Empires, Brass, and Age of Industry easily making the top 20.  While I’m not a subscriber to the Treefrog line, I do check the web-site frequently, and with the exceptions of Gettysburg and Waterloo I’ve been excited to get them. All of them. I’m a fan.

That said, my initial thought on reading the Treefrog press release on A Few Acres of Snow left me with a definite feeling of “meh.” I’ve gone on record about how little stock I place on themes, but I have to acknowledge that it is a gateway – the chrome piques my interest, or not, as the case may be.  This one definitely did not.  Combine the lack of enthusiasm for the theme with my group’s general inability to get two-player games to the table, and I think I’ve demonstrated some balance for my Wallace fan-boy-dom.

Enough about me and my biases.  To the components!

What's in the box?

Components

Like almost every Treefrog offering, the key material for pieces is wood (with the obvious exception being the cards).  In the limited edition set, villages and towns are small houses and churches respectively, while fortifications are small squares with bastions.  Very cool.  In the regular edition these are replaced with cubes and discs.  Money is also the typical (for Treefrog) silver and gold disks (again, wooden if you have the limited edition, plastic otherwise).

The board is a large map of the northeastern region of North America, running from Detroit in the west to Novia Scotia in the east.  The British start with villages in places like New Haven, Philadelphia, and Norfolk, while the French start with villages in places like Montreal, Gaspe, and Louisbourg.  Each player also has towns (villages that score double at the end of the game) in Boston and New York for the Brits and Quebec for the French.  In between these starting areas are a large number of unfounded villages which can be claimed by the first player to reach them.

Each player also gets his or her own deck of cards which come in three stacks.  A starting deck, which is comprised primarily (or exclusively in the case of the Brits) of a card for each starting settlement.  The French also have a couple of starting “Empire Cards” which are special actions.  The rest of each players cards are divided into two stacks, unclaimed (or enemy controlled) settlements and Empire Cards.  There is also a small deck of neutral Empire cards which either player can have access to over the course of the game.

Finally, the game comes with FOUR complete and separate sets of rules and player aids in each of four languages.  A nice touch.

Close up of some French Settlements

Gameplay

Martin freely admits in the rules to co-opting certain elements of deck-building games like Dominion, but he puts his own spin on many of them.  Each player has a hand of five cards, and the ability to take two actions (except for the first turn of the game) that use those cards.

Location cards have three main areas – the name of the location, a list of other locations that they connect to and what transportation is needed, and the “parchment” which gives some cards extra abilities to be used in conjunction with other actions.  These abilities include things like settling, attacking, transport, or money gathering.

One common action is to expand into a new settlement.  This requires two or three cards, depending on the difficulty of the settlement the player is trying to establish.  First, you need an “origin” card for your expansion that has some sort of connection to your target.  Then you need the right kind of transportation (bateaux, ship, or wagon) to travel from your origin to your destination.  Finally, if it is a “difficult” settlement, you need a third card that has the “settle” action printed on it.  Once you have established a new settlement, the new location card is taken out of your “Locations” deck and placed in your discard pile for later use.

You can also use a similar sequence to lay siege to an enemy settlement, making the third card a card with an “attack” action printed on it (instead of the settle action).  Sieges are difficult to pull off, since you only win a siege at the beginning of your turn.  So if the British attack a French settlement with three attack icons (a strong opening), the French have their next turn to try and swing the battle the other way.  Only if one player has established dominance at the beginning of  his or her turn is the siege completed.

Other useful things to do with your actions are to earn money (which stays in your bank to be spent on drafting or playing some cards), drafting new cards into your deck, fortify a location, conduct a raid or ambush (thus utilizing the “Indian” part of the French-Indian wars), or put cards in the reserve.  The reserve is a different sort of mechanic.  As an action, a player may put a card from their hand into their reserve.  This makes the card public knowledge, but it also gets the card out of the player’s hand in a way that make it available to use later. On a later turn, that player may pay pick up their reserve and add them to his or her hand.

Empire cards are more straightforward.  They provide you with a simple action that you may perform.  Examples include adding attack value to a siege, drawing an extra three cards into your hand (as a “free” action, leaving your starting two untouched), culling less useful cards out of your hand, or raiding an opponent’s settlement.  Most of these cards cost money to draft, and many require money to use (although rarely does a card require both).

There are three ways that the game can end.  A player claims immediate victory if they successfully siege and settle his or her opponent’s capital (Quebec for France, New York or Boston for Britain).  Otherwise, the game ends when either: one player has played their last village or town, or one player has captured (through siege or raids) 12 points worth of “wood” from the other player.  For the latter, villages count as two points and towns as four.  If either of these last conditions occur, then each player adds up their victory points, most of which are printed on the board for settlements, plus any captured “wood.”  One’s towns double the printed value of a settlement.

Trust me when I tell you that even this lengthy introduction you see here barely covers the basics of the game and it’s play.  You are likely to feel that you are playing somewhat blind the first play or two because there is a dizzying array of options for strategic deck-building and for turn-by-turn tactical play.  After five games under my belt, I still feel like I’m just beginning to see some basic truths about style and sound play, and that’s part of the joy of this game.  There seems to be a wide variety of ways to pursue victory, and with the imbalanced start positions, compounded by the differences in the draft decks (even the location cards have different information on them from the French deck to the British), there is a wide avenue for exploring different paths.  The downside (if you think of it as such) is that this game requires multiple plays and some study before you’ll feel like you understand all your options.  This is the quintessence of a steep learning curve game.

Summary

The Good: A Few Acres of Snow is a Eurogamer’s wargame.  Or a wargamer’s Eurogame. The card drafting and play will appeal to the Dominion/Thunderstone/whatever fan, while the wargamer will appreciate the depth of strategy required to conduct military operations.  If you lean toward heavier fare, this game provides an extremely meaty experience with only about 2 hours of time invested.  The wide variety of cards and possible actions make the replayability factory high.  I even think this game delivers on theme.  The French-Indian war was slow and difficult, with coordinated attacks and army movement taxing to the coffers and logistical facility of both sides.  This is reflected in the care a player must take to properly stack their decks and then time their aggression.  Both sides in the real conflict turned to the native population to conduct more quick and decisive raids, but these were chancy tactics, again reflected well in the cards in this game.   Finally, there are a number of different styles players can try, from highly tense dance-like maneuver games, to all out “I’m gonna pound you” siege fests.

The Bad: The theme is likely to turn off anyone not interested in a wargame, and legitimately so.  While not nearly as complex as a true grognardian Advanced Squad Leader, players will feel like they are playing a wargame, even as they compare the experience to Dominion.  The steep learning curve will also put off the casual gamer, as the rules take a while to explain, and even with excellent player aids there is just a lot to absorb.  Beware analysis paralysis, as it can stretch this game into unpleasant lengths.

The Verdict: An amazingly deep, varied, and satisfying two player game that bridges the gap between Euro and Wargame with skill.  A- 

A Few Acres of Snow
Designed by: Martin Wallace
Published by: Treefrog Games
2 Players, 90-180 minutes
Expect to pay: $55 plus $15 shipping from Treefrog