A Few Acres of Snow

[dyeyk2000]

A Few Acres of Snow is a two-player, card-driven game about the French and British conflict in North America.

The card-play contains a focus on a deck-building mechanic similar to Dominion, and like many card-driven war games, each card will have multiple uses. The players have to chose only one aspect of the card to use when it is played. Each space captured by a player will add another card to the capturing player's deck.

From the box description:

A war fought at the edge of two mighty empires. For over one hundred and fifty years Britain and France were locked in a struggle for domination of North America. Thousands of miles from their homes, settlers and soldiers were faced with impenetrable forests, unpredictable American tribes, and formidable distances. Despite these obstacles they were able to engage in bitter warfare, with the British ultimately taking the prize of Quebec. A Few Acres of Snow is a two-player game that allows you to recreate this contest. You can change the course of history by your decisions.

A Few Acres of Snow takes an innovative approach to the subject, using cards to represent locations and manpower. As the game progresses you add to your selection of cards, increasing the range of actions available to you. There are many strategies to be explored. How quickly should you build up your forces, do you employ Native Americans, what energy should be expended on your economy?

The game is about more than just fighting – you must successfully colonize the land to have a chance.

[dyeyk2000]

That was weird. No AFAOS thread yet?

Anyway, finally got to play this with Arnold also and I was surprised it was much more complex than I thought. Unlike Wallace's last card game London which had fairly straight-forward card mechanics this had a hodge podge of actions that was a bit too much to take in at the start.

However impressed by how that card/deck-building/drafting works well to reflect the theme of the action ongoing on the board. For instance, there was a sense of if you had too much on your plate (hand), it would be more much difficult to manage your people on the field since your hand would be clogged. If you'd like to do a siege on a town, it would usually be long and drawn out, draining/tying up precious resources while you attack/defend.. there were many more instances like this.. so while my initial impressions of the game was one of unnecessary complexity, I'm willing to give it another shot and see what else is in there.

It's no eye candy though (I like eye candy haha), felt like an abstract game to for some reason. Perhaps because you're brain is trying to reconcile two kinds of games in your head.. a straight-up wargame which would lead you to pursue some kind of offensive strategy and spatial tactics.. and as a card game, and thus there is the element of setting up combos and engine building.

[maskmanjoe]

Hey you're right! I guess there hasnt been enough love for AFAOS just yet Lets see if we can change that.

One of the latest outings of Martin Wallace isnt the usual brain burner some of us are used to (yes Jake, this system doesnt burn brains yet, nothing like Steam or Rise of Empires does) but its no lightweight either. In A Few Acres of Snow, Wallace uses the popular card drafting mechanic in a very interesting manner to represent the struggle of British and French forces over the control of modern day Canada. Two general "types" of cards can be added to your deck to represent your resources over the course of the conflict: location cards representing a country's holdings in the area, providing much needed support assets such as gold and transportation, and empire cards representing a country's military capabilities. The game then challenges the players to manage their decks between gaining area across the board to support their "economic engine" for expansion and managing a more lean and agile military that can forge across contested areas quickly and efficiently.

There are several options available per turn that it can be overwhelming initially but later on actions become 2nd nature, allowing you to focus on a strategy. It makes use of a very familiar mechanic in a new and unique way thats why i highly recommend trying it out

[Adrian (the other one)]

For those who own a copy (or plan to buy a copy) of this game, here are some IMPORTANT rule changes that the designer has published recently, to address some imbalances between the French and British forces.

Check out the Boardgamegeek post here, and the subsequent discussion.

[maskmanjoe]

And here I thought the "imbalance" was asymmetrical play. Thanks Panda