Louisbourg 1758

Each side can bombard opposing units in adjacent locations around Louisbourg. Moving army units and ships can provoke battles. Battles reduce unit strength and provoke withdrawals.

The game board shows Louisbourg, its harbor and surrounding locations. Key land locations are indicated by name and a location circle. Adjacent locations are connected by solid and dotted lines, representing trails, paths, waterways and roads used for overland travel. Dotted lines offer defensive advantages in battle. The movement of army units is regulated by location-to-location movement on solid and dotted lines.

There are two maritime locations on the game board, the port of Louisbourg and Gabarus Bay. These are the only places where ships are allowed. Land units are not allowed to occupy sea locations, but may cross them to adjacent land locations if carried by ships. British ships start in Gabarus Bay.

Game units represent army units and ships during the campaign. Each unit is represented on a wooden block printed with information about the unit. French units are represented by blue wooden blocks and British units by red wooden blocks.

On the blocks are unit type icons. There are regulars, light troops, rangers, militia, Indians and ships. Force Points (FP) are the pips around the center of the icon, representing the unit's strength and the number of dice they roll in battle.

Operational cards can be used by any player. There are a limited number of cards available, and this is a shared deck used by both players. The cards have a flag, either British or French, showing which side is affected by it. The only card they can play is the one that has their flag on it and is played face-up. Players can only play cards that affect them, not their opponent. Cards with an opponent's flag in a player's hand can only be discarded.

On odd-numbered turns during the operations phase, players draw a card from the operations deck if their cards in hand are less than three. They may play or discard (without showing their opponent) a card when they are active for the turn, or when the card indicates. They may not play a card when their opponent is active. If a card is played, it is played face-up and is only effective for the turn in which it is played.

Operations cards can change and improve players' tactics for a turn, so their effects need to be factored into opponents' strategies. They keep players slightly unbalanced as to what an opponent can or cannot do. What's more, with the shared deck, drawing an opponent's card that can only be discarded is always powerful because your opponent won't be able to benefit from his advantage, and this information is known only to you.

Contents :

•     1 Game Board mounted on Rigid Cardboard
•     2 Rule Books
•     20 Blue Wooden Blocks
•     30 Red Wooden Blocks
•     1 Set of Cards
•     8 Dice
•     1 Customized Storage Tray