Bayonets & Tomahawks

A medium complexity simulation where French, Indians and British clash ruthlessly for control of North America. Players’ attention is kept fully on the board with the fluid yet rich system. Raids, sieges, naval battles, Indian alliances… nothing is left out. One side controls the French and the other the British. The board covers the area from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, to Virginia. It includes wilderness sites, Indian villages and British and French colonies with their settlements. Movement is point-to-point on land. Pieces can also be transported at sea. The French player starts with the most Indian allies in play. There are also neutral Indians who will eventually join one side or the other. Bayonets & Tomahawks offers scenarios that range from one year duration to the full campaign (5 years). In each, the British player can achieve victory by capturing a set number of key sites by game end (e.g. Louisbourg, Québec, Ohio Forks, etc.). The French can win by preventing this or by knocking out the British colonies with raids in any single year. Each year has eight Action rounds where movement, constructions, and battles take place; and three Logistics rounds where fleets arrive with reinforcements, colonials enlist, pieces return to colonies for winter and reserve supply is drawn. Action tokens drive the game: both players start the year with one reserve action token and draw a new one at the beginning of each Action round. They then secretly bid one of their tokens for the present round. Each supply point (SP) on a token allows one stack of pieces to perform one action: e.g. raid, muster, movement, construction, etc. With a varying number of SP per token, there’s a built in degree of uncertainty for players regarding their capacity to act during each round. With a diverse unit mix and game mechanics that immerse players in the fascinating military asymmetries of the 18th-Century colonial frontier, Bayonets & Tomahawks will ensure fun for players of all levels.