1750: Britain vs. France Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Winning the Game
• Determining Sides
• Advanced and Optional Rules
• Setup
• Starting the Game
  • 1) Draw from Historic Events Draw Deck
  • 2) Leader Actions / Colony Rules
  • 3) Political Objective Attempt
  • 4) Purchases
  • 5) Movement
  • 6) Battles
  • 7) Place Purchases
  • 8) Collect Revenue
• Ending the Game
• Other Optional Rules
• Historical Timeline: The Seven Years' War

Contents

• 8 Dice
• Political Objectives Mat
• British and French Player Mats
• Control Marker Tokens (19 total)
• Gold Coin Tokens (16 total)
• Cards, consisting of the following:
  • Starting Cards (4 total): 2 British, 2 French
  • Colony Cards (30 total): 15 British Colonies, 15 French Colonies
  • Historic Event Cards (69 total)
  • Political Objective Cards (10 total): 4 British Forces Released from Europe, 4 French Forces Released from Europe, 2 Spanish Expeditionary Forces
  • Secret Objectives Cards (12 total)
  • High Seas Card
  • Battle Deck Cards (mini cards, 46 total): 21 British Battle Deck Cards, 21 French Battle Deck Cards, 2 Spanish Leader Cards, 2 Dutch Leader Cards
  • Export Cards (mini cards, 61 total): 8 Silk, 9 Fish, 9 Furs, 8 Indigo, 10 Sugar, 8 Precious Metals, 4 Ivory, 4 Spices, 1 Timber
  • Historic Events Card (For Purchase)
  • Historic Events Card (Draw at Start of Turn)
  • 3 Alternate Image Cards (Two "His Majesty" cards and one card of "James Wolfe" - can be swapped with other versions per player preference)

Winning the Game

Players alternate taking turns, with each player taking 5 turns total. After both players have taken 5 turns (10 player turns total) the game is over. The player scoring the most victory points at the end wins.

Determining Sides

Players may flip a coin, roll dice, or agree to any other method to establish who plays France and who plays Britain. Sit on opposite sides of the table.

Advanced and Optional Rules

Players agree upon which (if any) advanced or optional rules they are using. If you want a more strategic play experience, play the game with the advanced rules. The optional rules are to lengthen the game and/or alter the setup of the colonies at the start of the game.

Advanced Rules: Counter-Diplomacy, Powerful Friends, Ransoms, Regional Dominance, Trade Mastery.

Optional Rules: Alternate Game Length, Expanded Conflict, Historically Accurate Colonies.

Setup

(The setup diagram shows, for each player: Hand, Draw Deck / Start of Turn Historic Events, Battle Deck, Historic Events for Purchase, and the North American Colonies, Exports and Indian Colonies areas.)

A) Shuffle all historic events cards. Randomly select 10 of these cards and (without looking at them) place them in a deck face-down. Place the card entitled "Historic Events Start of Turn Draw Deck" near these 10 cards. Neither player may look at these 10 cards nor any of the other Historic Event cards after the deck is created. Place the card entitled "Historic Events for Purchase" near the deck of remaining Historic Event cards.

B) Place the Political Objectives mat on the side of the table.

C) Each player takes their country's battle deck cards and player mat and places them in front of them. The players decide which Spanish or Dutch leader cards are available for purchase by either side.

D) Gold coin tokens, control marker tokens, dice, and export cards may be placed anywhere on the game table.

E) Place colonies.

Rules for placing colony cards on the table:

1. Colonies must be placed in their respective theater. The theaters consist of: A) North America, B) The Caribbean, C) Africa, D) India.
2. At the start of the game, shuffle and draw colonies until 3 colonies have been drawn for each theater. The colonies state the theater they belong to. Place the 3 colonies in a line (end to end) in each theater. Later in the game, if a card allows you to place a new colony, you may place it on either end of the colonies that are already in the theater (not between colonies that are already in that theater). In each theater, colonies that touch are considered 1 space away from each other (adjacent) for the remainder of the game. Colonies in different theaters are not adjacent.
3. Place the High Seas card in the middle of the four theaters. All colonies are considered 1 space away from the High Seas, and the High Seas is 1 space away from all colonies. Most units can move directly from any colony to the High Seas, or from the High Seas to any colony.

F) Establish which colonies are controlled at the start of the game:

Control markers are used to represent the control of a colony by France or Britain. A control marker on a colony does several things for the player:

1. Each colony controlled by a player at the end of the game is worth 1 victory point.
2. When you gain control of a colony, you immediately take control of the export produced at the colony (you place the export on your side of the table where it can result in you getting more gold). The icon on the colony depicts the export produced there.
3. You may only place units onto the table at colonies you control, or at the High Seas. Individual units such as "Local Allies" will note any exception to this rule.

After all 12 colonies have been placed on the table, the players roll off. Whoever rolls highest decides if they want to place the first control marker, or if they want to take the first game turn. The player not taking the first game turn places the first control marker on a colony of their choice. Then their opponent places a control marker on a colony of their choice. The players alternate placing control markers on colonies of their choice, taking control of 3 colonies total each. They also immediately take the exports generated by these 3 colonies and place them on their side of the table. The players start the game controlling these 3 colonies.

(A 3-export set is later worth 1 gold in income.)

G) Each player places 3 gold in their treasury (on the player mats).

H) Each player takes their 2 starting cards into hand, and draws another 3 historic event cards from the historic events cards that are available for purchase. These 5 cards comprise your hand to start the game. Do not show your opponent your 5 cards.

I) Shuffle the secret objectives deck and draw one card. Review the card and do not show it to your opponent. This card can score you additional victory points during or at the end of the game (as specified on the card). Secret objectives are all one-time use only.

The table is now ready for play to begin. Place unused colonies near the game table because there are historic event cards that can allow additional colonies to be placed on the table.

Starting the Game

The player that took control of a colony second is the first player to take a game turn.

Important note on rules and cards: Rules on cards always take priority over these rules (in other words, rules on a card can override rules from the main rulebook).

Each player's turn consists of the following steps, taken in this order:

1. Draw one historic event card (from the draw deck)
2. Leader Actions
3. Political Objective Attempt (Where Applicable)
4. Purchases
5. Movement
6. Battles (Follow Colony Rules)
7. Place Purchases
8. Collect Revenue

Each player completes all steps before the next player begins their turn.

1) Draw from Historic Events Draw Deck

During this step, draw one historic events card from the start of turn draw deck. Do not show the opponent this card. You may play this card immediately, or keep it in your hand and play at any time (the card will note any exceptions to this).

Historic Event Cards Overview:

• Historic event cards can be played at any time (including during your opponent's turn) unless the card specifies a time it must be played.
• There is no limit to your hand size.
• There is no limit to the number of historic event cards you can play in a turn.
• When played, historic event cards are fully resolved, unless your opponent plays a starting card or different historic event card which cancels your card.
• Multiple historic event cards (even if they have the same card title) can be played to modify the same thing. For example, multiple cards can be played in battle to lower an opponent's dice scores. These bonuses or reductions in score are cumulative.
• If both players simultaneously want to play a historic event card, the active player's historic event card is played and resolved first.
• Historic event cards are placed in a discard pile after they have been played unless they remain in play. The historic event will specify if it remains in play.
• Some historic event cards can "destroy" other cards. A card selected to be "destroyed" must already be in play, and is subsequently placed out of play.
• Cards with an "OR" in them mean that you can use one and only one of the options available: declare which option you are using and then discard.

2) Leader Actions / Colony Rules

Leader cards represent famous leaders in command of expeditionary forces. Leader cards have a sword icon. Many colonies will allow you to roll a die to receive some sort of benefit, often only if you have a leader at the colony. You may only perform these dice rolls once per colony each turn. You receive the benefits of any successful rolls immediately.

3) Political Objective Attempt

You may make one, and only one attempt to achieve a political objective each turn.

Select any one political objective on the political objectives mat. You must make your selection before rolling any dice. Players are normally entitled to roll one die when they make a political objective attempt. If your score (the total of the die roll, plus or minus any modifiers) equals or exceeds the political objective's difficulty, you have successfully achieved the political objective. If your roll is less than the score required, you have failed the attempt and nothing happens. A roll of "1" is always a failure. The use of historic event cards can add to or subtract from your score. You can also spend one gold to add a +1 to your roll, or 2 gold to add a +2 to your roll. All historic event cards and gold spent to increase your roll must be applied before rolling the die.

Political objectives represent efforts to bring other world powers into the war on your side. When you are successful, you immediately gain the benefits of the political objective. Place your control marker on the political objective when you accomplish it. Any exports gained are immediately placed on your side of the table, and any units gained are immediately brought into play per the instructions of the political objective.

You may attempt to achieve political objectives that are controlled by the opponent. If your roll is equal to or higher than the political objective's score (with any modifiers) flip the control marker to take control of the political objective. If the political objective gives you exports, the opponent immediately loses those exports and you gain them. If the political objective gives you units, the opponent must remove the associated units from the board (if they're still on the board). You then place any gained units per the instructions of the political objective.

ADVANCED RULE: "Counter-Diplomacy". If your opponent wishes to attempt a political objective that you already control, they must first play any cards boosting their die roll and/or spend any gold they are going to spend to boost their die roll. After they have applied any of these modifiers, you may spend 1 gold to reduce their score by 1, or 2 gold to reduce their score by 2. You must spend this gold before they roll the die. Again this only applies to political objectives already under your control that they are attempting to gain.

4) Purchases

During this step, you may spend your gold coins and make the following types of purchases.

A) You may purchase any number of battle deck cards. Battle deck cards are mini cards with British and French symbols in their center. The cost of each battle deck card is in the upper left hand corner of each card. Battle deck cards are placed on the "Purchases" portion of the player mat. Unless stated otherwise, battle deck cards will enter play later in your turn, during the "Place Purchases" step.

B) You may purchase any number of historic event cards from the "Historic Events for Purchase" deck for the cost of 1 gold each. Take these cards directly into your hand. Do not show your opponent the card as you draw it. These cards are immediately available for use.

Any gold not spent during this step is lost at the end of the step, so it is advisable to spend all gold to maximize your war effort.

5) Movement

During the movement step, players may move units. You must move all units you wish to move before moving on to the next step in your turn (fighting battles). Units have die symbols on them and roll dice in battles.

Units may move one space per turn. Take the unit and place it below the colony you move to (or below the high seas card). Colonies that are next to each other in a theater are considered one space apart. All colonies are one space away from the high seas, and units at the high seas are one space away from all colonies.

If you move a unit to a colony that is either uncontrolled or has no opposing units at it, you may immediately place your control marker on the colony to take control of it. You may also immediately place the colony's export (on the face of the colony card) on your side of the table.

NOTE: The Privateers card game text does not work during this step unless you have moved the Privateers to an opponent's colony this turn.

NOTE: Siege Guns may not move on their own; you must move them along with a leader card.

6) Battles

After all movement is completed, you may choose to fight battles in any order. A battle is fought wherever both sides have units (this includes the High Seas).

Battles are fought using pairings. To the greatest extent possible, the attacker (the player whose turn it is) must assign at least one of their attacking units to every defending unit, creating the pairings. In each pairing of units, dice are rolled for the units involved (and all modifiers are applied). Each side rolls one die per unit and applies all applicable modifiers to each roll. When you roll dice for your units, make sure to clarify which die is being rolled for which unit. Many units will have a +1, +2, or +3 added to the die roll (stated on the card). Historic event cards will also modify dice rolls. A unit's die score MAY exceed "6" after modifiers are applied. A unit's die score MAY be less than "1" after modifiers are applied. All dice are considered simultaneously rolled for all pairings. Each unit has a separate die score in 1750; do not combine die scores for multiple units.

In a pairing, the side with the highest individual die score wins and the losing side must destroy a unit.

Destroyed non-leader units are placed out of play, and destroyed leader units are instead placed in the opponent's prison (on their player mat). Imprisoned leaders are not available for repurchase and also act as a tiebreaker at the end of the game.

If the losing side has multiple units in the pairing, they may decide which unit to destroy (normally whatever they deem the most expendable unit). In the case of a tied high score in a pairing, no unit is destroyed.

After each pairing is created, if the attacker has remaining units, those remaining units are brought into the existing pairings in any way the attacker decides. When multiple units are on one side of a pairing, their dice scores are not combined, but having multiple units increases the likelihood that that side will have the high die score in a pairing.

After all attacking units are assigned in pairings, if the defender has remaining units that are not yet assigned to pairings, the defender brings their remaining units into the existing pairings in any way they decide. In this way, pairings can have 2 units against 1 unit, 3 units against 1 unit, and so on.

After dice are rolled and units are destroyed, if both sides have remaining units, the battle continues. Continue creating pairings with surviving units and rolling dice until only one side has remaining units at the colony (or high seas). There is no retreating allowed. Historic events affecting the battle will continue to do so until the battle is completed.

Example #1: In this battle, both Britain and France have 2 units at a colony. It is the British player's turn, therefore they are the attacker and will determine pairings.

Britain has a Local Allies and Robert Clive. France has a Fortress and Armand de Vignerot du Plessis. Britain pairs Robert Clive against Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, and pairs their Local Allies against the French Fortress.

Resolution of the 1st pairing: Clive rolls a 3 (modified to a 5 after +2 is added). Armand rolls a 3 (modified to a 4 after +1 is added). The British player has the high score in this pairing, requiring the French player to destroy a unit from this pairing. Armand is captured and placed in the British prison.

Resolution of the 2nd pairing: British Local Allies rolls a 4. French Fortress rolls a 3 (modified to a 5 after +2 is added). The French player has the high score in this pairing, requiring the British player to destroy a unit from this pairing. The Local Allies are destroyed (placed out of play).

With Britain's Clive and the French Fortress being the only remaining cards, they will now pair off against each other until only one side has remaining units at the colony.

Example #2: In this battle, Britain has 2 units and France has 1. It is the British player's turn. Britain pairs one of their units against the French unit, but because they have another unit unassigned, they may also bring that unassigned unit into the pairing. Britain has a Local Allies and a German Mercenary. France has a Privateer. With two units in this pairing, the British player will roll a die for each unit, increasing the chances that one of the British units will have the highest score in the pairing.

Resolution of the pairing: British Local Allies rolls a 4. British German Mercenary rolls a 2. French Privateer rolls a 5. The French player has the high score in this pairing, requiring the British player to destroy a unit from this pairing. The British player decides to destroy the German Mercenary unit, placing it out of play. When a side has multiple units in a pairing and loses, they decide which unit is destroyed. In this example, with each side still having a surviving unit, they will now roll against each other to determine the winner of this battle.

If your opponent has had all of their units destroyed in the battle, and you have remaining units at their colony, you may immediately do the following:

1. Change the control marker to your side.
2. Place the colony's export on your side of the table. Opponent loses the colony's export from their side of the table. If they cannot lose the export (if they no longer have a copy of the export for example) then this does not apply.
3. Opponent's non-unit battle deck cards (including Siege Guns and Plantations) are destroyed and placed out of play.

ADVANCED RULE: "Ransoms". Players may agree to exchange prisoners or pay gold for the release of a prisoner. Once terms are agreed to, the released prisoners are placed back into the battle deck of the leader's owner.

7) Place Purchases

You may now bring your purchases into play. Unless a card states otherwise, you may only bring units into play at:

A) A colony you control OR B) The High Seas (even if the opponent has units there)

Cards enter play below the colony or high seas (your cards should be facing you so you can easily read them). If you wish to, you may leave purchases on the purchases section of your player mat and play them during the place purchases step in subsequent turns.

8) Collect Revenue

• You automatically collect 3 gold coins per turn.
• Collect 1 additional gold coin for every set of 3 different exports on your side of the table. You may freely rearrange exports on your side of the table to create sets of three different exports at any time. (Each export card can only be counted toward a set once per turn.)

These gold coins are placed in your treasury where they are available for your use next turn.

Ending the Game

After the last player's turn (the 10th player turn), the game is concluded. Each colony controlled is worth one victory point. Secret objectives and any advanced rules that the players agreed to use are also added to each player's score. The player with the most victory points wins. In the case of a tie, the player with the most of the following wins:

• First tiebreaker: Player with the most prisoners
• Second tiebreaker: Player with the most controlled political objectives
• Third tiebreaker: Player with the most export cards

ADVANCED RULE: "Regional Dominance". Players gain an additional victory point for every theater in which they control every colony.

ADVANCED RULE: "Trade Mastery". Players gain an additional victory point if they have control of 6 or more different exports.

ADVANCED RULE: "Powerful Friends". Players gain an additional victory point if they have control of 3 or more political objectives.

Other Optional Rules

ALTERNATE GAME LENGTH: If the players want a longer, more strategic play experience, they can agree to add more turns before the game starts, adding additional historic event cards to the draw deck (2 cards for every additional game turn). 7 turns is recommended for a longer game.

EXPANDED CONFLICT: Players place 4 colonies per theater instead of 3 during game setup.

HISTORICALLY ACCURATE COLONIES: If the players want to start the game in possession of colonies that their respective countries controlled in the year 1750, only place your three control markers on colonies that your country historically controlled to start the game. During board setup, make sure that at least one colony per theater belongs to each side. If all colonies drawn for a theater historically belonged to one country, discard the last colony drawn and continue drawing until one colony for the other side is drawn.

Historically British colonies:

• North America: Annapolis Royal, Boston, Charles Town, Halifax, Rupert's Land, Virginia
• Caribbean: Barbados, Jamaica, St. Kitts
• Africa: Anamabou, Dixcove, James Island / Fort Gambia
• India: Ft William, Bengal, Bombay, Madras

Historically French colonies:

• North America: Lake Champlain / Lake George area, Louisbourg, Louisiana, Montreal, Ohio River Valley, Quebec
• Caribbean: Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Domingue
• Africa: Gorée, Ile de France, St. Louis, Senegal
• India: Chandernagore, Mahé, Pondicherry

Historical Timeline: The Seven Years' War

The Seven Years' War (known in the British colonies as the French and Indian War), 1754 - 10 February 1763. The rulebook's closing timeline lists: Washington at Fort Necessity and Braddock's Expedition (1754-55), Declaration of War between France and Britain, Minorca (1756), Louisbourg (1758), "Annus Mirabilis" (1759: Lagos, Quiberon Bay, Ticonderoga, Quebec, Guadeloupe), Martinique, Havana, Manila (1762), Wandiwash and Montreal (1760), and the Treaty of Paris (1763).