Academy Games 1812: The Invasion of Canada

Great Game!

1812: The Invasion of Canada is the first in Academy Games' "Birth of America" series of light war games. Don't let the term 'light' fool you. These games have A LOT of strategy. They play like a mixture of Euro-style 'area control', 'action/card' selection and Ameri-THRASH dice driven combat! Trust me, the mixture of different mechanisms works brilliantly!If you think you don't like war games, you will like these game. If you LOVE war games, you will love these!The only flaw with this game is you spend a lot of time beating up on Canadians (if you're the US player), and it's always hard to beat up on Canadians. They're too nice and polite, and I feel sad whenever I crush one of their armies or capture one of their cities. ;)

My wife and I have played this several times and really enjoy it. Both sides have strengths and weaknesses and the flexibility to play 2 to 5 people makes it adaptable to group play. It is a light wargame as conflict is resolved via dice rolls, but the different factions have different dice and cards which can be played to effect the outcome so it is strategic. Can't wait to play the next game in the series '1775: Rebellion' when it is released in late 2013.

Academy Games has produced a great game with a wide appeal. Though a war game it's at a strategic enough level to be very accessible. The production values are great and I'm looking forward to the other games in this series.

Game is great, but when I received the game the cubes were off. I was missing some blue, and green cubes. It did come with orange, and purple cubes that we just substituted for the missing cubes. Overall, the game was really fun, but have to knock a star off for the component issue.

"1812: The Invasion of Canada" is a highly abstracted war game/area control game (it's right in between the two) in which players control various factions of the war of 1812: the Canadian Militia, British Redcoats, and Native Americans on one side, and the U.S. Army and American Militia on the other. It can be played as 2-5 players, either as a cooperative game (for your own side) or as a 2-player game. There are three scenarios: an "introductory," two-turn scenario; a full, possibly as long as 8-turn game; and an 1813 campaign, which begins on turn three. No matter what, the game will end after 8 turns maximum (40 total - 8 turns times 5 factions), so it is not as interminable as some other games. The winner of the game is the person who, on the final turn, controls the most enemy objectives (by occupying them with at least one troop).As for the game play itself, it's straightforward but allows a lot of decisions. You draw a big cube randomly from a bag to determine turn order, so you never know who is going next (except on every 5th turn, or on the first turn of the "1812 Full Campaign" scenario, in which the U.S. army are always the aggressors). The map is set up with lots of small colored cubes representing your armies.Each faction has a deck of 12 cards, 8 of which represent troop movements, and 4 of which have special abilities. A turn for a faction consists of: (1) spawning new troops -- you get a preset number in certain areas if unoccupied by the enemy, plus all of your "fled" units get replaced, (2) playing a movement card, in which one or more "armies" (one cube of active player, plus any allied cubes in the same area) march forward; (3) play any special cards you want to use to activate troops' special abilities, and (4) fight battles, which happens when enemy troops are encountered (once you enter a square with enemy troops, that army must stop and fight). Battles are settled by rolling dice, with a maximum of 8 for the Canadian side and 5 for the US side. The dice must correspond to the cubes in the area with the battle, so you might not always get all the dice; and extra soldiers don't give extra dice beyond the maximum (2 for the regular armies, 3 for the militia and Native Americans). Battles continue until one side controls an area, or all troops have fled/moved out of the area. The initiative always goes to the "home" team, although there are special cards to help undermine this in an important battle.Each army has strengths and weaknesses. Militia have a 1/3 chance to hit, 1/3 chance to flee (they go to a special Fled Troops Area and respawn on that faction's next turn), and 1/3 chance of a "command decision" (which allows them to retreat into any territory with friendly troops, or any home territory; Native Americans can also move into unoccupied enemy territory). The Native Americans have a 1/6 chance to flee, 1/2 chance of command decision, and 1/3 chance to hit. Both the regular armies have a 1/2 chance to hit, but the Redcoats never flee; the USA regulars flee 1/6 of the time. The rest of the time, each makes a Command Decision.The game is fun and light, if a bit long, and easily lends itself to a good time. Many people have said the Canadian side is "vastly" overpowered, but I disagree. So far, I have played Canada to 3 wins and the USA to 1 draw. The USA is much more challenging to play - Canada could theoretically move 6 times before the USA can do anything, vs. the USA moving only 4 times before Canada can do anything. Also, Canada has an extra 10 units in its force pool (35 Canadian Militia, 25 Redcoats, 25 Native Americans vs. 45 American Militia and 30 American Regulars). Also, the Canadians spawn new troops much closer to the border than the Americans, although the American movement cards are more powerful.It feels very historically accurate -- it is very difficult to capture and hold Canadian territory compared to taking and holding American territory, and the US has an advantage in the sparsely populated western front compared to the east (all Redcoats spawn in the east, except for a couple special cards; and few Redcoats start in the west) -- but I have yet to see the USA pull off a win. There is another advantage Canada has: there are "truce" cards which represent signing the Treaty of Ghent. You get to move troops, but if it is your only movement card, you must play it; after round 3, if one side has all factions sign the treaty, the game ends immediately. It's easy for the player who is the fifth cube on the turn to play the final treaty card, take one territory, and win. Usually Canada has more territory early, but the USA generally gets stronger as the game marches on. Another disappointment is that there is a fixed deck; once you know the cards, you know what your maximum movement is. It's easy to get stuck with a useless Warship card on the final turn - moving one army across a large body of water seems fairly useless to the USA, but incredibly powerful for Canada. Finally, Canada simply has much less territory to defend, in a tighter area -- so it's quite a challenge to be the USA. Perhaps I need more plays to be sure about this, but I think the USA could use slightly more power (to match up better against the Native Americans' special abilities), or at least a stronger initial setup. Still, it is VERY difficult to defend your entire territory on either side!My big disappointment was in the quality of the materials. I played a nice set when I discovered this game, but the one I received looked like the cubes had some dust or mold on them. I gave them a full treatment with Lysol wipes, which hopefully fixed that. I had to put them in a new ZipLock bag, though -- the bag they came in was disgusting (brown dust/mold everywhere inside it). One blue cube was also severely cracked. One of the USA/Canada control chits was bent because they all popped out of the sheet during shipping. Finally, the board was slightly warped, and bows when you play it, although I am hoping with a few more uses, that can get fixed. Thankfully, none of the other components suffered. The cards and dice were all in excellent shape.Don't let my complaints fool you - the game is a TON of fun. But for almost 50 bucks, I expect my components not to be in the condition that some of them came in, and I would have liked to have seen more scenarios and just a LITTLE more game balance (perhaps 15-20 Native American cubes for the USA who can only be used for defense would have been a good addition? Or at least a rule limiting the number of times one side gets to attack in a row?). If Canada is super aggressive, the USA seems to lose more than it wins -- I swear, all the militia ever seem to want to do is flee a battle! Also, Canada's armies are more powerful in virtually everything except troop mobility.So I'm giving it a 3/5. This is better than most games you grew up playing, but there are certainly better games out there. I think that evaluation is pretty fair, because I really DO enjoy playing the game, but I also have to be objective and honest in my analysis.

I study this period of history, and the game does a great job of covering the conflicts of that period.

Simple to pick up, but with alot of depth and diversity - very very replayable. Quality production values as well, with an attractive map and cards.