Colonial Campaigns Club (CCC)

Per Lieutenant General Sands I am opening a new post on For Liberty! This post will not review arguments on supporting the game, that is already done on another post. Instead I will try to provide a description of the game.

For Liberty! is a grand strategic game -- two games really. One is the Hungarian Revolution of 1704. It won't really concern this club. I have never played it and won't go into it here. The other is, of course, the American Revolution.

For Liberty! is turn based and easy to play by pbem. There are four turns per month. This means about 300 turns for the campaign game, but it sounds worse than it is. As you might expect, the game involves moving relatively few units around over large areas. If you are in a hurry, you can easily play several turns in an evening.

For Liberty! includes fog of war, training, experience, fatigue, finance, foreign aid, differing unit types, supply and individual commanders. Basic units are regiments. These can be grouped into what the game calls detachments, brigades or armies. Commanders are either colonels, brigadiers or major generals. A colonel can command an army, but there is a penalty. There is also a penalty if even a major general commands an army with too many regiments in it.

Victory is gained by points. Points are earned by winning battles and taking cities. In general, the British are much stronger than the Americans, especially at first, but have to hold more than they possibly can. Americans cannot afford to fight on anything like even terms and must usually stay away from the enemy main force, while picking off small units and sneaking behind the British to retake cities. As was the case historically, militia can suddenly appear just about anywhere, but they can disappear just as fast. They don't fight as well as regulars and are not dependable, but the American cannot do without them.

Though there must be one out there somewhere, I have not yet spoken to anyone who has played this game and does not like it. The rules are very easy to learn, but the subtleties are not, which means the game will continue to be challenging for a long time. Though certainly very different from the Tiller games, it has this in common with them, that it is a very "clean" straightforward game that lets you concentrate on strategy and tactics rather than rules.

There are probably things some of you want to know that I forgot. If I think of any I will add them. If you have questions, please ask and I, or someone else who has played the game, will try to answer them.