Hold the line
By Worthington Games. (click here for their website)
Hold the Line is a boardgame covering various battles from the American War of Independence.
The game complexity is low, with a 25 turn game easily playable within a couple of hours. The components are of a superb quality. The counters are on very thick card with rounded corners and being fully die cut, they just pop out of the counter sheet with ease. Likewise the board is fully mounted and the terrain tiles enjoy the same heavy card quality.
There are 8 pages of rules plus 2 pages of advanced rules. They are well illustrated and plenty of examples are provided. The remainder of the full colour rulebook is given over to 13 scenarios. Each scenario has a half page map of the board, showing how the terrain tiles and units should be placed. Orders of Battle follow, together with any special rules. The scenario also states how many Activation points each side automatically gets each turn.
There is a special 6 sided die that comes with the game, it is numbered 1,1,2,2,3,3. At the start of a players turn, the die is rolled and the result added to players automatic AP allowance. The result is the maximum number of AP’s that the player can use that turn on their army. AP’s are used to move, fire, close assault and rally. It makes players think about the critical aspects of the situation, as there are never enough AP’s to do everything.
Units fire using three dice, hitting on variations of 5’s and 6’s depending upon firing range and whether the target is in cover. Each time a unit is hit, it is either flipped to it’s reduced value or swapped for a lower value counter. In the example below, the British have a full strength unit (4), and two units that have taken losses (3) and (2). The centre unit is with a leader, so instead of firing or moving, it will be able to rally back 1 strength point. The game is very slick and easy to
play. There are interesting nuances between unit types with elites, light foot, dragoons and militia, artillery and leaders represented.
Some of the scenarios can be played back to back as part of a campaign which is good for tournament play.
Overall, this is a very accessible and enjoyable games package and hits the mark for people with busy lifestyles.
