Fury on the Champlain represent 3W's final foray into the wargaming … there will be a brief pause while everyone does their imitation of Ozzie Smith.. The game covers Governor General Sir George Prevost's operation against the United States from Canada in September of 1814. Prevost's real plan was to use the 13,000 newly arrived Peninsular War veterans to advance south along Lake Champlain, perhaps as far as Fort Ticonderoga, seizing territory and threatening to cut off New England from the rest of the United States. This move probably wouldn't end the war, but it would prove valuable to the British in any peace negotiations. Meanwhile, the American's had decided that the British were not going to strike at Lake Champlain and moved most of there experienced troops out of the region. This left only about 1,500 regulars and 3,000 militia, all of questionable quality, to oppose some of Wellington's best. Prevost's march down the shore was relatively uneventful, with only a few small skirmishes with American troops trying to delay the British advance. When the British force came to the main American fortification at Plattsburg, Prevost stopped and made plans for a combined ground and naval attack on the Americans. On September 11, 1814 the attack was launched, with the Royal Navy's Lake Squadron striking at the American flotilla anchored in Plattsburg Bay. Prevost's land forces were a little slow in kicking off their assault and by the time the Army's attack was fully underway and starting to gain some ground, the naval battle had been decided in favor of the Americans. Believing that his invasion would be doomed to failure without control of Lake Champlain, Prevost broke off the attack and retreated back to Canada, never to return. Well, enough history … on to the game. The counters are, functional, if not exactly spectacular, with troop or cannon icons for the land units, ship icons for the naval units, and flags for the leaders. There are some interesting counters though, including American Sick and Convalescents. There is some counter errata which does detract from the game somewhat, but doesn't ruin the overall play. The map is an interesting mix of hexes (for land movement) and areas (for naval movement). Most of the charts that are needed in the game are also printed on the map. Overall, the map looks pretty good. Unfortunately, because of the victory conditions, there isn't much of a reason to use more than the middle third. The player aid sheet has the set up, reinforcements, and naval record sheet for the Americans on one side and the British on the other, which will need to be photocopied before play. No dice, though; another KP shortcut, I guess. The rules booklet are 8 pages short, but, like every other 3W project, could have used some more work. Most of the system is so familiar that most players will be able to fill in. However, there are some large holes that won't reveal themselves until play starts. While all of the problems can be easily solved by two reasonable gamers (as if there really are such people), it is still very irritating to have to do the developer's job. [Ed. a position that has remain unfilled at 3W for more than a decade.] The sequence of play will be familiar to players, consisting of a Reinforcement Phase, a Naval Phase, and a Land Phase. During the Reinforcement Phase players bring in new troops and supplies, roll for raising new or disbanded militia units, and the British player checks for wind changes on the lake. The Naval Phase consists of movement and combat, the former much dependent on wind. The phasing player may attempt to move any ships that have a leader stacked with them; there are only two British and one American Naval Leaders. Because of the small number of leaders, there really isn't much naval movement in the game and that movement is usually limited to countering enemy naval moves. Naval combat is also fairly simple. When enemy fleets occupy the same lake area, the players line their ships up, off-map, against each other, and start banging away. Combat is fought in rounds, with each ship firing at the enemy ship opposite it in line; if there is no enemy opposite, it can fire at the enemy ship before or behind it in line. Each ship is rated for the number of flotation hits it can take before sinking and the number of long and short guns it has on each side of the ship. One nice rule for naval combat is the Striking rule which states that whenever a ship has taken flotation hits in the combat round and has five or fewer flotation hits left, the controlling player rolls the die. If the result is higher than the number of flotation hits the ship has left it strike its colors and stops participating in the battle. There are also rules for grappling, boarding actions, and repairing damaged ships. Overall. the naval action is a nice, interesting game within a game. It's too bad that there aren’t more leaders and ships to play with. Land combat will be familiar to most players, using an odds based table with results being steps lost for each side. While the land game is rather conventional, it does have some interesting chrome in the militia unreliability and Prevost's incompetence rules. The militia unreliability rule forces the American player to watch where his regulars and militia units make their stands, giving him the same headaches that his historical counterpart faced. As damaging as the militia rule is to American efforts, the Prevost's incompetence rule does the same to the British. This rule forces the British player to weaken his attack force by heavily garrisoning his supply line - while this is not a bad idea, it is not needed to the extent that the rule requires - and limits the ability of the British to attack the American fortifications at Plattsburg until a naval victory is won. The problem with playing the game is that it pretty much follows the historical description I gave earlier. Basically, it always boils down to one good naval battle and the British attack on Plattsburg, which certainly limits any replayability. While the game also includes several optional rules that allow the British to ignore Prevost's incompetence, or add more troops to the American OOB, the game still boils down to a naval battle and a couple of land battles (usually around Plattsburg).Not the most exciting game premise I’ve encountered lately. The 3W/KP era opened with a bang, dragged on with a lot of whining, and now closes with a whimper. As with too many of his/its games, not a pretty sight. Capsule Comments Graphic Presentation: Nothing special, but not bad either. Playability: Fair to poor, depending on how much you like spending the whole game moving your forces to fight one or two predestined battles. Replayability: Very limited. Historicity: Perhaps too good; see Replayability. Creativity: Some nice chrome and the naval rules aren't bad Wristage: Not bad, but more intense on water. Comparisons: I couldn't find any other games out there that covered this campaign at this scale. Maybe the reason for that echo’s essayist Fran Leibowitz’s caveat that, if you are the first person to try sautéing steak with lime, perhaps you should ask why. Overall: A fine simulation, but not much of a game. For 1812 buffs … all 3 of you. from 3W One 34" X 22" map, 200 counters, 1 Player Aid Sheet, Rules Book, Boxed. 3W. $?? Back to Berg's Review of Games Vol. II # 23 Table of Contents Back to Berg's Review of Games List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1995 by Richard Berg This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com