Welcome to the Great Plains of the American West. Back East a Civil War rages, but those who look beyond the war see a transcontinental railroad and settler expansion all the way to the Rockies. Across the wide Mississippi, Native Plains tribes brace for a war of their own against the white invaders. In this alternative history, warrior chiefs settle traditional tribal scores and united, North and South, take a stand against European encroachment. Welcome to … Plains Indian Wars!

In the following installments of this series, allow me to walk you through the game, turn by turn. Settlers and their Cavalry protectors will clash with the Northern and Southern Plains tribes as the Northern Crow and Mexicans in the south attempt to nibble away their territory. Across the years, long snaking trains of emigrant wagons creak their way west while the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific inch their way forward in hopes of mating their tracks before the Plains Tribes shatter the myth of Manifest Destiny. Ready? Here we go.

Before you are the game components:

Setup

Set up is quick and easy. The city boxes, St. Louis and Sacramento, list their opening cubes.

Red (Northern Plains Tribes or NPT Faction) – One red cube is placed in every red bordered region. Three additional red cubes are placed in one or more red regions at the player’s discretion. The remaining red cubes and two red dice are placed in the red NPT Box. Shuffle the NPT cards and place them beside the NPT Box. Draw three NPT cards.

Orange (Southern Plains Tribes or SPT Faction) – One orange cube is placed in every orange bordered region. Three additional orange cubes are placed in one or more orange regions at the player’s discretion. The remaining orange cubes and two orange dice are placed in the orange NPT Box. Shuffle the NPT cards and place them beside the SPT Box. Draw three NPT cards.

Blue (Cavalry Faction) – One blue cube is placed in the St. Louis and Sacrament Boxes. The remaining blue cubes and two blue dice are placed in the blue Cavalry Box. Shuffle the Cavalry cards and place them beside the Cavalry Box. Draw three Cavalry cards.

Purple (U.S. Allied Enemies Faction) – The Enemies will be controlled by the Cavalry Player. The Cavalry Player places one purple cube in every purple bordered region. Two additional purple cubes in one or two purple regions are placed at the Cavalry player’s discretion. The remaining purple cubes and two purple dice are placed in the purple Enemies Box. There are no Enemies cards.

Brown (Settlers Faction) – Four brown cubes are placed in the St. Louis Box and three brown cubes in the Sacrament Box. The remaining brown cubes and two brown dice are placed in the brown Settlers Box. Shuffle the brown Settlers cards and place them beside the Settlers Box. Draw three Settlers cards.

Yellow (Wagons) – The Wagons will be controlled by the Settlers Player. The Settlers Player places two yellow cubes in the St. Louis Box. The remaining yellow cubes are placed in the Yellow Wagons Box. There are no Wagons cards.

Black (Railroad Rails) – Rail placement will be controlled by the Settlers Player.  All the black cubes are placed off to one side of the map. There are no Rails cards. When rolling for placement in mountain spaces, the Settlers Player will be rolling Settlers dice.

Draw Bag – Place seven different colored tokens in the draw bag (Red, Orange, Blue, Purple, Brown, Yellow and Black). Set the bag off to one side of the map.

First Draw Round

1st Draw – The Red NPT is drawn. It is placed on the Token Track.

The NPT player chooses his Spotted Tail card, allowing him to add three red cubes, activate three groups and move each group up to two regions. The NPT player uses his actions to reinforce his ally in the South and invade a purple region in the North. After all movement there is only one battle. The NPT Player rolls his maximum of two dice No faction rolls more than two dice per battle – as long as two or more of that faction’s cubes are present. When only one cube is present, one die is rolled. The NPT Player rolls a weapon which is a hit and a treaty which only affects battle if opposing sides each roll a treaty. The Cavalry Player rolls one purple die for the Enemies resulting in a lank. If Red had not rolled a hit, the blank would have allowed the Cavalry Player to retreat the purple cube to an adjacent region. As it is, the red hit removes the purple cube to the U.S. Casualty Box. Note, this does not mean casualties are placed on Victory Point Spaces below the Casualty Box. The NPT Player ends his turn by discarding his Spotted Tail Card and drawing a replacement card.

Battle Dice have three possible outcomes: Weapons are hits (cube removal). Blanks are misses but each blank can retreat a cube at the owner’s discretion. Round Treaty symbols may end combat if at least one Indian and one U.S. Treaty symbol appear in the same battle roll (More on this later). Faction dice are not all the same. All dice have one Treaty side, however the number of weapons and blanks vary. Settlers dice are the weakest with only one weapon side but four blanks making it easier for survivors to escape. NPT, SPT and Enemies dice have two weapons symbols and three blank sides. Cavalry dice are the strongest having three weapon symbols and only two blank sides – more dangerous but harder to retreat.

2nd Draw – The Yellow Wagons is drawn. It is placed on the Token Track.

The Settler’s Player moves one of her yellow cubes out of St. Louis into each of the adjacent Plains regions, one North of the rail line and one south of the rail line. Yellow Wagon cubes do not initiate battle and do not control regions. They give the U.S. players VP value if they reach the Rockies safely. They give the Indian Players VP value if they are attacked and captured. If they are attacked and given the opportunity to retreat, they retreat forward toward the Rockies following the historic trails they occupy.  The Settlers Player then takes two more yellow cubes from the Wagon Box and places them in the St. Louis Box.  There are no Wagons cards or dice. If attacked, the Setters Player uses her dice to defend them. The Wagons turn is over.

3rd Draw – The Blue Cavalry is drawn. It is placed on the Token Track.

The Cavalry Player chooses his Fort Concho card, allowing him to add three blue cubes to St. Louis although one reinforcing cube may always be placed in Sacramento, activate two groups and move each group up to two regions. The Cavalry Player uses his actions to place all three cubes in St. Louis. Because the Railroad has yet to make any headway through the mountains he feels it is too early in the game to be reinforcing Sacramento. As for his three actions, he has few options. The Sacramento force cannot move until the railroad enters the Plains and his St. Louis force can enter only two available adjacent regions and one of these is prohibitively strong. He chooses to attack the weakest held region. He moves all four blue cubes and the three brown cubes from St. Louis to the region north of the railway defended by two red cubes. Note, each blue cube is capable of escorting up to two brown cubes during the Cavalry Player’s turn. When the U.S. force moves against a sole Indian faction, the Indian Players are allowed a single ambush die roll before the upcoming simultaneous combat roll. One NPT Ambush die is rolled resulting in a blank – no damage is done. Ambush blanks do not allow retreats. The U.S. players rolls two blue dice and two brown dice resulting in one blue weapon hit, one blue blank and two brown blanks. The NPT player rolls two red dice resulting in two blanks. The blue hit removes one red cube to the Indian Casualty Box. The NPT player uses

one of his blanks to retreat his surviving cube south into what is becoming a formidable Indian force. There are now eight Indian cubes in this region – this is the stacking limit for both Indian forces and U.S. forces. Note, St. Louis and Sacramento have no stacking limit. The Cavalry Player ends his turn by discarding his Fort Concho Card and drawing a replacement card.

4th Draw – The Orange SPT is drawn. It is placed on the Token Track.

The SPT player chooses two of her cards, Quanah Parker and Kicking Bird. U.S. and Indian Players are allowed to play one Engagement/War Party or Migration card and/or any number of Text (Event) cards.

Quanah Parker allows her to add three orange cubes to one or more orange regions and prevents the Settlers Player from rolling more than one die in combat for the remainder of this token draw. She places all three cubes in a region adjacent to the rail line. Kicking Bird allows her to place two additional orange cubes in one or more orange regions, activate two orange groups and move each group up to two regions. The SPT player uses her actions to place these two cubes in the far South adjacent to a purple region. She then moves all three cubes there into the adjacent purple region. She also moves all four of the cubes, where she laid her earlier reinforcements, north of the railway to join with a single red NPT cube. Key to Indian survival and victory, Mixing factions means rolling more dice. Once movement is complete she deals with her single combat in the south. Note, Enemies do not have an ambush roll. Two Orange dice are rolled resulting in a weapon/hit and a blank. One purple die is rolled resulting in a weapon/hit. One orange and one purple cube are removed to their respective Casualty Boxes. The SPT Player ends her turn by discarding her Quanah Parker and Kicking Bird cards and draws two replacement cards.

5th Draw – The Black Rails is drawn. It is placed on the Token Track.

The Settlers player may lay track out of St. Louis and out of Sacramento if conditions are right. When the black token is drawn, laying track in the Western mountain spaces requires a dice roll. The Settlers player rolls her two dice. Any symbol, whether a weapon or treaty symbol will allow the placement of one black cube in a mountain space.

She rolls resulting in two blanks – no track is laid in the mountains this turn. Next she turns to the Eastern railhead. On the Plains she may place up to three black cubes in railway spaces if there are three or more brown cubes adjacent to empty railway spaces adjacent to the railhead in the region they occupy. At the beginning of the game the railheads are St. Louis and Sacramento. Thereafter, the railheads are the furthest black cube in either direction. The game will end when the two railheads meet or when one faction plays their last card. At this point, the Settlers Player does have three brown cubes adjacent to three empty rail spaces adjacent to St. Louis so she places three black cubes on the board. There are no faction dice or cards associated with the Rails. Once Rails cubes are placed the Rails phase is over.

6th Draw – The Purple Enemies is drawn. It is placed on the Token Track.

The Purple faction has the same opportunities available every time the purple token is drawn. The Cavalry Player takes one purple cube from the Enemies Box and places it in a purple region either in the North or in the South. He may then activate one region and move any or all cubes in that region up to two regions. In this case the Cavalry Player places his purple cube in the South in the same area already occupied by three purple cubes. He uses his single activation to move another purple cube from an adjacent region into the same region. The Southern Enemies now have a sizeable force to check the SPT incursion in the South.  There are no cards associated with the Enemies faction. Since there is no combat his turn is now over.

7th Draw – The Brown Settlers is drawn. It is placed on the Token Track.

The Settlers Player plays his Mormons card, allowing him to add four brown cubes to or between St. Louis and Sacramento in any distribution she wishes.

She may then activate three groups and move each group up to two regions. Like the Cavalry Player before her, options are limited, more-so since the Quanah Parker card has been played. She decides to show discretion by moving a single cube to join the large cavalry force in the region north of the railway and adjacent to St. Louis. This brings the U.S. force there up to the maximum stacking and leaves three cubes in St. Louis for reinforcements. Her movement done and there being no battles, she discards the Mormons and draws a replacement card.

Draw Bag

The first Token Draw is now over. The Tokens (Red, Orange, Blue, Purple, Brown, Yellow and Black) are collected from the map and placed back in the bag. Players are now ready for the next Token Draw. Thank you for taking the time read our first installment. Join us next month as the contest in the West continues.

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Next Article in this Series: Plains Indian Wars Turn by Turn: Second Draw Round