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!

Welcome back to our ongoing game of Plains Indian Wars. (To read Part 1 of this series, go here.) This is the second of what will probably be 10-12 rounds. The U.S. player made little headway during the last token-draw and appears to be stymied. Here’s the last Settler move and the current situation on the Plains.

Second Draw Round:

1st Draw – The Yellow Wagons token is drawn and placed on the Token Track.

The Settlers player advances her two yellow cubes already on the map one region along the historic trails they occupy. The two yellow cubes in St. Louis enter the map taking their place north and south of the rails. Finally the Settlers player takes two yellow cubes from her Wagons Box and places them in St. Louis. The wagons actions are complete.

2nd Draw – The Orange SPI (South Plains Indians) token is drawn and placed on the Token Track.

The SPI player commits two cards: The text card Cochise and the War Party card Satanta.

The former allows her to place 3 orange cubes and restricts the Cavalry player from rolling more than one die in SPT regions for the remainder of this token draw round. She places three orange cubes on the Santa Fe Trail. Satanta allows her to place two orange cubes which she places in the region she just reinforced. She may also activate two regions and move each force up to two regions. She opts to activate the force of eight cubes outside St. Louis to move against the yellow wagon cube occupying the same region. Next she moves her force of four SPT  and two SPT cubes along the Mormon Trail toward St. Louis to attack another wagon cube.

Her movement completed, she commences her attacks. She rolls against the Northern wagon first resulting in two NPT hits and two SPT hits while the two settler dice provide only blanks. The wagon cube is removed to the SPT side of the Indian VP Track.

Her second roll against the Southern Wagon cube does not go as planned.

The Indian roll shows one blank, two treaties, and one hit against the Settler roll of two blanks. Since two hits are required to capture a wagon cube the single hit is ignored and the Settler uses one of her blanks to retreat her wagon forward. The SPT player draws two replacement cards ending her turn.

3rd Draw – The Black Railroad token is drawn and placed on the Token Track.

The Settler player regrets the bad timing of this draw as neither the Cavalry nor the Settler faction were able to position her settler cubes to extend the eastern railhead. No rails building occurs in the East. The Settler player does roll two Settler dice for building through the mountains on the Western railhead. The result is one blank and one symbol. Every symbol allows one black cube to be placed in a mountain rail space so one black cube is placed. Slow going. The Rails segment has now ended.

4th Draw – The Blue Cavalry token is drawn and placed on the Token Track.

The Cavalry player is in a unique position. He holds three text cards and could technically play all three, bringing out the largest possible number of reinforcements, buuuuut… The SPT play of Cochise restricts him to one combat die in SPT regions for the remainder of this draw round and two-thirds of those reinforcements would be placed in the south where they would be vulnerable to combined NPT/SPT attacks.

He opts to play only one Text card – Sheridan.

This play is only allowed because the NPT token has not yet been drawn. It allows him to draw four blue cubes from the Cavalry Box and place them in any NPT region. He does so just north of his current force on the map. The region is occupied by one red cube meaning he will undergo an ambush roll (ambush rolls occur when the U.S. attacks a single Indian faction instead of a combined force). The NPT player rolls a blank.

He would like to retreat but blanks rolled during an ambush may not be used for that purpose. The combat roll results in two Cavalry hits and one NPT hit.  One blue cube and one red cube are removed to their respective casualty boxes.

The Cavalry player draws a replacement card and ends his turn.

5th Draw – The Red NPT Northern Plains Tribes token is drawn and placed on the Token Track.

The NPT Player chooses to play two cards: the text card Red Cloud and the War Party card Calf Shirt.

Red Cloud allows placement of three red cubes in one NPT region and the settlers may roll only one die for the remainder of this token draw.  The cubes are placed in the Black Hills region. Calf Shirt allows two cubes to be placed North of the Rails. They go on the Mormon Trail, joining the mixed force bordering the rails. This card also allows activation of two regions with movement of up to two regions. Activating the Black Hills group, he moves two cubes to reinforce his captured purple region. The second region he activates is the southern region mixed force. From this he shuttles four red cubes who escort two orange cubes along the Santa Fe Trail in an attempt to capture the two wagons in the adjacent region.

He can roll four dice, two per Indian faction. The settler rolls two dice per wagon. Remember each wagon must be attacked separately, one after the other. The first combat roll results in three Indian hits and one Indian Treaty. Both Settler dice are blanks. One yellow cube is removed to the SPT side of the Indian VP Track.

The Mixed force then attacks the second wagon with the same number of dice but this time do not fare so well. Only one hit is rolled , one treaty and one treaty and one blank. The Settler rolls two blanks and uses her blank to retreat along the trail – smack into a large concentration of SPT cubes.

(Note that yellow wagon cubes do not initiate combat). Fortunately this is not a mixed force which will only be able to attack next turn with only two dice. Also note that both the Indian and the US player rolled a Treaty. If the Indian had scored more than one hit on the wagon the treaties would have taken precedence and the wagon would still have retreated.

The NPT player draws two replacement cards and ends his turn.

6th Draw – The Brown Settlers token is drawn and placed on the Token Track.

The Settlers player would very much like to play her Central Pacific RR text card which would protect her Eastern Railhead from attacks but this is near the end of the token draw so it would be a fruitless act. Instead she commits her Oregon Trail Migration card. This allows placement of four brown cubes and activation of three groups which may move up to two regions.

She draws four brown cubes from the Settlers Box and places one in the Sacramento Box and three in St. Louis.

First, she activates the region North of the rails adjacent to St Louis, moving four brown cubes with two escorting blue cubes due south where she faces two defending SPT cubes. Next she activates St. Louis sending two reinforcing brown cubes into the newly moved group and one brown cube into the region it vacated. Having nothing left to move, her third activation is squandered. The SPT player rolls his ambush die resulting in a treaty – in this case – no effect. Next, she makes her combat roll. She is hobbled by the Cochise card previously played by the SPT player reducing the Cavalry roll to one die. in SPT regions. The resulting roll reveals an SPT hit and a blank, a Cavalry hit and two Settler blanks.

An SPT cube is removed to the Indian casualty box and the Settler player removes one of her brown cubes to the U.S. Casualty Box. The SPT player uses her blank roll to retreat her surviving cube into the strong Indian force further down the trail.

The Settler player draws a replacement card and ends her turn.

7th Draw – The Purple Enemies token is the last faction drawn and placed on the Token Track.

Remember the Enemies have no cards. The Cavalry player simply draws his one allowable purple reinforcement cube and places it in either a Northern or Southern region. He chooses to place his cube in the growing Southern purple force. He is then allowed one purple force activation either in the North or the South. He activates the just reinforced region and moves all five of these cubes. Completely abandoning the region he started from, he drops one cube off in an undefended region the moves the remaining four cubes their maximum two regions to engage the two SPT cubes that have wrested a purple region from him. The SPT player makes a successful ambush roll.

A purple cube is removed to the U.S. casualty box. The following combat roll of two SPT and two Enemies dice results in one hit each.

These are removed to their respective boxes. Since the SPT player did not roll a blank she cannot retreat her remaining cube which then goes into a second round of combat.

One SPT die and two Enemies’ dice are rolled and  again result in one hit each.

The Enemies have retaken their region but it is a pyrrhic victory. This ends the second token draw. The Indian players are still in a strong position, but the U.S. player managed some headway this round. I the tokens fall early for the U.S. player next round they will expand on the foothold they have gained. If not, – they’ll be in trouble. Thanks for tuning in. Join us again soon for the third token draw.

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