Louisbourg 1758

 Another week, another boardgame!  This time a recent acquisition of my friend Andrew's.  This is Louisbourg 1758 a new game by Worthington Games

Similar to other games we've played before like like Quebec 1759 and Wilderness Empires, this is a very nice block game depicting Wolfe's attempts to land and capture the town of Louisbourg... one of my favourite periods.  As you'd expect from Worthington the board and components are very nice and the game is relatively simple.

The French are very outmatched and need to delay the British advance and then hold out in Louisbourg until the turn clock runs down. The British have a choice of 3 landing sites... I chose to concentrate everything onto one beach which initially paid off and Andrew's weedy French troops pulled back.  Each player has a hand of action cards but for several of the opening turns I only had cards that my opponent could use... eventually a couple of useful ones came my way, allowing me to make a rapid forced march and to have a bonus bombarding the French ships in the bay which resulted in sinking 1 of the 2 ships.  This proved vital as it meant the French ability to bombard my troops was significantly reduced.  

By the half way point I'd managed to surround the town and begin bombarding it.  Luck was on my side here as my dice rolls were singularly lucky (helped by the fact that I had the town surrounded on 3 sides, giving a bonus) and Andrew's counter-firing was singularly unlucky with some epically bad dice rolls!!  

The British win by either seizing the town or by moving their ships into the bay and still having a decent sized force surrounding Louisbourg.  I realised too late that simply bombarding the town was unlikely to win the game and that I needed to march troops around the bay to seize Lighthouse Point and Island Battery, allowing the ships to enter.  I managed to capture both strong points and on the final turn was poised to sail triumphantly into the bay when the weather turned and my ships were unable to move!!  Gutted!!  If I'd worked this key point out a couple of turns earlier I may have pulled it off but as it was, the French held out and Wolfe had to slink off with his tail between his legs (pun very much intended!)

An excellent game and worth looking out for.  Just the right level of complexity and a tight turn limit, which makes for a nail biting conclusion.