Among the War Parties: Adventures in the Early Americas is a supplement to the game
Gloire: Swashbuckling
Adventure in the Age of Kings. You will need the rules in that book in order to use this book to its full potential.
The connection between the New World and the traditional swashbuckling genres may not seem immediately obvious, yet there are similarities between them that make
Gloire eminently suitable to capture aspects of gaming this world. The stories and history of this period are full of characters whose actions were larger than life. The indigenous civilizations of the Americas have a rich martial character of their own.
Warriors strive with each other with knife and war club, stalking their enemies beneath huge trees, across trackless marsh, and on precipices above raging rivers. Woodsmen perform impossible feats of arms with their long rifles; crossing silent, snow-draped landscapes in search of fortunes or simply views never before seen by Europeans.
As with
Gloire, archetypes are not defined as hero or villain. Both valor and atrocity were common in the Americas, as they always are when civilizations with different traditions and rules of war come into conflict.
This book walks a balance between real history and a dramatized, heroic version of real events. Five campaigns for three periods are included. Our first campaign takes place just prior to the fall of the Aztec empire. The second campaign is set during King Philip’s War, which was the first war in North America where the English settlers adopted the methods and tactics of the natives. The remaining campaigns are set in the early
American frontier, in the period from the French and Indian War, through the War of 1812, to the expansion into the Ohio valley.
These rules require only a handful of figures and a small gaming space. As with
Gloire, it is possible to play simple set-up games or follow the actions of a set of recurring characters.
What is needed to play?
A few D10 dice, a few minis per player, a ruler and about 2' x 2' of space. Add some buildings and terrain to make it interesting. The rules can handle multiple player games.
