The Great Plains in the latter half of the 19th century was a cultural battleground. The Native way of life was under siege by an avalanche of invaders seeking land and progress. Plains Indian Wars reduces this monumental and catastrophic series of conflicts to its basic elements: A settler surge via long snaking wagon trains, the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, east and west, and the cavalry sent to protect them all. At the same time, Plains Indian Wars seeks to offer the Native-American player the opportunity to unite earlier, hold their own and perhaps even prevent European-American success.
Plains Indian Wars can be played by 1-4 players. It is a card-driven, cube game that uses area movement and control. Game play averages 60-90 minutes. The Plains Indian Wars Map board centers on the Great American Plains between the Mississippi River in the east and the Rockies in the west, the Canadian border in the north and Mexican border in the south. The Northern Plains Tribes (NPT) and the Southern Plains Tribes(SPT)each defend 12 regions while the Northern (Crow)and Southern (Mexican) "Enemies" each defend 5 regions of their own.
Separating the NPT and SPT is the planned route for the Transcontinental Railroad. US Completion (linking the two lines) ends the game and earns the US player a bonus. The Indian player earns a bonus if this is prevented. Through the course of the game Wagon trains attempt to travel historical trails to the Rockies. If they make it they earn victory points for the US player if they don't the Indian player gets the VPs.
—description from the publisher
- Great game
- Builds on Academy Games Birth of America series mechanics
- Really good history
- Cool sense of the Native Americans and what they were doing
- Fun game
- Really good fun
- Great great game
- Wonderful history to learn about
- Very interesting
- Very very fun game to boot
- Horrifying in some ways
- Settlers and Native American conflict
- American West
- 1775 Rebellion
- 1754 Conquest
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — You can kind of move each other's cubes around the borders. You're moving and at the same time you're trying to build the railroad.
- asymmetrical factions — there are two different um Native American factions that are fighting.
- Card Play — the way you play cards and the way the cards interact with your your your cubes, your forces on the boards is just a lot of fun.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- My number 20, Apocalypse Road.
- My number 19, Plains Indian Wars.
- My number 18 is Commands and Colors Ancients. My number 17 is Commands and Colors Medieval.
- So, this is Combat Commander Europe, and that is my number 16.
- So, I'm actually hopefully they they can do this with with other people as well. I find other historical figures to place with like Augustus or Julius Caesar or uh Charlemagne or you know what have you, Alexander the Great. I think there's a lot of stuff you could do with this kind of a system. Uh but that is my number 15. I Napoleon.
- Still, I loved it. That is my number 14, Mr. President.
- So, that is uh my number 13, Commands and Colors, Samurai Battles.
- And that is why it is my number 12.
- So this is 1989 Dawn of Freedom. That is my number 11.
- Again, I DON'T KNOW WHERE I'M GOING and I don't know where I've been. IT'S A LONG TIME AND I'LL BE DYING.
- That sounds suspiciously like something a bear would write.