Quelques Arpents de Neige - The Seven Years War

Please note that this is a DTP (Desk Top Publishing) game designed on a desktop computer and all components, including the counters which will have to be cut and mounted, are printed on paper. These are designed by some very well-known designers and are a low cost alternative to today's professionally produced games. On rare occasions, some of these games are reproduced by other companies with higher quality components including die-cut counters but most of them are not. If you believe this game to have a professionally produced version, please contact us with your inquiry and we will help you to locate it if it does indeed exist.

Quelques Arpents de Neige: The Seven Years War in North America covers the period between 1755 and 1763 in North America. Outside of the United States, this war is known as the Seven Years War (the war didn't officially start until 1756) and within the United States it is known as the French and Indian War. Quelques Arpents de Neige covers the entirety of the Seven Years War in North America beginning in 1755.

Quelques Arpents de Neige is a two-player game with each player taking the side of either the French Empire or the British Empire. Both players have native allies to control and the French player can also control Florida, part of the Spanish Empire in North America. The game is regimental-scale (approximately 500-1000 men) with the two maps having a scale of 33km and 66km per hex respectively. The combat system uses a combat results table (CRT) and the monthly game turn has several phases. These include the Start Phase, Naval Phase, Supply Phase, Combat Phase, Movement Phase, and End Phase. The game system focuses on having a common sense and simple approach so that the turn can flow easily.

The Naval Phase, of course, includes naval combat but also interception, evasion, and coastal wrecks. Naval combat uses a roll-to-hit system which is much more applicable to this kind of fighting than a CRT. During the Combat Phase the kind of attacks that can be done include land combat, siege operations, bombardment by coastal batteries, amphibious assaults and raids of villages. Other things to take into consideration during the course of the game are militia desertions during the winter, the desire of native nations to return to their homelands, and whether ships can get out of the St. Lawrence River before they are frozen in.

The game also utilizes event cards, but the game is in no way a card-based game. During the Seasonal Turns event cards are drawn so that certain events occur. These can include the participation or non-participation of individual American colonies, a good or bad harvest, the displeasure of native nations, and such historical events as the expulsion of the Acadians, the coming to power of Pitt the Elder, epidemics of smallpox and typhus, decisive European battles and the massacre of Cherokee warriors that prompted their allegiance switch.