Playthrough of Washington's War featuring the CDG Solo System

A playthrough of the first two turns of Mark Herman's classic CDG "Washington's War" using the just-released CDG Solo System from GMT Games (which also publishes Washington's War, of course). The CDG Solo System was created by Stuka Joe and Ken Kuhn.

This video demonstrates how the CDG Solo System provides some needed "fog of war" to card-driven games which are normally two-player, allowing a better solo experience. Note that the system is not a "bot" and does not make decisions - what it does do is limit the information a player has for both sides and sometimes also limits the available choices, but ultimately the decisions often come down to the player who will need to manage both sides to the best of their ability.

Thank you as always for watching! Please consider helping to support Hexed & Countered by subscribing, or at least liking and/or sharing this video.

And.... Happy Gaming!

[kenkuhn]

I’m glad you’re enjoying the system! Washington’s War was the first game I played with the System when I was working with it as well! Nice Job!

One note for future plays: During Setup, Slots A & B are supposed to be turned face-up (3.2.3). That way you’d start with a bit more information and wouldn’t need to conduct a roll to see if the British have a face-up Campaign card.

Cheers!

[Jimo]

Thanks for sharing. Watching this Sunday morning (at 09:00 a.m. here in Germany) while having my cuppa and breakfast. Very interesting, well made and informative. I just bought GMT's Wilderness War - The French & Indian War yesterday, with Washington's War being my second option, which remains on my "Potential Buy List." (PBL). Couldn't get hold of copy of Washington's War anyway. As you said GMT has it in their P500 list and it's looking good to make the cut. Not 100% convinced yet to buy it, but your playthrough pushes me a bit more to go for it. Great that you played it with the CDG Solo System. First time I've seen it actually played during a game instead of it only being explained in general. Very interesting. Since I more or less only solo game this goes on my PBL. I haven't bought it yet because up to now I don't own any of the GMT games it is supposed to be used for, Washington's War being the potential buy I was thinking of because of that reason. I saw that they also will be publishing CDG Solol System Pack 2 in the future which contains Wilderness War an another 5 games. Cheers. James.

[bobd]

Another note: @ 42:30, all British reinforcements need to enter at the same port:
Rules 8.1: "Clarifications: The General and all CUs desired (some may be left in the Reinforcement Box) all arrive in the same eligible port space. More than 5 CUs may be brought on if desired, and the British may add these reinforcing CUs to any number of CUs
already in the space."

[tedbrayton]

I couldn’t wrap my head around the “replace played card from draw deck” and keep track of years. I didn’t take the Cards Remaining Marker the way you did, but it makes sense now. I’ll remember that the next time I try it (starting Imperial Tide now). I had been putting cards 6 and 7 under A and B, as I read Stuka Joe explain it that way, in general, not for this game. Thank you, you just earned yourself a new subscriber 😀

[felipealvarez]

Thank you, from Australia. You sound a little bit like Mark Herman. 😂

[Aranubis]

Great vid. Enjoyed watching.
One rules mistake:Cornwallis should have flipped Alexandria in the Winterphase, if i'm correct

[tedbrayton]

Would really appreciate a similar example with PoG

[bobbydante]

Thanks for the great vid. I see others are asking for other playthroughs with cdg. Any chance to play For the People?

[bgm-]

Hey, that was a worthwhile video! Thanks for posting! Though, other than the starting error pointed out by Ken (slots A & B start face up), I noticed that you were overly harsh on the Americans during Winter Attrition. At the end of the 1st turn, I believe you removed three CUs from Washinton's army when it should've been only two. Note that when "rounding down" while calculating the winter losses, you're supposed to round down the fraction being removed, not the result. For instance, Washington's Army was 5 CUs. Half of five is 2 1/2, which normally would result in an army size of 2 1/2, which you rounded down to two. Thus, you removed three CUs. But instead, the fraction being removed (2 1/2) is what gets rounded down! Thus, you should've removed only two CUs from Washington, not three. And the same goes for a 3-CU army... only one CU would be removed, not two.
Otherwise, I was really impressed with how well you knew the rules despite being only your first game!

[KeyofWilson]

The rules say to start with A+B flipped face up on the first hand. That is why those letters have white backgrounds on the sheets.