Among the recent additions to GMT Games’ P500 preorder program is Washigton’s War. The game is being designed by Mark Herman as a successor to his 1994 game on the same subject, We the People. The earlier one was published by Avalon Hill and was responsible for launching the ever-more-popular trend of card-driven war games. But back to Washington’s War, which though is also about the American Revolution, will be much more than just a new version of We the People. According to Mark, the major goal of this redesign is to speed up play so that the game will be more attractive to modern Euro and war gamers alike. For example, cards will still be used for strategic positioning, but combat is to be resolved with a much simpler and faster die roll-CRT system. There will also be changes to the way cards are played, such that player choices are more meaningful but tension is maintained.

In addition to pushing for an earlier publication date by placing a preorder, you can volunteer to help Mark with playtesting. He’s already completed basic design, but is hoping to accumulate additional data on results to assist with final game balancing.