REVIEW: Hold The Line (Worthington Games)

Today I'm solitairing Hold The Line, a simple but sweet ARW game by Worthington Games, for the first time. Their hexes and hex terrain are a bit smaller than the Borg games. Rather than use sectors and cards, it uses Command Points. You get a few each turn plus a variable 1-3 die roll. For a CP you can move or fire a unit, for two CP you can move and fire Dragoons, move a unit an extra space with a leader, or initiate infantry close combat with a unit. The attractive cardboard counters are in strength points.

Its a neat little game. You track turns and have time limits, so you must choose your actions carefully, although you do get to see the results of one before making the next. Each unit can only perform one action per turn (move or fight).

The first scenario is The Battle of Long Island, so I'm gaming out a struggle that took place between the club and my house, with the evacuation a few blocks down the hill! The Americans have about 12 units and the British about 20.

Its a neat balance between using your CPs to advance or fight. The British are facing an open enemy flank, while the Americans must pull out of their forward line and into almost empty fortifications behind them. They have three units from Manhattan that can land and man the line--but that costs CPs, like everything else! In the second half of the game they can roll to evacuate--if the British haven't penetrated the line and cut off the evac hexes.

Lights move faster, Elites are more durable, Militia weaker in every respect except shooting, and Dragoons fast but can't perform close combat. Artillery fires the best.About 13 optional rules let you adjust the tactical details to your own satisfaction, and add more detail to the basic game.HTL offers twelve ARW scenarios, with a French and Indian expansion available from www.worthingtongames.com These can be played out in campaign series as well.

This game is more or less their older Clash for a Continent game without their wood blocks, and they offer the old scenario book as well, which I would assume has different battles. I played their Rorke's Drift game Victoria Cross with Pete Stein, back when Metro first moved to Park Slope. The company is in Virgina Beach, and they are working on a Mexican American War game with the same system, and have done the Alamo as well as a few others, mostly on American subjects.

Charley