Mohicans is the first game of the Small Wars series.
Covering the French and Indian War of the mid-18th century,
it is based on a popular 1983 Canadian boardgame called Mohawk.
Small Wars: Mohicans the boardgame was funded on Kickstarter in April 2024!
Single player vs the AI, or two-players multiplayer.
Games normally take less than an hour.
Support game controllers for couch gaming.
Playable on a monitor, TV or Steam Deck.
Playable locally and online.
What is Small Wars?
Desperate battles against the odds. Crack teams of irregulars using innovative tactics against a much larger, better-resourced but ponderous foe. Each side exploiting the weaknesses of the other, while time runs out. This is asymmetric warfare, better known as ‘Small Wars’.
The ‘Small Wars’ series of video games presents asymmetric warfare in a fast-paced, turn-based strategic conflict. Each game is based on an historical conflict in which one side has regular forces with superior firepower and resources, but is vulnerable to the mobility, flexibility and speed of the irregular forces of its opponent.
“You have the watches,
but we have the time…”
– Taliban Commander,
to NATO leadership
Small Wars games feature single player vs the AI, or two-player multiplayer, both locally and online. Each game has a simple, easy-to-use interface, and all games support game controllers for couch gaming on your monitor, TV or Steam Deck. Games normally take less than an hour to complete.
Each game has a strategic level, where forces are deployed, territory conquered, and supply lines secured or disrupted. It also has a tactical level for resolving battles in varied terrain. Finally, it has a diplomatic element in which allies are recruited or lost, or one side gains advantages over the other.
To win the game, the regular forces must secure a set of objectives by a certain date ; all the irregulars have to do to win is to stop them. The irregulars are much weaker, but time is on their side.
The Small Wars game series will cover a number of historical conflicts, including the French and Indian War (the subject of the first game in the series, Small Wars: Mohicans), the Napoleon-era Peninsular War in Spain, the Philippine-American war, the Vietnam War, the Soviet-Afghanistan war, among others.
Small Wars is developed by Foible Games, from Canada, and published by Avalon Digital.
Small Wars : Mohicans
Mohicans is the first boardgame and PC game of the Small Wars series. Covering the French and Indian War of the mid-18th century, it is based on a popular 1983 Canadian boardgame called Mohawk. Mohicans starts in 1754 and continues to 1760, which historically was the year after the conquest of Quebec by British forces (a founding event in the creation of modern Canada).
In Mohicans, the powerful regular forces of Britain fight for control of northeastern North America against the mixed regular and irregular forces of the French and their Indigenous allies. The forces of both sides are bolstered by local militia units and other irregular forces, such as the famous French Courriers de Bois and the British Rangers, and the arrival each year of more regular reinforcements from Europe.
While the British have the edge in firepower, the French have better mobility and their Indigenous allies can make effective use of terrain, particularly the massive forests that covered eastern North America at the time. The British are also more vulnerable to having their supply lines cut off.
Both sides seek to curry favour with the powerful but neutral Iroquois Confederacy, as an alliance with them is an enormous strategic advantage. With each major victory on the battlefield, one of the six tribes of the Iroquois will offer its support to the winning side. Get the support of all six tribes, and the Iroquois will join the fight.
To win the game, the British must hold three of the French cities and towns of Louisbourg, Frontenac, Duquesne, Montreal and Quebec (and at least one must be Montreal or Quebec). If they don’t do this by 1760, the French win by default.
The French can also win by holding the British cities of Albany and either New York, Boston or Philadelphia. This will be a tall order for the French but they can take comfort in the fact that the British, like NATO 250 years later have the watches, but the French have the time…
