Brandywine – Volume II of the Battles of the American Revolution (BoAR) series

Bill Simoni, 1 September 2025

Brandywine was originally published in 2000 and has been reprinted as part of the first Tri-Pack from 2017. This is the version being played and reviewed.

Throughout my gaming years, I’ve picked up books after playing a game or picked a game because I’d previously read something about it. I happened to be reading Brandywine by Michael C. Harris simultaneously and I whole-heartedly recommend both the book and the practice of reading and playing at the same time. It helped me see why some design choices were made and gave me a deeper understanding of why the scenarios were set up this way.

The game comes with four scenarios, plus an intriguing intelligence variant. I’ve played this title multiple times, including this past month in preparation for this article. I did not play two of the alternate scenarios, as for all intents and purposes they are each half of the Short Campaign.

The scenario-specific rules are relatively light (crossing the Brandywine, unit release restrictions, and some reinforcement options), which, much like Saratoga, makes this an excellent first foray into the series.

A production error resulted in the designer essay and order of battle being omitted from the game-specific rulebook, but I was able to find a copy of the original (pre-series-rules) rulebook. The essay is, as always, informative and useful for putting yourself in the mindset for playing the game.

Game 1 – Short Campaign Scenario

This 6-turn scenario dispenses with all the preliminaries – Knyphausen’s division has pushed Maxwell’s troops back across the Brandywine, while Cornwallis (with Howe) has flanked the Patriots and is about to reach the map. Each division is the subject of the other two scenarios available if you want an even quicker game.

click images to enlarge

The opening turn didn’t see many surprises, other than some British units forcing a crossing at Brinton’s Ford.

Those units were still the only ones across the Brandywine after turn 8. They have disrupted several Patriot units at this point (note the red halo around some units).

The inept British player (me) effectively lost the game in the turn 9 movement phase and didn’t realize it until too late…

Despite seeing my error on Turn 10, by having units off the road, I couldn’t use strategic movement to fix my error…I just needed to win initiative in Turn 11 to seal off the easy path to Patriot victory, but likely losing on VPs. Unfortunately, the Brits used two momentum chits to increase their chance of gaining initiative and rolled a 9, so they marched right into Dilworthtown and won with no units crossing the Brandywine at Chad’s Ford and hardly any units making it across at Chad’s Ferry or further south.

Game 2 – Full Campaign + Intelligence Variant

The default scenario is the Full Campaign of 12 turns, which starts with all British units off the board. Knyphausen leads troops on the southwest corner of the map, with some options for an alternate entry point if delayed. Howe will not emerge from the north of the board until turn 7, with some light units and cavalry a turn earlier.

One of the intriguing features of this game is the Intelligence Variant. Lack of knowledge of the surrounding area plagued both sides. Sympathetic locals told Howe he could ford the Brandywine to the north, while Washington was assured that was not possible. Heavy rains had swollen the creek, so either could have been right. Neither general sent a scouting force to verify before making their battle plans. This variant gives 4 possible outcomes, represented in a 2×2 matrix giving results for the decision each side makes regarding conducting reconnaissance.

Each player has benefits and risks, so it isn’t a forgone conclusion that everyone will choose to recon. The Patriots lose an army morale point if they conduct recon, and have a tiny, but real chance to lose some of or all the recon force they send out. They hope to use this force to slow down the advance. The British may lose an army morale point for an ability to learn the status of the ford a turn earlier than they otherwise would.

Regardless of each side’s choice to recon, the state of the ford is determined by a secret number written down before the game and a roll made on turn 4 or 5. The result could be that some or nearly all of the British units cannot cross (60%), normal conditions (30%), or advantageous conditions(10%) resulting in a movement bonus. The Brits have the option to return any units, in reverse marching order, to a spot west of the Brandywine (near Brinton’s Ford, where they crossed in the above game) if the chosen ford is impassible or no longer desirable.

In our game, we both, perhaps surprisingly, chose to not perform recon. That meant I would know on turn 5 the state of the ford; the Patriots would find out only when reinforcements entered the playing area.

Maxwell’s delaying force has optional placement in a decent-sized area west of the primary on-map fords. Knyphausen immediately took the fight to those, His historic goal was to convince the Patriots that he was the vanguard of Howe’s full army.

Progress continued to be made in that area, until a fight went terribly wrong in turn 3, resulting in Knyphausen becoming a casualty. Should I have used a momentum chit to force a re-roll? Probably, but, well, I forgot I had one…

I was able to get forces across at Brinton Ford. I had eyes on a similar breakthrough to what I fell victim to in the short game.

On turn 5, I rolled the die, adjusted by the pre-game secret number, and ended up with the ford being hindered. That meant everything could cross normally, except for artillery, which were either delayed a turn or returned to the other side of the map. As I am not effective at using artillery on the attack, I figured it didn’t matter much and accepted the delay.

During turn 5 I became bogged down in combat near Brinton’s Ford and struggled to get across the Brandywine in the south (right side of map).

After that, I was able to make steady progress on all fronts, inflicting casualties that Patriot morale could ill afford. My opponent should probably have given ground instead. He ended up conceding when a single morale point was all he had left.

Final Thoughts

This is another banger game in the series. The decisive victory conditions are still hard, but I proved they could be obtained, although it did require a mistake on my part. The scenarios give a great feel for the actual history.

Once again, the vassal module is excellent – it aids in ensuring army morale and VP are properly tracked.

Finally, I don’t think I’ll ever play the long scenario again without using the Intelligence Variant. It adds just enough spice to keep it interesting and fresh, without difficult or labyrinthine procedures to follow. It would be great if something like this was incorporated into other wargames.

It’s a shame the essay and OOB are missing from the Tri-Pack edition. There’s a chance it may reappear on GMT’s game website in the future. My only other complaint is the lack of hobbits.¹

Next up: Britian’s pyrrhic victory – The Battle of Guilford Courthouse.

You can chat about this game in the Age of Gunpowder section of our discussion forums

Battles of the American Revolution Series
Mentioned in Dispatches Episode ~ Series Intro ~ Saratoga ~ Brandywine ~ Guilford Courthouse ~ Eutaw Springs ~ Savannah ~ Monmouth ~ Pensacola ~ Germantown
Camden Event Podcast Episode
Saratoga Digital ~ First Impressions ~ Gaming vs The AI

Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons.
Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web.
You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events.
Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below.

1. You know you were thinking it!