The aces and courts of the deck represent enemy forces that you have to defeat in a battle taking place in four locations. In general you play two cards at a time either to the left or right of each location until all eight slots are filled(you can use up a joker if you want to rearrange cards already in play), then an attrition phase follows where you might lose cards, and if aces show up on board extra powers kick in. Then comes your turn to fight, the result determined by the difference of the number on the right from the number on the left, negatives counting, you can lose, rout the enemy out of the area or win the battle outright but if you get zero or less expect reinforcements.
You win by eliminating all 16 enemies but if you are unable to do this as you don't have enough cards special game end conditions kick in.
Designer Mike Heiman supplied the game with 10 historical battles, each with their own goals, geographical quirks, special rules and ace powers. You can probably even make your own battle with your own mix of these things.
In the interests of speed (reviewing each battle might be a later project), this review will cover the system, which is pretty intuitive for a wargame. Though the battle mechanisms are a bit too simplified to fit the material, it does use the luck of the cards to make the game have that bit of uncertainty. In the game your discarded cards can still be used for later but lost cards are "buried," this distinction might be confusing at first and there's no getting away from it.
Speaking of losing cards, what a great way to bring home the risk of losing too many troops out of either bad tactics or superior enemy forces. Strangely, even if you do have to play with a reduced hand it doesn't mean your fighting chances would change dramatically; there are only two battle outcomes with precise values.
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