Hill of Doves: The First Anglo-Boer War

About this board game

Hill of Doves: The First Anglo-Boer War is a solitaire board game for one player, played in about 180 minutes, in which you control the Imperial British Army against a programmed Transvaal Republican Army in 1881.

Your objective is to win the war by controlling Laing’s Nek, an area on the border between Natal and the Transvaal. The British have up to twelve weeks to achieve this goal; if they fail, the Boers win the war.

The game operates through a programmed system. Follow the instructions on the Game Sequence Chart, assisted by the Step Marker and Quick Reference Card. When a battle occurs, the appropriate Assault Chart or Ambush Chart resolves the action before play returns to the Game Sequence Chart.

Hill of Doves combines three levels of play at once. Its three time phases represent different scales of decision-making:

• Strategic Phase: resolves situations from the week just passed.
• Operational Phase: forms the heart of the game and represents a seven-day cycle.
• Tactical Phase: represents a variable number of hours and is entered whenever the British carry out an assault.

These phases are played across three boards simultaneously. The Strategic Board, Operational Board, and Tactical Board record game information while British strategic, operational, and tactical columns maneuver across their respective maps.

With its programmed non-player army, linked charts, and layered time structure, Hill of Doves presents the First Anglo-Boer War as a coordinated strategic, operational, and tactical campaign for a single player.