Won by the Sword ★★★★★

Won by the Sword is the first game in Ben Hull's Great Campaigns of the Thirty Years War series. It is a two-player game of operational warfare in the 17th Century. Armies maneuver on a point to point map of Southern Germany based on the road network available at the time. Each game is centered around a major battle or full campaign season. A Turn is a month divided into a variable number of impulses. Each army has a hand of Campaign Cards that control the amount of activity it may perform, the supplies it must expend, and a special action. Each impulse features one card play per army. Forces are concealed off map so players are faced with limited knowledge of the enemy. The major activities are maneuver, foraging, besieging fortifications, and an occasional battle. Won by the Sword is a low-complexity game with emphasis on the players maneuvering their forces, but many decisions await. The low rules complexity allows each player, rather than being encumbered with rules, to focus on choices regarding how to manage his campaign.

Battle Games:

• Nördlingen 1634
• Tuttlingen 1643
• Freiburg 1644
• Mergentheim 1645
• Alerheim 1645

Full Campaigns:

• 1632 - The Lion of the North Goes South - Gustav Adolf's Campaign against Bavaria
• 1634 - Swedes are pushed out of the South
• 1638 - Weimar's Triumph - Duke Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar leads his German corps in French service to turn the tide of the war in the South
• 1644 - French battle to secure the Breisgau and Baden, Bavarians defend masterfully
• 1645 - Struggle for Württemburg - French and Bavrians fight a seesaw battle for control of Württemburg and Nördlingen area
• 1646 - Turenne's Triumph - French and Swedes launch a joint campaign to bring Bavaria to her knees
• 1648 - The Bitter End - Zusmarshausen, again a combined French - Swedish force strikes into the heart of a resurgent Bavaria