The Boer War

Imperial Campaigns is a wargame system for recreating wars and campaigns during the great age of European Empires from the 18th century to early 20th centuries, using 60 to 80 counters per game and a deck of cards. A single Standard Rules booklet applies to all games in the series, each of which also has its own Exclusive Rules providing the Scenario(s) for a specific campaign.

The game map portrays the area where the historical campaign took place. A hexagonal grid is superimposed over the map in order to regularize the movement and positioning of the pieces.

The cardboard game pieces represent the military formations that took part in the original campaign. These playing pieces are referred to as units. Generally, units will have information on the front and reverse.

Each game in the series takes place at the scale of an entire campaign, thus units typically represent divisions or corps.

The Boer War

The Boer War is the first entry in this new series from Joseph Miranda and Canvas Temple Publishing. Boer War is based on the conflict between the British Empire and the Boer Republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, which started in 1899 (generally known as the Second Boer War). The game covers the first year of the war; the conventional phase when the Boers could have gained a conventional victory. The latter part of the war was primarily a guerrilla conflict that did not officially end until 1902 and by which point a British victory was pretty much inevitable. In the game, each player is trying to seize an early victory: the British, in order to forestall the aforementioned guerrilla war, the Boers to gain sufficient support in Europe for their claims to full independence.

The game has three scenarios. Two of them begin with the commencement of hostilities in October 1899 and the initial Boer successes. The third begins with Lord Roberts taking command of British forces and launching the counteroffensive which took the major Boer towns.

Boer War Game Scale. One hexagon = approximately 90 kilometers. Each turn represents one month of operations. A corps represents two or three divisions plus corps echelon troops. A field force (division group) represents one or two reinforced divisions. A commando, brigade, or group represents 1-4000 fighting men.