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The game

   Little Big Horn is a game on this famous battle during which part of the 7th cavalry conducted by the General Custer was killed during an ambush by 2500 Indians warriors in 1876.

   The Indian wars from that time were in fact mainly killing of Indians badly armed, women and children.

   Sitting Bull who did organize the battle will later continue guerrilla during 13 years until the 29. December of 1890, when his tribe will be unarmed and killed by the cavalry in Wounded Knee. Geronimo will surrender in 1886. The Indians will obtain American citizenship in 1924.

   This game will be later enhanced and pubslished by Eurogames.

The illustration

   The illustration is signed by Ermes Miceli. Ermes also illustrated several "International Team" jigsaw puzzles.


Opening of the box

   The box contains the rules, the map elements, one die, the counters, 1 combat table sheet


The map

The board is a map of the Little Big Horn river valley. Each hexagon corresponds to about 100 meters. It's a 3D map: above the main map is put or glued parts of secondary maps, representing mountain areas.





The counters

   Each counter represents around 25 men of the US army or the Indian tribes. The US troops have also 2 Gatling's Sharpshooters (not easy to move but very efficient at less than a 4 squares distance). Each army also have "replacement counters" used to reduce accurately the defeated counters. For instance, a 8 valued counter may be reduced to 6 or 4 by being returned or replaced by one or several other counters.

Here is recto-verso scan of the 2 counter sheets (thank you Pedro !). Click on the picture to see an high resolution copy











The rules

   The rulebook contains 29 pages in 4 languages (Italian, English, German, French).
   Each turn corresponds to about 8 minutes and is made of 11 phases:
      - US army fire
      - US army moves
      - Placement of charge/smoke markers
      - Indians opportunity fire
      - US Army combat
      - Indians fire
      - Declaration and verification of Indians attacks
      - Indians move
      - Repositioning of smoke markers
      - US Army opportunity fire
      - Indians combat
   In the case of contact combat, the Indians do not always fight if they are not with an Indian leader. The player has to throw a die for the 3 first Indians wishing to attack a single US counter. The first one attacks on 4 5 6, the second on 3 4 5 6, the third on 2 3 4 5 6 and the following always attack. Indian leader are used to avoid these tests and to avoid retreats.
   A unit of half value will never attack a unit of superior value.
   The gatling units have their movement points indicated on one side. They can only move when this face is visible. Reversing the counter to be able to fire is considered as a moving phase. These sharpshooters may fire at a distance of 4 hexagons.
   The game includes 3 scenarios:
      - The 7th of cavalry against all the redskins in 16 turns.
      - All the US troops (except the 10th of Cavalry) join on the map
      - Attacks from 3 sides (2nd, 6th and 10th of Cavalry)

Some price (2004-2006):

N° EBAY Price EBAY Country Date Remarks
5926148001 EUR 30,50 France 18 oct 2004  
5929320080 EUR 22,89 Germany 30 oct 2004  
5936754388 EUR 34,33 Germany 28 Nov 2004  
5950653593 $ 224,50 USA 16 Jan 2005 unpunched
5951022979 EUR 80 Italy 28 Jan 2005 Perfette condizioni nuovo
5953053131 EUR 34,57 Germany 6 fev 2005  
5953621610 EUR 28,50 Austria 9 Fev 2005  
5955009334 EUR 28,50 France 15 Fev 2005  
5172030617< EUR 21,51 France 11 Mar 2005  
5184109532< EUR 20 France 8 apr 2005  
5181042329 £ 20 UK 9 apr 2005  
5194188275 EUR 18,50 France 10 mai 2005  
5975957505 EUR 9,50 France 19 may 2005  
5978797999 EUR 80 Italy 9 June 2005 not sold
5203888305 $ 118 USA 11 June 2005  
5208437564 EUR 16,58 France 20 June 2005 pions non découpés
52088489734 EUR 9,99 France 21 June 2005  
5984806162 EUR 50 Italy 10 July 2005 not sold
5233787008 $ 85,51 Italy 2 septt 2005  
8702526045 EUR 66,60 France 10 oct 2005  
6007387484 EUR 50 Spain 30 oct 2005  
8714507975 EUR 60 Italy 5 nov 2005  
8718104635 EUR 45 Italy 10 nov 2005  
87388217775 $ 63,50 USA 19 dec 2005  
8745590660 EUR 25,50 France 8 jan 2006  
8753512568 EUR 6,10 France 25 Jan 2006 uncomplete, damaged
8778172467 EUR 7,58 France 19 mar 2006 no manual
8799259904 EUR 30 Italy 30 apr 2006 not sold
8800782419 £ 9,99 UK 30 apr 2006 not sold
8812741838 EUR 30 Italy 26 may 2006  
8820359170 EUR 26 Germany 6 june 2006  
8822776268 EUR 20 Italy 10 june 2006  

LITTLE BIG HORN overview

reference: W115
game for 2 players from 15 years on
Time of game: 4-8 hours
Time of each turn scale: 8 minutes
Difficulty: 3 (average)
Date: 1981 ?
Authors: International Team

The Eurogames release:

   The Eurogames release (here in French) modifies greatly the game (smaller map, less counters, less scenarios etc) to make the game faster.
   An Article (in french) was published in Casus Belli about the Eurogames release

Links:

Little Big Horn on Tric-Trac
Little Big Horn on Boardgamegeek
La battaglia del Little Big Horn di Gino Rinalducci
Little Big Horn review by Cremona Luca sur grognard.com

A book ?

   "Geronimo: His Own Story" par SM Bannett and Geronimo
   "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West" by Dee Brown, the very well documented book that makes reference on this subject



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