No, I am not thinking of Frank Drebin in Naked Gun, but the set of campaign rules to re-fight the 17-18th century conflict between Native American tribes in the Ohio Valley. Whilst written for the “Song of Drums and Tomahawks” (SDT) rules they can be used for any set of man on man skirmish rules such as “Flint and Feather”.

Frank: “Nice beaver”! Jane: (producing a stuffed beaver) Thank you. I just had it stuffed.

The 75 page booklet is an average quality production for this day and age, consisitng of a lot of black and white photos and line drawings on poor quality paper, bound with a nice glossy cover. The price of 15 pound compared with a other productions like Black Powder for 25 pound is also quite high. I picked mine up from Galloping Major whom I have used for a large amount of FIW purchases.

What “Beaver Wars” lacks in price and production is more than made up for by its contents. There is a set of simple campaign rules, eighteen scenarios and four specific campaigns. A section on the various tribal histories provides an interesting insights into their individual tribal beliefs and customs. A very basic set of card templates is provided for War and Hunt cards (tribal stances for each game), and a set of post game reward cards. The War and Hunt cards determine which tribes are fighting each other, the scenario to be played and how many beaver pelts are collected post game.

With beaver pelts being the currency of the day it is no surprise to see that camapign points are awarded for their collection. Prestige points and scenario victory points are determined by tabletop results. Your war party can increase its fire power by trading Beaver Pelts for muskets, and figure upgrades for the number of scenario victory points.

I was skeptical when the author indicated that while the rules were designed for SDT rules they could be easily used for other sets. As the book is concentrating on the campaign aspects the only section that you will need to modify is the warband selection which can be simply modified.

The academic in me also likes the Bibliography which provides an aid for the reader too conduct their own research on the period and also a gain an insight into the authors thinking.

The balance between playability and historical accuracy, I think, has been successfully achieved.

I would thoroughly recommend it if you are a French Indian War devotee otherwise, for the price, I would suggest borrowing it for a weekend from a mate.