Apache (1981)

You gaze out at the land that was once yours. Now it is filled with white men's towns, long knives' forts and the tracks of the iron horse. You raise your hand to your solemn face. With three quick strokes you smear the paint as your ancestors did. Today your war party will strike, you will strike because you are insulted, you have been cheated, you are...Apache.

The white man must build a rail line, establish ranches and create towns --while protecting them from destruction by marauding Indian war parties. The red man must prevent this encroachment by destroying what the white man builds while avoiding elimination by the superior Cavalry forces. This is made easier through the use of dummy counters --so the Cavalry often chases rumors-- although the Indian camps are vulnerable. The forces of both sides get personalized leaders from a fairly large card deck, so every game is different. Event cards provide the challenge of the unexpected --such as forest fires, flash floods and even laser rifles for the Indians from visiting aliens!

There can be up to four red players and two white ones; in 3+ player games, the scores of either side are averaged to determine the winning side.

The rules could use a little tweaking: I'd increase defense factors when behind a river or in a mountain, for example.