1775: Rebellion

1775 is often described as a "light" war game.

I know a little bit about war.
I'm not like, an expert or anything, but I know a little bit of history and I was in a war once. It sucked, but that doesn't mean I've lost the Human Ape's fascination with it in various media.
I remember this bit quite well: The mission of the Marine Corps rifle squad is to locate, close with and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver, or repel the enemy assault by fire and close combat.

And one of the great things about 1775 is how it emphasizes that maneuver aspect of warfare. 

It's card-based with Movement cards & game changing Event cards. The Movement cards allow you to move a variable number of armies across a variable number of areas in the 13 Colonies (also a few movement cards for moving across water).
Entering an area with enemy cube(s) terminates the move and will initiate a battle when the movement phase is complete. Enter an area with a un-allied Native American cube(s) also terminates your move but adds to your forces.
You need to control colonies because that's how you bring reinforcements in areas with cities at the beginning of your turn, and how you ultimately win or lose the game. To control a colony, there can be no Enemy or un-allied Native American forces in any of it's areas.

So during play you're trying to seize territory, exploit openings, limit your opponents options for reinforcing, and setting up blocking positions for their movement/command decisions.

Your armies are various cubes rolling dice with different odds to kill, flee, or Command Decision. Dice-based Combined Arms... pretty neat, huh?
The battle might not go how you want it to but there are no bad dice rolls, no real misses. A kill takes out an enemy cube. A flee means one of your cubes at least lives to fight another day, actually returning in your reinforcements on the next turn of that faction.
And Command Decisions are subtly awesome - stay and fight(!) OR move into an adjacent territory as long as it's not solely enemy occupied. That means you could take up a blocking position for future enemy movements, pick up a Native American ally, or even reinforce an adjacent battle that hasn't been resolved yet.

And the timing of playing your cards to trigger end game conditions can make this an incredibly tense, close, swingy, nail-biter of a game. That might bother some people, but not me. It's all part of the experience of playing this game.

It can support 4 players in 2 teams, but this is really best as a 2 player game - General vs. General.

Elegance is a quality in games that I admire, and it's present in this system of rules.
It doesn't hurt that it's a beautiful board either. The care that publisher Academy Games puts into it's games has made it one of my favorite companies, and at this time I own their Mare Nostrum: Empires, 1754: Conquest – The French and Indian War, and 878: Vikings – Invasions of England (the last 2 being in the same game system as 1775).

QUICK HITS:
Theme: American Revolution
Gameplay: cube-pushing light wargame, elegant rules
Components: Gorgeous artwork, custom dice that make battles more exciting
Replayability: It's a keeper, you'll probably want to play again after your first play. A few different scenarios are available.
Rulebook: Pretty approachable
1775: Rebellion on BBG.com