Hill of Doves: The First Anglo-Boer War 1880–1881

Hill of Doves: The First Anglo-Boer War 1880–1881 is a solitaire wargame in which the player commands the Imperial British Army against a programmed Transvaal Republican Army.

The British objective is to win the war by controlling the Laing’s Nek area on the border between Natal and the Transvaal. The player has up to twelve weeks to achieve this; if the British fail to do so in time, the Boers win.

The game operates across three connected levels of war. Strategic, operational, and tactical boards are used simultaneously, with the Operational Phase forming the core seven-day cycle. Strategic checks resolve the wider situation at the end of each week, while tactical battles and ambushes are handled when British columns engage Boer forces.

A programmed card system guides the non-player Boer side, using Sequence of Play cards, Event cards, Tactical cards, and Ambush procedures to drive the campaign forward. Once the rules are familiar, the game can largely be played from the sequence cards and completed in a single evening.

Hill of Doves is a good fit for solitaire players interested in colonial-era campaigns, the Boer Wars, and multi-level campaign systems that combine map movement, operational planning, and tactical resolution.

Contents include: mounted strategic, operational, and tactical boards, a mounted battle board, 141 square counters, 40 round counters, a 16-page introductory book, a 16-page rules book, a 20-page examples of play book, 56 Sequence of Play cards, 38 Event cards, player aids, and one six-sided die.