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The main aim of these rules is to use the correct units, formations, orders and battlefield tactics for the American Civil War period, to create a game that has the genuine feel of a Civil War battle. The game is aimed at those who want to recreate actual battles, with their unequal battles and different objectives for the two sides, not at those who want to fight artificially balanced battles with armies of equal strength.
Regiments can be formed into Line of Battle, March Column or Assault Column formations, Brigades into Echelon, multiple lines or ‘in column’, each frequently used Civil War formations that here have their own rules.
The two key building blocks of each army are the regiment or battery and the brigade. The regiments and batteries are the units that move and fight, while the brigades are used to issue orders. This is an interesting mechanism. The average infantry brigade contained 3-5 regiments, each of which can be given a different order each turn. However only one dice is rolled for each brigade. There are a series of orders of increasing difficulty, from basic movement to the charge into melee, each needed a higher roll to achieve. As a result each regiment may need a different roll to obey its order – a regiment charging into battle will need a modified roll of 8+ on a D10, one moving at quick time 5+ and one moving normally and shooting 4+. If you get a roll of 7, then the second and third units carry out their full order, while the first unit can’t charge but can move three times, having got the 6+ needed for rapid movement.
One unusual feature of this book is that there is no attempt to create balanced battles. There is no points system for working out the relative strengths of armies. Real Civil War battles weren’t balanced fights, and the aim here is to reflect that. Opposing armies are likely to be of unequal size and quality, reflecting the reality of most warfare. Instead the balance comes from the choice of objectives for the opposing sides. This gives the players a great deal of flexibility – one could simply chose to make each sides aim to do better than their historical counterparts, or you can pick out a particular part of the battle and pick an aim that reflects the orders issued to those units – capture a particular landmark, break through an enemy line, delay an enemy advance etc.
Another unusual feature of the game is that there are only three types of unit – infantry, artillery and cavalry, and in total only thirteen different stat lines. Infantry has four – for large, average, small and tiny regiments. Artillery, mounted cavalry and dismounted cavalry each have three, for large, average and small units. Units can start at any size, and as large units take wounds they move down the scale. A large infantry regiment starts with 24 figures, and once it had lost six becomes an average regiment, losing some of its attack dice and morale, but keeping its move and ‘to hit’ target. Instead of variety of units coming from the basis stats, it comes from the extra rules instead. This is where we get green or veteran units, sharpshooters, skirmishers etc. More variety comes from types of commanders, with a mix of ability levels and characteristics giving plenty of flexibility.
We finish with a series of scenarios, starting with a generic and fairly balanced clash and moving on to two historical battles – Perryville and Chancellorsville. These are good examples of very different battles, with extra rules to reflect the real battle – the Chancellorsville scenario starts with all the Union units disorganised and having to roll to get into combat formations, reflecting the surprise nature of the attack being gamed. As the author says there are plenty of detailed orders of battle for Civil War battles that can be turned into army lists for this game, and plenty of existing Civil War wargaming scenarios that can easily be played with these rules.
I like the feel of this game. The rules are straightforward, but without being simplistic – there is plenty of scope for creating varied armies, with units of different size, experience and carrying different weapons, but without getting overwhelmed with unit lists. Combat is nice and quick, with the attacker rolling a fixed number of D10s and their target number be affected by skill levels, if the defenders are in cover etc. Morale can be key, with broken units fleeing and very vulnerable to destruction. Skilful manoeuvre will be rewarded, with attacks from the flank or rear potentially devastating. At about £10-14 for the rules this is a fun set of rules that will provide a nice alternative for anyone with a collection of American Civil War figures looking for rules that allow for battles taking a couple of hours to play.
Pages: 80
Publisher: Osprey
Date: 2023