Reply To: ACW

[phaidknott 7023xp 1]

Well Johnny Reb 1st Edition had some pretty complicated artillery rules, the 2nd Edition did away with those (and hit the perfect spot for me, BTW the blue box GDW version is the 2nd Edition). The 3rd Edition went to 4 stands per Regt/Brigade (the previous editions had 5 stands) and was similar to Fire and Fury basing (but a lot of us wasn’t going to redo all our armies, so that’s why we stuck to 2nd Edition).

The Charge sequence is a bit daunting at the start, but after a couple of games it becomes second nature. It is the way it is to allow the order chit system to work. For example…..

Three of the many order chits are “First Fire”, “Hold” and “Charge”, and when units get close together (in Musket range) you end up with a “Rock, Paper, Scissors” situation.

If you think the enemy will charge, then you want to use the “Hold” action (this allows you to deliver a point blank volley just before contact is made. this will either cause the enemy to falter before getting into melee or cause enough casualties that they are in a disadvantage in melee).

If the think the enemy expects you to charge and will use the “Hold” order chit, then you want to use the “First Fire” order (this allows you to fire first, then the enemy fires after WITH the casualties you caused taken into effect).

If you think the enemy is going to use a “First Fire” order chit, then you want to charge (this means the enemy will fire at you BEFORE you move causing a lot less casualties meaning your charge is more likely to be successful).

Of course a lot of this “mind games” is all about how well you know your opponent, and they knowing you (you might make an order different from what you would normally do to put them off your game), and it works best in a regular gaming group rather than tournys (where it’s almost “random” in what chit is going to go down other than things like terrain (like being behind a stone wall, that would cause you to almost always use the “First Fire” or “Hold” chit if within Musket range) taken in effect when choosing the order chit.

Like “all” order rulesets, I suppose you could call it clunky (as it uses things like tables, and requires players to do some mental arithmetic. But it’s a break from the norm these days to go back to the older mechanics (rather than using novel Dice or Cards to resolve the games mechanics). But I’d say it hands down gives the best recreation of the battles of the ACW, BUT I would say given the scale of the game it’s better for smaller scales (15mm or below) rather than 28mm (where you’d probably do better with a set of Black Powder.

Don’t the Perry twins offer a free set of rules via their website (anyone played them to give an insight)?

BTW Oriskany, been trying to get a copy of “To the Sound of the Guns” scenario book that was released with the GDW box at the same time for YEARS now. Alas the copies only usually come up on Ebay in the US (and many private sellers don’t want the bother of shipping things internationally), so if you DO see any copies about……….

🙂