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Interesting comments from many people. 😀
Johnny Reb is “clunky by today’s standards.” Well, it’s been a while since I played Johnny Reb (honestly I don’t remember what edition it was), but generally speaking I feel too many of today’s standards are frankly way too slick, too simple, too catered to short attention spans.
I’ll have to check out Rebel Yell.
Black Powder – in the past I have not been a fan. Way too simple, too fast. Bereft of detail. Can’t seem to make up its mind on scale. 28mm figures with 10-40 figures in an army but no real ruling on how many men that’s supposed to be, clearly a command-tactical game where a figure represents more than one man but still with the True LOS rules for terrain? How can that be when you’re figures / units are not to scale with the terrain?
That said, clearly I was looking at some kind of introductory rules set. I see YouTube video with a 178-page book that’s DEFINITELY not the one I was looking at before. They still have that damned “pivot” movement option in it. God **** it all to hell, I wish games would stop doing that. Have these people ever DONE close order drill in the military? Much less in combat?
Johnny Reb basing limitations: Honestly I can’t speak to this. I played 15 years ago with someone else’s army, I can’t remember off the top of my head whether there were four or five figures on the base.
Which brings up a question – how does Johnny Reb handle the wildly different sizes to the regiments and brigades, especially between the Union and CSA? Confederate units would usually be reinforced with replacements between battles, so they had a smaller number of “units” with more or less a steady manpower level (at least until later in the war). Union regiments would be used and used until they were finally disbanded (or enlistment papers ran out), and then replaced with new units.
So you’d have Confederate regiments that were supposed to have 1000 men but usually had say 600-800 (usual battlefield rate) – but Union regiments could be as small as 200 after a couple battles. Of course, such disparities were then carried up through brigade and division and corps. Gettysburg is a common example: three Confederate corps faced off against seven Union corps and the disparity on the field was only 75,000-90,000 or so (I don’t count Union units that arrived too late on July 3 to take meaningful part in the battle).
Just saying, this force level in a “regimental” game is a factor, I honestly don’t remember how Johnny Reb handles it.
