This is the first of three games from The Gamers Civil War Brigade Series that will cover the Seven Days' fighting near Richmond. Gaines Mill covers the area north of the Chickahominy River June 26 & 27. For those of you Civil War challenged (like me), the opening battle playing the campaign game (there are six other scenarios) has the Union 5th Corps brigades behind Beaverdam Creek. This is an excellent defensive sight. The Union Forces are up-slope & behind a stream which is in front of a swamp. So, the Confederates have to cross a stream into a swamp, accept withering fire, then shoot at half strength from the swamp into the Union ranks. After that, then consider close combat (if not Shaken, Disorganized or Routed) going upslope.

While this extravaganza is going on, Confederate's Left Wing Command is trying to out flank the Union 5th Corps. The only thing to hinder this maneuver was two damb {sic} Union Cavalry units (can you tell I repeatedly played as the Confederates?). Cooke's Cavalry has 16 steps of losses to utilize to block the Confederate flanking (until it's demise). Farnsworth's Cavalry may only have 7 steps, but assists Cook {sic} well. Since the flanking maneuver can only happen along one road through the forests, the cav's cannot readily be outflanked and repeated {sic} had an extra forest hex in front of them to cease any artillery shot possibilities from Confederate guns on Union moving turns. Eventually, the two Union Cavalry vaporized and massed artillery forced the crossing of Beaverdam Creek (note: this battle has the Confederacy with more manpower & artillery than the Union). Since all the Confederate VP hexes are beyond the original Union line, the Rebs must push onward. The VPs for lost forces are lower for Confederate losses to balance out the game. This was my first Civil War Brigade Series game from The Gamers and I enjoyed it thoroughly! I even traded for some of the other games in the series (while I still know the standard rules) to continue the fun.

Some game specifics are: you have loss charts to mark of {sic} losses &stragglers. A die roll of 11 or 12 gives devastating fire to your opponent, but causes you to only shot no further than adjacent hex (instead of 2 hexes for infantry), loss of a modifier for morale (which effects incoming fire) and a one column shift loss when a low ammo unit contributes to an attack. Supply wagons (or supply trains) can remove the low ammo marker when the unit(s) are within two hexes of either supply item above. There are rules for leaders sending subordinate leaders orders and a chart to determine if & when the corps commander excepts {sic} the new orders. If all else fails, you can roll for initiative for some units on the Initiative table (this is how the Union cavalry was able to get in my way).

For those of you who already have any of The Gamers Civil War Brigade Series games, there are seven new rules printed in Operations #25. Most of the seven are not only realistic, but are just good common sense to use.

Although I'm bad at names, after a while I finally realized who the author of the rules was. It was our own fellow SGS member Brandon Einhorn. Good Work! For those of you interested, but not familiar with the Civil War Brigade Series, and would like to check it out, I have a second punched copy of one. If you want to see The Gamers "No Better Place to Die" (the Battle of Murfreesboro), send me a postcard and I'll send you the game to look at. I do want it sent back of course. I'll pay the postage to sent it, you'll pay the postage to return it (only paid SGS members please). ...Steven G Williams, 442 Stanley St., New Britain CT 06051

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