The Reviewing Stand

3 Rule Sets for ACW

ACW Society

by Paul Koch


I have known and respected the good folks at the ACW Society for a number of years. The ZOUAVE remains one of the finest "period" gaming publications around. Thus I am always excited to see results of their handiwork. This review of their three latest publications bears a title which is a capsule of what I think of them.

THE GOOD: A new module, THE PENNINSULAR CAMPAIGN, has been released for the Penninsula Campaign of 1862, based on the hugely successful SHENANDOAH campaign system by the same people. SHENANDOAH remains the only really playabl;e and realistic set of Civil War campaign rules out there. Every ACW gamer should welcome this module and encourage Chris, Clay, and Brian to further efforts. Nothing has changed, nor should it. Basically there are new maps and a couple of minor wrinkles for naval movement and other things essential to the campaign. this is a can't miss for clubs who fight Civil War campaigns. On my KOCH MUST HAVE INDEX it scores an 9.

THE BAD: On far more disappointing note is THAT DEADLY GROUND by Jeff Paszkiewicz. The $10 price tag gets you about as many pages of wide margined outline filled with typos and all kinds of unanswered questions. What is supposed to be a guide for setting up ACW tournament games leaves one hanging. One gets points for inflicting a minor defeat, for instance, but no definition of "minor defeat" is given! For OTR, it discusses "stands lost to morale" but, as the author of OTR, I can firmly state that you don't lose stands due to morale in OTR. I wonder if the author was as accurate with modifications for other rule sets?

Writing rules is hard unrewarding work and I really don't like to find fault, but this should have been (with a bit of clean up and filling-out) a short article for The Courier or some other gaming magazine, now it is just short of a rip-off. On my KOCH MUST HAVE SCALE it rates a 1.

THE OK: ADVANCE THE COLORS is a skirmish set of ACW rules in which each gamer commands a regiment of figures. The scale being 1:1. The ground scale is anywhere from 1" = 1 1/2 yds to 1" = 10 yds, depending on figure scale. Charts on fire and movement, etc. seem straight forward if uninspired. In short, a workable if massive way of doing things on the table top. For me, I have allways been unmoved by skirmish gaming, preferring to do that sort of thing on the paintball field. This will give a good evening's gaming if you don't get carried away with too many figures. On my KOCH MUST HAVE INDEX it scores a 5. All of the rules described here are available from THE AMERICAN CIVIL WARGAMING SOCIETY, 20578 Alliance-Sebring Rd., Alliance OH 44601

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