ED NOTE: We are presenting this set of grand tactical rules for the American Civil War after having used them ourselves for several months. The rules are fairly simple, there are no complex computations, bookkeeping is kept to a minimum; and what, to me, is important in any set of rules, a battle can be resolved in 3-4 hours of play. The rules work equally well for 25mm or 15mm figures and, as long as the frontages are kept equivalent for all the units, the actual base size, or the number of figures per base is not important. But enough of this - ON TO RICHMOND. These rules offer a fairly simple, fast moving, and fun game of grand tactical scope. It is quite different from most rules covering the American Civil War in a number of ways. The scale used in 1"=50 yards; the basic maneuver element is the brigade; movement is by a random card system; and further, the morale rules and the commander quality ratings incorporate the problems of command control. With all these innovations, however, the rules are also a return to simplicity. There is almost no bookkeeping. Whole stands are casualties, thus, except for the artillery, and the unit command qualities, there is no roster to be maintained. A fast, enjoyable game results which, in addition, we find to be surprisingly realistic, or at least, true to history. ORGANIZATION Union Infantry: Brigades muster about 6 stands of 2" width. This may vary from a 4 stand minimum to a 10 stand maximum. Each stand represents about 300 men. Cavalry: Most brigades are of 6 to 8 stands of the same width as the infantry. Artillery: Artillery is grouped into battalions of 16 to 24 guns, with each 21/2" stand representing 8 guns. For simplicity, a stand is considered to be all smoothbore or all rifled guns. Confederates Infantry: Brigades range between 4 to 10 stands, with 8 stand brigades being most common. Cavalry: Brigades are of 8 to 12 stands in strength. Artillery: More 1 to 2 stand battalions, and more smooth bore guns than the Union. OPERATIONS Artillery 1. Limber and move 1/2 normal move 2. Move full, unlimber and fire 3. Doubletime move once per game 4. Hand haul a line move and fire 5. Fire and limber Cavalry 1. Move 1/2 , dismount and fire 2. Mount and move 1/2 normal move 3. Dismount and move fully on foot 4. Charge 24" 5. Change formation and move 1/2 normal move 6. Mount and change formation 7. Dismount, change formation and fire Infantry 1. Move fully and fire INITIAL volley 2. Move 1/2 normal distance and fire 3. Change formation and move 1/2 normal move 4. Change formation (no attack columns) and fire 5. Breechloader (BR) and Repeating rifle (RR) armed troops may: a. Remain stationary and fire (twice for BR, 3 times for RR) b. Move and fire (BR once, RR twice) SEQUENCE OF PLAY 1. Units are divided into divisions of 2 to 5 brigades each, usually with an attached artillery battation, and the divisions named entered on a card. 2. Brigade combat values (CV's) are determined and Division and Corps commander ratings are assigned. (see charts) 3. Each Division (both sides) is represented by a card. All cards are shuffled together and placed in a single stack. When a Division's card is turned up, all the brigades of that division may move or fire after moving any morale markers the units may have. 4. After the last card is turned up, melees resulting from contact during movement are fought out and bonus moves are made. 5. Reserve brigades may attempt to rebuild lost stands, and eligible units may attempt to build breastworks. 6. Repeat from Step 3. Units are listed and their CV's determined by chance merely as a convenience. A referee or the scenario designer may assign values to the units as he desires: in historical battles, the CV may relate to the units historical performance. In the latter case, and unabridged edition of Battles & Leaders is a boon, and the work of Scotty Bowden in STARS AND BARS can be handy and helpful. MOVEMENT Movement distance is dependent upon the formation the unit is in at the start of the move. Infantry units and dismounted cavalry units may be in one of four formations; the march column, the attack column (both are considered column formations), the line, and the reinforced line. Cavalry may be in march column or line, and artillery may be in line (unlimbered) or march column (limbered). The march column or route column consists of stands one behind the other. This formation allows for more rapid movement, and movement along roads and across bridges. A unit in this formation, however, may not initiate melee contact, and, if contacted, fights with a 0 multiplier. A unit must be in march column to get the road bonus. The attack column is formed of 2 to 3 stands abreast, and has a depth of 2 to 3 stands. When in melee, this formation adds 1 point to the unit's CV. The line is formed with all the units stands abreast. The reinforced line is formed by 2 lines of the same brigade. The second being about 2" behind the first and containing about half as many stands. This formation moves like a line, but adds 1 point to the units CV with both lines counting for total bases. Should the first line be broken when defending, the second line remains intact is not disordered and must be attacked if a bonus move is to be taken. The first line may thus rally behind the second. Changes of formation occur before movement, and cost half the movement distance allowed to the unit. Changes of facing are free, and may occur either before movement, after movement, or both before and after the unit moves. A unit may move up to the distance listed in the movement table for the formation it is currently in. Disrupting terrain units moving into or through woods, hill slopes, or fords roll a D10, the result is then modified for unit type and formation. If the resulting modified roll is higher than the number listed for the type of terrain, the unit may move normally, otherwise, the unit stops at the obstacle in disorder and receives a morale marker. Doubletime move a unit may make an extended move if it is in march column, and does not enter or move through disruptive terrain during the move. Artillery units are permitted one cloubletime move per game. A unit that cloubletimes more than once during the game rolls a D10 for the second and subsequent times that they do so. If the number rolled is less than or equal to the number of times that the unit has cloubletimed previously, the unit loses one stand before completing the move. Special moves: may be made anytime during the game. To do this, a D10 is rolled and the full amount of the roll is added to the unit's full normal movement distance, unless the unit is moving to contact the enemy. At no time during special movement may the unit move into or through disordering terrain. If a special move is used to attempt to contact an enemy unit, the unit making the move must contact the enemy unit or else it is in disorder and receives a morale marker. A unit may take as many special moves during the game as desired. Interpretrations: During movement a line may move through another line of friendly troops without penalty. A column or attack column will disorganize any friendly line or march column through which it moves giving them a morale marker. At no time may any unit move through an attack column. Charging Unless using special movement to contact, a unit moves no further when charging than it would in a normal move for the same formation, with the exception of cavalry in line which has a 24" charge. Bonus move: A unit that wins a melee by 26 or more points gets a bonus move. The unit making a bonus move may charge another unit, make a special move, retreat or whatever. The only limitation being that after fighting the first line of a reinforced line, any bonus movement must be used to attack the second line. A bonus move is OPTIONAL for the winning unit and never HAS to be made. When a cavalry unit mounts or dismounts, the formation that the troops were previously in is maintained. Commanders: Commanders may split their movement during the movement phase of their divisions so long as the total distance moved does not exceed a cavalry charge move (24"). This allows a commander to move to a unit, exercise a morale pass for that unit, move the unit, and them move the commander to another unit during the same phase. FIRE Two types of hits may result from firing, a morale hit or a kill. A morale hit will disorganize a unit and give it a morale marker. A kill results in the removal of 1 stand from the unit that was hit as well as disordering the unit and giving it a morale marker. Artillery Artillery fire is accomplished by measuring the range to the target to determine the appropriate section of the Artillery Results Table to be used. A D10 is then rolled, and the result adjusted as indicated on the Artillery Modifiers Table. The modified die roll is then compared to the proper range section of the Artillery Results Table to determine if its a miss or if the target unit loses a stand or receives a morale marker. When an artillery unit is hit by either small arms or artillery fire, TWO kill results must be obtained before the unit loses a stand. Morale hits have no effect on artillery units. Smoothbore artillery ONLY may fire TWICE when at point blank range (0 - 10 inches). Artillery located on higher terrain than the target unit subtract 4" from the range to the target. Each stand of artillery in a battalion resolves fire seperately. Small Arms Fire Small arms fire is resolved for those dismounted cavalry and infantry units that are in range of the enemy and eligible to fire. The number of stands firing is determined for each unit and is divided into groups of 6 stands (one group per unit could contain less than 6 stands). For each group of 6, a D10 is rolled and the appropriate modifications made from the Small Arms Modifiers Table The modified result is compared on the Small Arms Effect table, and the result applied to the target unit. Carbines have a range of 6", muzzle loaded rifles 12" and breechloaded and repeating rifles 18". First volley: units armed with muzzle loaded rifles may not fire when moving more than half their distance or when changing from or to an attack column; nor may they move, change formation and fire unless it is the units first volley in the game. This is to simulate the difficulty encountered in walking and attempting to load a muzzleloader simultaneously. Breechloaders: units with breechloaders (breechloading carbines the same except carbine range) may make a full move and fire or may fire twice if they do not move (the number of bases firing is doubled). Woods: Units firing into or through woods roll a D10 to determine their range; carbines still can't fire more than 6". The range in woods is determined separately for each unit firing, thus one unit may be unable to fire while another unit farther from the target can shoot. Works: When a unit is in breastworks, 2 ranks of troops may fire. Support: A supported fire bonus of 1 is given to units that can rest their weapons on a fence, a wall or an embankment. If a commander is attached to a unit that suffers either a kill or a morale hit from artillery or small arms fire, a D10 is rolled. If a 0 is rolled, the commander becomes a casualty and is removed from the game. MELEE Melee is resolved in the following manner: 1. Attacking units roll a D10 and compare the results to the unit's CV adding +2 to the unit's CV if it is charging cavalry. If the result is less than or equal to the unit's CV, the unit will contact its target; otherwise, the unit will move half the distance to the target unit and deploy into line. The roll to close may be modified by the presence of a commander attached to the charging unit. 2. If the attack was not onto the flank or rear of the target unit, the target of the charge will get to fire onto the charging unit. This fire is in addition to any other fire done in the turn previously, so the target unit could still fire even if it had moved fully or had already fired before being charged. 3. If the charging unit closes to contact, both sides figure the melee value of each of their troops in the melee. The melee value is equal to the number of stands in combat times the units modified combat value times a positional multiplier. 4. Each side adds together the melee values for all of the friendly troops involved in the melee and adds to this a roll of a D10. 5. The side with the largest total is the winner, the difference in the totals determines the outcome. If any commanders were attached to units participating in the melee, a D10 is rolled for each; on a 0 - 3 the commander is a casualty and is removed. Cavalry: Charging cavalry will close to contact only if the modified roll is greater than the units CV +2. Commanders: Attached commanders modify the roll for closing to contact as follows: Exceptional -2, Firebrand -1, Agressive or Cautious -0 and Poltroon + 1. Units that were attacked before their turn had come to move are unable to move. Such units fire only during the melee phase. Bonuses: Units get a bonus for defending uphill if at anytime during the move, the attacking unit crossed the hill crest. Units get a bonus for attacking downhill if at anytime during the move, the unit descended a hill slope. If the melee totals should be the same for both sides, both would lose 1 stand and withdraw 6". MORALE Before a unit may move or fire for a turn, any morale markers must first be removed. This may be done by roling a 2D10 and consulting the MORALE RESULTS TABLE, or by moving the division or corps commander to the unit and using a "morale pass". The commander may move from one unit to another during the movement phase, eliminating as many morale markers as he has ,'morale passes". The commander's morale passes are only usable once. I.e. after an aggressive commander has removed 3 morale markers from his units, his division must roll off any further morale markers for the remainder of the game. Should a commander become a casualty due to fire or melee, his command will operate for one turn without a commander, then a new commander may be rolled for as was done at the start of the game. Morale passes used by the previous commander(s) count against the new commander's total, thus a new commander may find that all of his morale passes have already been used. Units make only ONE morale check for each turn no matter how many times they received morale markers in the previous turn. Units with a morale marker are disorganized. Units that have not yet had a chance to remove their morale markers before being charged, do not get to remove them in their normal turn but instead count as disordered troops in the melee phase. REBUILDING BRIGADES At the end of each turn, a unit that has not moved and is out of range of the enemy may attempt to rebuild lost stands. Each turn that the unit is in reserve status, it may roll a D10 and comparethe resulton the Reserve Brigade Table. The unit may only rebuild to its original strength at the start of the game. Green troops subtract one from the rebuilding roll and elite troops add one to their roll when attempting to rebuild. BUILDING WORKS (Optional) Units that are not attempting to rebuild lost stands may build works. The unit must remain stationary and may not fire. At the end of each turn, the unit rolls a D10; for the first turn the unit needs a 9 to successfully complete a brigade frontage of works. For each consecutive turn the unit attempts to build works add 1 to the die roll. Elite units add 2 when attempting to build works and veteran units add 1 to the roll. Errata: ON TO RICHMOND III-5 Page 60, paragraph 7 should read: Cavalry: Charging cavalry will close only if the modified roll is less than or equal to the units CV+2. Dismounted cavalry has the same CV value as infantry of the same grade. Page 62, Table: Morale Modifier for "per base lost" should be -5. ED NOTE: In using these rules, some "house rules" or conventions may become necessary to prevent arguments or loud discussions. In talking to Paul, I found that hills in his games are steepsided obstructions that are as much a problem to get down as to go up. I have a tendency to use gentler slopes and have dropped the necessity for rolling for troops going downhill. In addition, I have also had the unenviable experience of routing troops that have become disordered from movement with no enemy in sight. To circumvent this difficulty, I have introduced a second type of morale marker for troops disordered by circumstances other than fire and melee. In this category morale results less than "stand" are all treated as "withdraw 1 " and greater than "no effect" as "no effect". I have also run into some problems with the lack of sighting rules. In these cases, I try to use whatever feels right, not allowing fire at units closer to the bottom of a hill than the firing unit is to the hill crest, and not allowing artillery fire from greater then point blank range at units in a woods. What I'm tying to point out is that if something in the rules does not feel right to you use what does - enjoy - BOB SARBER Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. III #5 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1982 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com