Atalair

Never Call Retreat ACW Rules

By Paul Koch

Atalair Ltd., P.O. Box 421, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52406
Design: Orvill J. Banasik Jr.
Topic: Tactical Simulation of the American Civil War
Systems: Written orders, simultaneous movement, game of medium complexity using roughly a 50 to 1 figure scale. Rules claim to stress decision making at the Brigade level and maneuvering at the regimental level.
Price: $6.75
Published: 1984

Never Call Retreat is a 58 page spiral bound 81/2" by 33/4" booklet. The unusual size and spiral binding permits the rules to lay flat and open to any point while not taking up much space on the table. If you object to rules, cups, etc., cluttering the battlefield this is a nice touch. Indeed Never Call Retreat has quite a number of touches that mark it as a good effort in rules writing. It bears the marks of a labor of love written after being played and enjoyed by a club over an extended period of time. There are all sorts of ideas for promotion of units and commanders based on their past performance. Generals may become "regulars" after successful campaigning which enhances their tabletop performance in the future. That is, the good get better. Units too may receive "unit citations", etc. For a group of gamers who meet and play the Civil War period frequently this may have great appeal. To others who play a variety of periods or prefer a more informal structure it may smack of being too competitive. Nonetheless this sort of thing flavors the rules throughout, giving them a sort of "grown with the telling" feel.

The scale is the very popular 1"=25 yards with mounting information for 15, 25 and even 30 and 54mm scale figures. The mounting system is quite exact and therefore figures will probably have to be remounted for the game. I do that about six times a year anyway but some just hate it. My son will not even read a set of rules that involves remounting his figures.

NCR calls for Infantry regiments of 600 men (roughly twice the historical average) occupying 6 to 12 inches of frontage, about 150 to 300 scale yards. Three 15s or a single 25mm are mounted on a I" stand. In scale this gives an 18 to 36" file in two deep line. The 24" file of historical regulation thus fits roughly halfway between so the infantry do take up a fairly realistic historical frontage. Things are not so good with cavalry, as it may take up a full 3 yards per file in NCR. It may be as little as 2 yards, but this is still stretching things a good bit. Artillery however is quite badly presented with a 4 gun battery spreading out to 125 yards rather than slightly more than 50 yards of period regulations. Thus the common wargame mistake of allowing too much concentration on artillery is reversed. The guns occupy much too much space in NCR. This bothers some gamers like myself to an enormous degree. If you don't care, then don't let this upset you. It had been my experience that many Civil War rules authors hate artillery anyway. In a recent popular set they are basically worthless.

In NCR a basic infantry brigade is standard, containing 4 regiments totalling 144 figures in 15mm or 48 in 25mm. Likewise a Cavalry Brigade will muster 84 sabres in 15s and 24 in 25s, divided into 3 regiments. An Artillery batallion of 3 batteries would demand 18 guns and 54 crew for 15s and 3 guns and 18 crew in 25s. Figure demands for the game therefore seem reasonable if a bit excessive for 15mm cannon.

NCR operates on a written orders simultaneous movement system. My own experience with written orders has been one of illegible hand writing and meaningless generalities, but NCR translates orders into a 6 order code. (ATTACK, DEFEND, SUPPORT, SCREEN, DEMONSTRATE, & RETREAT). This is undoubtedly the strongest and most clever portion of the rules. A system that tested well when we lifted it for playtest in a Napoleonic game. Movement rates are also very fast with infantry scooting about at up to 18" a turn, nearly that of the Cavalry's 24". Even the lowly supply wagon moves up to 12" per turn. This makes for a swift game in which things will happen very quickly! A "Rapid Movement" or doubletime involves the use of a deck of 52 cards which may have units lose stragglers, morale, or perhaps go "impetuous". In addition to the generous movement allowances, facing, forming and formation changes are very free. Units maneuver with the precision and speed of the Notre Dame Marching Band. George Jeffreys would have a fit!

Firing, Melee, and Morale are all fairly orthodox, straightforward and loaded, as is the entire rules set, with examples of play. NCR can be understood and played right out of the box.

In short Never Call Retreat has some good ideas, some shortcomings, and a reasonable price. It is well worth adding to anyone's rule collection and may be what some Civil War gamers are looking for.

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