Three New ACW Rules

by Paul Koch

I have received in the last few months three new sets of rules which either center on or are applicable to the American Civil War.

The first and, in my opinion, best of these, is AMERICAN CIVIL WAR by Cliff Knight and Peter Dennis. The book is derived from the recent studies of Paddy Griffith for which Mr. Dennis did the illustrations. Both men are on the cutting edge of theory as their associations with Griffith and George Jeffrey show.

The work is clearly grand tactical in scope. It calls for a scale of 22cm to the mile or 1 mm equals 8 yards. For we reactionary colonials that means 1 " = 200 yards. The authors wish to play with 2 and 6mm figures, using 8 to 20 blocks of these creatures to form a brigade, which is the basic maneuver element.

Movement is handled by the variable length bound (VLB) so much talked about and so little used. However the authors have some faculty with the English language and get their meaning across quite nicely. Combat is handled through a linear matrix system and decimal dice. This has long been a mainstay of board games and it is good to see the crossover of a sound proven concept. Morale too is tied to combat and not a separate and distinct function.

Alas the book is half size (5" by 7" stapled) but this does contribute to the remarkable price of $3.00. It is a highly innovative bargain. I do recommend it. Available from Howard Whitehouse, Apartment C1, Amberidge Apartments, 1031 Scott Boulevard, Decatur, CA 30030.

The next set of rules is THIS HALLOWED GROUND (hooray, another yankee title) by Steve Jamieson, Stephen A. Thomas and Ron David. THG claims to be a set of grand tactical rules using the brigade as its basic maneuver element. However, with aground scale of 1" - 25 yards and 1 to 33 troop ratio it would seem rather to be an overgrown set of divisional rules.

There are however some very interesting and new ideas contained in THG. For example, movement is the fairly conventional written orders and simultaneous movement, but there is a provision for "grand tactical" movement. That is, movement of much greater rapidity under certain situations such as the rapid movementof reserves, etc. This is a coming idea and THG is the first set of ACW rules I have seen which uses it. Morale, fire, combat, and so forth all seem quite conventional, but do use decimal dice.

THG is a full 8 1/2" by 11" size and spiral bound so that it will lay flat on the table. It appears to be computer generated with some really nice selections of Civil War art. Its price tag is $12.00. One may also get a series of orders of battle for historical replay use. These have been scaled for the gemer in ready-to-use form, They have fairly little use for garners with other ACW rules as the code is difficult to unravel without the game. They also carry the daunting cost of $10.00.

This quite complex but complete game is available from 19th Century Miniatures, Inc., 10050 East River Shore Dr., Alto, MI 49302.

Third and last we turn to PALO ALTO TO PEKING by K. Wilson Brasington. These rules are a system derived to cover the 1840s to the turn of the present century. The readers of THE COURIER will no doubt note that the many ON TO RICHMOND variants of many periods demonstrate that I have no problem with rules trying to do this. One should set up a working enjoyable set of mechanics and make allowances for technology, non-rational factors and go from there. So I wish Kim the best.

The rules seem to be roughly tactical in scope, using the classic division level. This is not discussed in the rules, but the 1" = 30 to 40 yards scale and traditional 1 to 20 troop ratio would lead one to believe it is so. The basic maneuver element is nowhere explained either but range in size from 100 to 1000 men. This seems then to be a battalion, more or less. However, the author does give us a really good army list in back of the rules. The list includes the great Paraguayan War among others and is very useful even if one never plays PATP. I did feel hurt that he omitted the Sikhs though.

Movement is somewhat innovative through a mixture of two separate Morale phases. Once again the old tried and true written orders and simultaneous move is used with some negotiation in trouble spots. Decimal dice are used for all procedures. The author is also very keen on something he calls accuracy, i.e., some armies shoot better than others. There is therefore a separate rating for each army that gets a little bit confusing. I should think this is simply a matter of training and quality and he figured it in as such.

The looks of the book are not inspiring. It is half size with poor illustrations and some blurred printing. It is, however, spiral bound, which is very handy for game use. There are some fresh ideas here and the $6.95 price is not a serious drain on the budget in today's wargame rule market!

PATP is available from Palisades Publishing Inc., P.O. Box 6303, Rock Springs, WY 82901. The gamer must allow $.75 for postage as well.

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