Shenandoah

ACW Miniatures Campaign System

reviewed by Paul Koch

There seem to be two kinds of miniature war gamers. Those who have never played out a campaign and are hot to try one, and those who have fought out a campaign and have vowed never to do so again. I personally belong to a tiny, lucky fringe group which have often enjoyed a campaign, or at least connected battles and are still speaking to each other.

The main reason for this sad state of affairs is that there are very, very few playable systems of miniature campaign rules. Most gamers make up their own and/or become bogged down in frustrating complexities. When I wrote "ON TO RICHMOND" I included a very simple set of campaign rules in an attempt to avoid those perils. They had worked very nicely in a couple of Napoleonic campaigns I had run and remained friends with most of those of who participated.

In SHENANDOAH, Chris Johnston, Brian Scherzer and my old friend Clay Cooper have taken the process a quantum leap further. Using some ideas of the old Prussian Kriegspiel and a lot of Paddy Griffith's ground breaking research, they have put together a remarkable set of rules.

Wisely they have not geared it to any particular rules system bur rather give "translation" systems for major ACW rules. Much of the translations for OTR I found unnecessary, but very helpful.

Also included is random table top terrain generation. This in itself is a great feature. It sure helps develop those last minute scenarios. Like everything else in the full size booklet it really works too. A great deal of blood, sweat and tears went into the exhaustive work of this little effort. It shows, because everything works out so extremely well.

SHENANDOAH should not just be used for ACW either. With some creative name changing I can see no reason why this system can't be used throughout the Horse & Musket period.

Price is unknown to this reviewer, but it's worth whatever they are asking. Available from: The American Civil Wargaming Society, 605 Sadie Avenue, Metairie, Louisiana 70003.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I give it an 11. Most highly recommended, go buy it!

Reviewing Stand

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