One of the most common complaints about board games is that achieving true surprise over your opponent is impossible. After all, he's watching every move you make. Jackson's dramatic flank march at Chancellorsville is a waste of time, and what fool would go to the lengths Longstreet did at Gettysburg, just to avoid being seen?

The problem stems from the fact that even though you may have completely duped your opponent; once you stars movement -- with only six movement points -- you're hardly going to turn up in his flank before he issues corrective orders. He may have some trouble getting new instructions adopted, but in the end, its a good bet that at least somebody will show up to hold off your flanking column until the rest of his reserves arrive.

Of course, if you had 20 or 30 MP's to spend in one turn, you could put troops into column, slip around on an unguarded road, go back into line, and hit him a devastating rear attack -- all in one turn. Imagine the bellows of anguish tbat this would elicit from the other side of the map!

The basic thrust of this variant calls for a player to be able to issue orders to a force which allow the command in question to remain quietly in one place on the map -- seemingly inoffensive and meek. All the while, the force would actually be accumuluing movement points, a full allowance for each turn that goes by. Then, at the time of his choosing, the acting player could suddenly set this command in motion, expending all of its 'saved' MP's in one devastating turn. Of course, a number of rules will be set forth cocerning visibility, etc., and to provide for discovery.

In order to reap the beneflts of this rule, the player would need to observe the following restrictions:

1. The player must issue an order to a command that specifies the directed force as making a 'surprise move.' All elements affected by this order must be listed (say, all of I Corps plus attached) and a detailed route. Roads work best here, since they are easier to specify.

2. Once the order is accepted, the force cannot physically move or conduct activities like straggler recovery or ammo resupply. They must remain in place in their formation. They may not conduct fire combat of any type.

3. Each Movement and Close Combat Phase Commencing with the phase immediately following order acceptance, the phasing player must roll a die each surprise moving force, and consult the MP Accumulation Table. The result will either be a pass -- indicating that all of the turn's MP's may be saved and used later -- or a fail -- which means the that the march has been discovered. At the beginning of any Movement and Close Combat Phase, the player may forego this die roll and elect to execute the march voluntarily, at which time the force resumes normal functioning -- the surprise order is then carried out in a normal turn by turn manner. This initial movement may continue until all accumulated MP's have been expended or until the lead element reaches a "blocked hex." (See below.)

Upon discovery, the force immediately moves along the indicated route until all accumulated MP's are expended or its lead element reaches a blocked hex -- exactly as if the player had voluntarily elected to execute the movement.

Conditions and Definitions

Concealed Movement

When the phasing player actually begins the movement of the surprise force -- either by choice or discovery -- he must follow his assigned route until either all the accumulated MP's have been expended or he reaches a blocked hex. A "blocked hex" is defined as any hex at or within two hexes of an enemy infantry, cavalry, or artillery unit.

Furthermore, a "blocked hex" is considered reached if the phasing player, while following his route, enters a hex that can be seen by an enemy unit or leader in keeping with standard LOS and current visibility. Once the blocked hex is reached, the moving player may move the surprise units 6 more MP's or the remainder of their accumulated MP's -- whichever is less. He may conduct close combat and normal fire combat.

Enemy Interference

If the enemy attacks any unit of a surprise force with artillery fire at five hexes or greater, the combat is resolved nommally, except that the defending player secretly ignores the result and does not record any straggler or casualty losses. Morale results are also ignored, but the defending player can mark his units with appropriate results (Sh, Dg, etc.) and execute any retreats to preserve the illusion.

Units may recover morale and return to their previous locations -- the only kind of movement allowed in exception to #1 above. When the owning player initiates his surprise move, simply remove any of these 'sham' markers and return units to their proper locations.

If the enemy attacks any surprise unit with units at four hexes or less, the surprise move is triggered. Additionally, any enemy combat unit (infantry, cavalry, or artillery) that ends its movement at or within two hexes of a surprise unit also triggers the order. This trigger is handled in the following manner

1. The surprise player informs his opponent that a surprise move has been triggered. Any attacks against surprise units are ignored, but enemy units may not pass through or move into hexes occuped by surprise units. They may fire through such hexes.

2. At the beginning of his Movement and Close Combat Phase, the surprise player immediately executes the surprise order subject to the following conditions:

A. He must follow the designated route. B. He may only expend 1/2 of his accumulated MP's. He may not expend the additional 6 MP's he would normally get for that turn. He may not stop short of expending 1/2 of his MP's unless he reaches a blocked hex -- in which case all movement ceases. All additional MP's over the 1/2 allowed are lost.

Voluntary Cancellation

A player may change a surprise force's order during a normal Command Phase by sending it new orders or by initiative. When sending new orders, arrival time is calculated by adding the expected amount of accumulated MP's to the actual distance to the force's HQ.

For example, if the 1st Corps HQ is 20 MP's away from the Army commander -- normal time delay would be two turns. However, Ist Corps has accumulated 12 MP's so another two turns must be expended to deliver the order -- for a total of 4 turns. Initiative requires no such time delay calculation.

Once the time delay has passed, the surprise force begins to check for acceptance normally. Until the new order is accepted, the surprise order must be followed. At any time during this stage, the player could still choose to implement the surprise order, but would continue to roll for the newly received one.

Once he has succeeded in changing his orders, the player has two options: He may execute the old surprise order as it has progressed so far, and then begin to execute the new order's instructions. Alternatively, he may reverse the order -- rolling on the MP Accumulation Table to subtract MP's from the accumulated total in order to preserve secrecy. Once the total is zero, he could then start executing the new orders. If discovered, however, he would still have to immediately expend the accumulated MP's as described in Enemy Interference above.

Surprise Move Collision

It is possible, though unlikely, that both sides will attempt to use portions of the same route for a surprise move at the same time. In tbese cases, the players can either allow the player who started his move first to complete all of it and consider the other player's move cancelled with accumulated MP's lost. Or, both players can conduct a semi-imultaneous move in the following manner

1. Player A begins his move and indicates his route.

2. Player B checks for any overlap with bis own move, and if finding any, informs A.

3. A now moves his force 6 MP's.

4. B does the same.

5. Both players continue alternating this until either all MP's are expended (if one side has more accumulated, he may simply finish his move at the end of the alternation) or they come within 6 MP's of each other. At that point, both forces are done moving and the normal sequence of events resumes. Note that in this instance the non-phasing player actually moves his force during his opponent's phase. These units may not move again in their own following Movement and Close Combat Phase -- consider them already moved. The phasing player, however, may move freely in his next phase giving him a slight advantage, getting the jump on things so to speak.

Either method may be used as long as both players agree beforehand.

Initiative Use

In addition to the use of initiative to change or supercede an order, players may use their leaders to alter a specified route in order to avoid a blocked hex. If, as he expends his accumulated MP's, a player discovers he is about to enter a blocked hex he can have the ranking leader of the force (not a subordinate) roll for initiative to alter his route.

If successful, the player may deviate from the specified route in order to avoid the blocked hex. He must announce his intended detour route, and his detour must seek to regain the speciffed route as rapidly as possible. Note that each avoidance of a blocked hex requires a separate initiative roll.

Failure to receive initiative means that the force enters the blocked hex and follows the procedure above. Note that changing the objctive or the orders as a whole via initiative would still need to be done in the normal Command phase not during this detour procedure. Only the route may be modified in this manner. As an added bonus, allow any force that is accompanied by at least one cavalry brigade to modify this detour initiative roll by +1 to the dice.

Forced Marches

Players may also add forced march MP's onto the accumulated MP total, up to the four max each turn, as per the normal rules. Of course stragglers should be checked for normally, but rolls should be made secretly to preserve the surprise. Note that even if a surprise move is cancelled and a unit is subtracting MP's, it still must make straggler checks if using forced marching.

Visibility Limits

A maximum visibility limit of 20 hexes is imposed. In the series, no visibility limits are set during clear weather as no unit can ever fire more than 10 hexes. Here, a special limit needs to be imposed as a limit to long range observation which would be hindered by woods, buildings, and brush too small to be printed on the map as well as the ever present haze. In situations where weather intrudes, games will specify other (shorter) maximum visibility limits.

General Comments

The above rule simulates wide flanking marches such as Longstreet's and Jackson's in an admittedly abstract manner. Yet, it adds a real measure of suspense. Suddenly, control of high ground like Little Round Top or Cemetery Hill becomes critical, providing vantage points to keep an eye on the other guys. Cavalry, with fast movement and more latitude in using divisional goals, will be used in their historical role by alert commanders -- to screen flanks and to cover hidden roads.

In order to prevent too much tedious plotting, I suggest specifying road routes whereever possible. In some instances, it may be necessary to list specific hexes to avoid disputes. Another clue would be to conduct approach movements at night, when visibility is nil and only the presence of enemy troops need be worried about.

The two hex radius of enemy forces represents the posted pickets of those units. These pickets would rarely be placed further than four hundred yards from their parent units. Again, this makes cavalry especially useful in screening flanks these brigades serve as tripwires against enemy formations.

The table is provided to make surprise marches more difficult to achieve the greater the distance that is attempted. Hence, the longer the march, the more the risk of premature discovery, and subsequently the more separated and exposed to piecemeal destruction one's forces will be. While somewhat abstract, this increasing risk simulates some of the actual burden borne by commanders who attempted such actions, most notably Robert E. Lee.

Some players may feel that as long as they can see the enemy, how can he get up and leave? To a certain extent this is an abstraction, but also remember that a number of ruses were used to good effect during the war. Nathan Bedford Forrest once convinced a Union commander he was badly outgunned by having one artillery battery circle the same stand of trees repeatedly. That same Federal commander -- who was very inexperienced -- then asked Forrest's advice on whether he should surrender or not! All in all, if your enemy slips one over on you, simply chalk it up to the fortunes of war and drive on. Stranger things have happened.

MP Accumulation Table
Roll	# of Turn Being Attempted
	1	2	3	4+
	1-3	P	P	P	P
	4	P	P	P	F
	5	P	P	F	F
	6	P	F	F	F
-1 from die roll if during a full or partial night turn. P = Pass F = Fail