I read your review with interest. Unlike the David Fox piece I find it thoughtful and accurate in its portrayal of the rules. I would point out a couple of things, not with the intention of having you change anything, but just to be informative.
I caught one error however, the loss of the Richmond capital is as you state 1/2 of losing DC, but you usually destroy the resource space. This makes Richmond slightly more valuable than DC and because the Union goes up 12 SW eliminates almost half of the DC loss of 30. In the exchange of queens (capitals) the CSA comes up on the short end of the stick which was part of the Eastern theater portion of the design. (CHV: Denied!)
First, the strategic ratings of the generals although it looks like WTP is based on supply considerations. Not in the traditional sense of do I have an LOC, but how conservative was a general when it came to his supply arrangements. A three leader needed everything fixed and in order before he would do anything whereas a one leader would take logistic risks (e.g., Grant at Vicksburg).
Second, the reason that less political events are being played and forces are instead being moved is intentional to some degree. For example, after 1861 there were only a few political events that really mattered and most of these have such high SW points involved that they should be played. I find in this game that less experienced players overplay their position.
What I mean by that is once an army gets down to five SPs it shouldn't be doing anything unless it has no choice. Moving Lee just because you can usually leads to excessive attrition. You need to take the longer view and play the reinforcement and SW cards when you have them. You should also never use a Union blockade card for anything but a blockade level increase unless DC is on the line if you do not. Just yesterday the Union player overplayed his position, allowed his forces to be shorn down to ones and two strength armies, and I countered by cutting his LOCs and in a grand battle of the central position Lee destroyed two Union armies for 20 SW points and ultimately the game. I feel that losing a game due to excessive ops tempo is penalty enough for not slowing the game down and using the political events more. As people become more experienced with the game I find that their is an increase in event play.
Third, although force ratio doesn't impact the battles too often, they definitely effect the game momentum. A force with 2 to 1 keeps moving. This means that most CSA victories have no follow up whereas most Union victories do. This is a big deal in the game and seems to be consistently missed by people when they state that force ratio doesn't matter that much. Fourth, the Eastern theater unlike all other Civil War games is a far better simulation in my opinion than what has come before. The Union army must make the AoNVa its objective and experience losing most of the battles, but winning the war. I haven't figured out how to make a Union player unaware that Lee is better than anyone he has. In fact the Union knew that Lee was better than anyone else they had, but they fought him over and over again because of the pressure being exerted by Lincoln.
This is not unlike the situation in the game where you know your chances aren't good, but if you don't seek out Lee you yield the initiative to him and that can be disasterous. I think the key for this game is to keep your mind at the Grand Strategy level fighting Mr. Lincoln's war. When viewed from this perspective I think a lot of the gaminess goes away, but I may be alone in that opinion.
Regardless of all that I got the impression you felt the game was fun to play and I can easily settle for that.
For The People Opening Moves [strategy] (PA#99)
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