I have reformatted the Johnny Reb III charts, adding several more tables. These new Johnny Reb III charts contain more critical information for play than the original charts. I included more of the morale tables, weapon charts, combat dice, and other modifier charts of fire and melee combat. My goal in reformatting the Johnny Reb III reference charts was to add several charts which were critical to playing Johnny Reb, but were not on the JRIII original player aid charts.

I started playing JOHNNY REB II more than ten years ago with Scott Allen and Kevin Killian. We were using plastic 20mm figures and playing JR II which had reference charts of six pages. Until Scott Allen and I went to GenCon in August of the same year, we did not know an error existed in the JOHNNY REB II charts. A gentleman at GenCon pointed out the errors, and then he started talking about the new release of JOHNNY REB III with four stands per regiment instead of JR Il's five stands per regiment. I found out later that the gentleman's name was John Hill (the designer of JR-ed.)

In 1996 our local war gaming club received copies of the Play Test Edition of the new JOHNNY REB III rules. The charts consisted of only one sheet with both sides covered with tables. We soon found ourselves constantly referring back the rulebook, especially for the Charge Procedure. Not all of the Morale Modifiers for dice down procedure were on the charts. We would usually have books and reference charts spread out all over the war gaming table. Bruce Weiss, of our ACW war gaming club, designed new charts with more morale tables by cutting and pasting. First you cut, then you paste the different tables, and then you photo copy new charts.

When the full JOHNNY REB III rules came out, our ACW wargaming club was one of the first in the area to purchase these rules. But the charts were basically the same as the Play Test Edition and were still missing morale charts. We were back to charts and books spread over the wargaming table. We soon developed new charts using the above cut and paste methodology. With the purchase of my own PC (which was a big step as I am a main frame computer professional), I used the word processor to cut and paste and create the new JOHNNY REB III aid charts.

At the abovementioned GenCon, I played my first game using 15mm figures. That drove our interest into 15mm Old Glory, Minifigs and Stone Mountain figures. Kevin Killian was pushing for use of 15mm figures and soon Mike Askins joined our club with his huge collection of ACW figures. We soon sold our plastics and have been using 15mm figures ever since then.

Our ACW war gaming club has enjoyed JOHNNY REB III and we have taken on large battles usually handled by brigade-level rules. On Mike Askins' 12'x5' table we have played the three days of Gettysburg with each day a separate setup. Dave Page of the club has a 18'x6' table where we have fought Shiloh at least twice. Our last JOHNNY REB game was Wilson Creek where he had regiments of 900 men and used the rules as suggested on John Hill's Web Site.

The charts that Lee had done are printed back to back and are provided as an insert, i.e. not bound into the issue and are provided to Zouave subscribers only. For a paper copy of Zouave 51 with the chart insert, send $6 to the publisher at the address listed under "Zouave List of Issues."--RL

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