By now, everyone on the planet has heard of the phenomenon known as Magic: The Gathering. The collectable game card craze has become the bane of every miniature, board and role-playing gamer I know. There is so much money in the items that entire stores have opened just to sell them. Hobby shops that once carried miniatures have turned over their space to cards. Money that normally would go to legitimate games has been sucked into a cardboard vortex. The end of the world is nigh!

Actually, I have to admit that I enjoyed MtG before it became a collectable craze. It's a pretty good game. So are a couple of the other card game offerings, such as On the Edge, Illuminati, Sim City, and Dixie, by Columbia Games.

Dixie

Dixie is a collectable card game (commonly known as CCG) of the American Civil War. It was the first historical CCG; there now are a couple based on World War II, and one by Columbia is based on the 1815 Waterloo Campaign. And, unlike other card games, while you do get a random mix of cards in each pack, there is no rarity factor to deal with. Each card is equally common. For those of you who don't follow such things, CCGs are packaged like baseball cards; certain cards are common, others are more rare. In the CCGs, the rarest cards are almost always the best, so players will spend fortunes trying to get the good cards. This has turned decent games of skill and chance, like MtG, into spending contests.

Dixie actually is a generic name for three different stand-alone card garnes featuring the battles of First Bull Run, Shiloh and Gettysburg. Each has between 200 and 400 cards in the set. However, a complete set is not necessary to play a game. Instead, each player should have about 30 cards (non duplicates). This will involve buying two to four packs, at $10 each.

Cards

The cards themselves measure 2 1/4 by 3 1/4 inches, and are printed on heavy stock in full color. Each card represents either a unit (regiment or brigade, depending upon the game), a leader, a terrain feature, or a special event (such as sharpshooters, rally by color guard, ironclads, etc.) Unit cards show a soldier in the proper unit uniform. Leader cards feature portraits. Terrain and special events cards have appropriate illustrations. Actually, the things make great painting guides. Maybe they should be called Collectable Painting Guides. Each regiment involved in Bull Run and Shiloh is represented; Gettysburg kicks up the scale to brigades.

The rules and cards for each of the three games vary slightly (but shouldn't take you more than a couple of minutes to digest, once you've learned the core rules). The explanation of play in this review is based on the Bull Run rules, the first of the three games. Rules and cards for Shiloh and Gettysburg reflect the different characteristics of those battles.

Set Up

Each player begins the game with a deck composed of 30 non-duplicate cards. One player will have a deck composed exclusively of Union cards; the other, Confederate. The cards have point values on them, so you can either develop balanced decks (my preference), or one based on the disparity in forces at Bull Run.

To begin, the Union player draws 18 cards; the Confederate, 15. These cards are placed in battle lines consisting of left, center and right flanks. No more than four cards may be placed in each position. The remaining cards compose the players' reserves. The winner of the game is the player who is able to capture two of the three enemy positions, while holding on to his own.

Each turn follows the same sequence: 1) Players check morale for units which took hits in the previous enemy turn; 2) troops engage in combat; 3) troops which did not engage may move; 4) the player draws one card from the deck and adds it to his hand.

Each unit may either move or fire during a turn. Units may move forward from their battle line position to engage the enemy (the only way that infantry units may attack), from the battle line back into the player's hand, or from the player's hand into a position in the battle line. Thus, it will take two turns for a unit to move from the left flank position to the center.

Ratings

Unit cards have a rating of 1 to 4, which represents both the morale and the firepower of that unit. In combat the rating determines the number of dice that card rolls. Engaged infantry get a hit for each 5 or 6 rolled, cavalry hit on a 6, and the number varies for artillery. Melee occurs when the attacker declares a melee with units that already are engaged with the enemy. In melee, troops hit on a 4, 5 or 6.

When rolling morale, 1d6 is rolled for each hit a card took. If any of these exceeds the card's rating, the unit has routed and is out of play. Leader cards stacked with units modify the unit's morale rating.

There also are rules for enfilade fire, envelopment, outflanking moves and scouting. Special event cards affect fire and morale, permit additional reinforcement to be called up, and allow outflanking and double moves. Terrain cards affect movement, fire or morale, depending upon the terrain type.

Game Play

So how does the game play? Actually, it's a lot of fun. Once learned, play is fast and furious And it has the feel of a Civil War battle. Artillery pounds away at long range, infantry surges forward only to get annihilated, and the commander (you) desperately hopes to keep the momentum going by sending in troops from the reserves. Sudden outflanking maneuvers by your enemy can ruin your whole day.

Because you never know which card you'll draw next from the pile, which cards your opponent holds in his hand, or which cards are lurking in the pile in your opponent's positions (you don't actually get to view the cards in an oppo nent's position until you are engaged with him), the fog of war element is strong. Far too often, I've had the enemy on the ropes, only to have several draws in a row that give me leaders and terrain instead of desperately needed infantry (simulating traffic jams behind the lines, or misunderstood orders, or lost troops). Lacking more units to feed into the fray, my assaults have faltered, and suddenly my opponent has the edge. The final verdict: I recommend this game. Dixie, by Columbia games, is available from most hobby stores that carry games (and they certainly can order them for you).

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