The first major battle of the Civil War was fought near the village of Manassas along the winding stream known as Bull Run. Although both sides knew the battle would be fought in this vicinity, the battle did not proceed as intended for either side.

Before the battle, it had been a relatively common belief among the public on both sides that the conflict would be settled by one decisive battle. Realizing that the United States peacetime army was not suited for such a conflict and that its officers had fragmented down the lines of state loyalty, both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis called for short-term volunteers to fight this singular battle.

As both sides trained and learned how to shoot and all the other aspects of military life, it became clear that many people still regarded the war as romantic, almost a carnival to be enjoyed with its parades and fanciful uniforms. But since the volunteers were only signed up for a limited term, a battle had to be fought quickly.

Protesting that his troops were far too green to attack, Irvin McDowell was ordered to attack into Virginia by President Lincoln. McDowell's planning and deployment were brilliant, capable of knocking the Rebel forces off balance and driving them back in chaos to Richmond. Unfortunately, McDowell's plan ignored the fact that his troops were not yet soldiers, a fact made ironic given his protests to Lincoln. Thus, the Union forces would not be well coordinated during the battle to come.

For the South, the commander was Joe Johnston. Johnston, busy with organizing the Confederate army, was prepared to fight the Union, but just barely. To insure that the logistical buildup of the South's resources continued, Johnston gave battlefield command to his friend P.T. Beauregard. Beauregard's plan of battle was reckless and against a welltrained army would have resulted in Confederate ruin.

But as the social elite gathered on hills to watch the proceedings from their carriages, it soon became clear to all involved that both sides had much to learn about war. The fighting began in earnest around 9:30am and continued until the Union forces disintegrated around 5pm, running for the safety of Washington, DC.

The battle had not been decisive. Although the Union army had retreated, the Confederates had logistical and organizational problems that kept them from pursuing the Union forces. The inexperience of both sides showed and caused most foreign observers to head back to Europe, belittling the conflict as a war between armed mobs.

But blood had been spilled, and with it any last hopes for a peaceful settlement. The conflict would now be decided on the battlefield and after their victory at Manassas, the Confederacy had gained a psychological edge in the East that it maintained until Grant's appearance in 1864.

Special Rules

Due to the organization of the Confederate forces, several of the units on the order of battle are not full brigades Holmes, Kershaw, Evans, and Bartow are all half-brigades. For purposes of the scenario, they are treated as regular brigades.

Most of the units in both armies have less than five stands. No units are affected by the negative modifiers for having less than five stands in a brigade.

Since it is difficult to move more than six figures on a stand, players wishing to avoid bookkeeping may place an additional stand with those units. This stand is placed behind the unit at all times and is there simply to absorb casualties. Any units doing this do take a morale check for losing the stand, but are given a +20 to their dice roll (since it is not the actual elimination of a stand, but casualties distributed among the regiments).

The orders of battle show the effectiveness of the troops and leaders as they actually performed at the battle.

To simulate the fact that no one knew how the troops or most of the officers would perform, players may choose to determine officer and troop quality randomly.

To determine the abilities of the leaders (McDowell, Johnston, Beauregard, and the Union division commanders), consult the random leader ability generation table (also provided in the rules A NATION 0N TRIAL).

ROLL	CSA	USA
01-10	-10	-10
11-25	-5	-10
26-50	+0	-5
51-60	+5	+0
61-70	+10	+0
71-80	+15	+5
81-90	+20	+10
91-95	+25	+15
96-00	+30	+20

To determine the abilities of units, check the table below the first time the unit's quality is needed to be known:

ROLL	QUALITY
01-12	Militia
13-63	Raw
64-92	Veteran
93-00	Elite

Since most of the public and many of the volunteer soldiers on both sides still believed in the romantic notion of war and that the war would be over in a single glorious battle, notions that would soon be dispersed in the minds of the soldiers, troops are not allowed to build works during the course of the battle.

"WHAT IF?" OPTIONAL RULES

1. When Winfield Scott offers command of all Union forces to Robert E. Lee, he accepts. Replace Miles with McDowell, and replace McDowell with Lee in command of the Dept. of North Virginia. Lee receives a rating of +20 for the battle. All Union units are considered on level better than listed. If using the random method, the Union player may add +20 to his die roll for determining unit quality.

2. Rather than place Lee in an administrative position, Jefferson Davis goes with his gut instinct and places Robert E. Lee in command of Confederate forces in Virginia from the outset. Replace Johnston and Beauregard both with Lee. Lee's rating as commander is +25.

3. McDowell's plan of attack was brilliant given a well-trained army. To simulate this, all unit quality ratings on both sides are increased by one. Militia become raw, raw become veteran, etc.. Elite troops remain elite. Increase the leadership ratings of all Union officers by +10 and all reinforcements arrive one hour earlier for the Union.

4. Rather than be caught off guard by McDowell's attack, McDowell is surprised when Beauregard launches his assault earlier than he had historically planned. All CSA reinforcements begin on the board. Union units that initially begin on the board must now enter on the first turn at Centreville.

A Nation on Trial

The rules came about after finagling with home rules for several years. We loved playing Johnny Reb, from the Adventure Games version to JRIII, but we also wanted to fight the bigger battles. Everyone knows "The Big Three" (Grant, Sherman, and Lee) and wants to be them on the tabletop. The criteria set were simple. The game had to be playable in a reasonable sized basement, using a ping-pong table as the rough dimensions available to most gamers (assuming that since that was what we used, everyone else must too!).

Given the size constraints of the gaming area aimed at, it was decided to use brigades as the maneuver element with each stand representing one regiment. But before determining a scale, we realized we didn't want to convert our stands away from Johnny Reb, so the decision was made that ANOT's basing system should be the same as JR. Now we were heading some place! Thus, the scale came out to be:

1 inch = 200 yards
1 figure = 100 men

We wanted a system where the number of men in a unit had an impact on the situation. It isn't always the number of regiments that matters, but their size as well. Combined with a system that takes into account unit quality, this means a raw brigade of 2,500 (25 figures) men can be held off by 600 (6 figures) grizzled veterans. This means players are faced with the age-old question of superior numbers vs. superior quality. And that is a fine edge to ride.

In playtesting ANOT and the scenarios from it's supplement (Blow! Bugles! Blow!), each end of the spectrum occurred. Raw troops would break and run from veteran troops, elite troops would be overwhelmed by a charge of a raw brigade (and in one case, a division). This is why each scenario we create has optional rules allowing players to explore these issues such as leadership, quality vs. quantity, and the effect of terrain and entrenchments on battle.

But the most important criteria we put on ANOT's design was that we have fun playing it. And we have.

The battle included with this, First Manassas/Bull Run, is excellent for conventions and tournaments. It can be played in 4-5 hours - including time for a rules explanation - and with a limited number of figures.

Battle of First Manassas: Large Map (slow: 150K)
Battle of First Manassas: Jumbo Map (very slow: 250K)
Battle of First Manassas: Order of Battle Sheets: (slow: 187K)

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