A good beginning point in this review would be an explanation on why I, a dedicated Johnny Reb player, decided to open my mind to Stars 'N Bars 3rd Edition (SNB3) by Scotty Bowden. The main reason for the occasional switch was the concept of a 40-1 figure ratio as opposed to the Johnny Reb 20-1 ratio. This allowed me to field corps rather than divisions. Of major consequence to me was the addition of command control into my scenarios, something that was totally ignored by other rules sets played by our group. I also found the tables easier to follow with SNB3, with fewer die rolls and no need to switch tables as is found in Johnny Reb.
Anyone who has played Napoleonics with Empire III (also by Scotty Bowden) will find SNB3 easy to follow, since most of the basic mechanisms are the same. If anything, SNB3 is perhaps a bit better written. However, as with Empire III, I found that a large scale game with each person commanding a corps can take an awfully long time to complete.
The fact that I use the rules should speak well for my feelings about 9N83. Therefore, before going into the plusses, I thought I'd comment on what I feel are some of the drawbacks. One of the major innovations is the grand tactical movement rate to simulate marching to contact the enemy. I use a 10 ft, by 6 ft. table (large for a home table) and have found no need thus far for using grand tactical movement. I assume that such is meant for a HUGE playing area or for a campaign, although this is not explained in the rules. Having gotten excited in my reading of the concept, I was naturally a bit disappointed when I found it irrelevant for our use.
Perhaps my biggest area of disagreement with Mr. Bowden is in the morale table. Troops listed as Green have a basic 12% chance of failure before adding in any modifiers. If the unit has suffered 49% casualties, it still only has a 22% chance of running away. This does not, in my opinion, reflect a realistic situation. There is no added modifier for seeing (taking an extreme example) every other friendly unit on the field run away. There is a factor added if a friendly unit happens to interpenetrate the testing unit, but since this may be a rare happening if the gamer is aware of the rule, it seems to have little effect. I would feel more comfortable with a higher chance of failure for sustaining casualties plus added factors when a unit sees others "skedaddling" of, say, 3-10% per retreating unit seen. I would point to the Union fiasco at Chickamauga and the Confederate disaster at Nashville as ample proof that regiments would sometimes panic in a domino" effect.
To be fair to Mr. Bowden, when I spoke to him about this he stated that, considering the several morale tests a unit would likely take in the course of a battle, the percentage chance of failure is much higher than it would seem at first glance.
A personal pet peeve of mine with SNB3 and many other rules sets is the lack of power given for repeating weapons. The factor for a repeating rifle is only twice that of a regular musket, a serious flaw for someone such as myself who happens to love Wilder's Mounted Brigade. Considering that the Spencer repeating rifle was capable of firing 7 times faster than a conventional rifled musket, the factors should be at least 3 times that of the more common weapon (subtracting a bit for potential lack of accuracy when fired rapidly). There is plenty of evidence that a brigade armed with repeating rifles or carbines could severely defeat an opposing division of normally armed troops.
I have some question as to the accuracy of small arms or artillery fire. What you see in the fire tables is "suppressed fire, meaning that those are the factors that exist if you have been fired upon. Those factors are doubled if the firing unit has not been shot at. This makes unsuppressed fire quite dramatic in effect - more so than history would seem to dictate. Our group has made a house rule that makes the normal factors those of unsupressed shooting, while giving a x..60 to the normal factors if the unit has been fired upon. This seems to stand the test of statistics much better.
Another curious point in the rules is that a charging unit is only allowed to have the same movement distance as would be the case if it WERE NOT charging' As I understand it, a charge was usually done at the run and should be allocated more distance allowance than a 'line' moving forward. Speaking of distances, I find myself wondering how Johnny Reb, a 20-1 figure ratio rules set, and SNB3, a 40-1 ratio set, can both have a ground scale of 40 yards to the inch. Not having personally participated in the Civil War, it would be hard for me to know which rules set represents the more accurate scale. However, SNB3 places 160 men in 40 yards, pretty cramped by any standard.
As a final note on the negative side of SNB3, a gamer, playing a supposedly grand tactical game, is still left with handling the individual regiments. Each regiment can fire seperately (or as a group if you wish), leaving one spending a great deal of time working out all of the missile fire. Of course, one can choose to fire by the brigade, offsetting this. Also, in close action combat, a brigade attack column as at a proportional disadvantage when the factors for "partial" or "full' enfilade are put into play. There is little advantage in this formation for mass.
Having given my opinions about the more bothersome parts of this rules set, there is much to say good about it. The introduction to SNB3 is quite motivating and one will want to get started right away after reading it. In general, I like the flow of the rules, although the feel of a SNB3 game can be somewhat "stiff" at times, in my opinion. Having said that one is 'stuck" pushing around regiments as a corps commander, I like the visual effect one gets seeing numerous groupings of men with their many flags 'waving in the wind'. At a 40-1 ratio, a brigade of five regiments might consist of 35 to 50 castings, a pretty sight when you are seeing several divisions at one time.
Best of all for me, the tables are quite easy to comprehend without having a doctorate in puzzle solving. Johnny Reb can get quite cumbersome at times, especially when figuring out artillery fire. One would have to go to more than one table before finding out what effect had actually taken hold, not to mention "saving rolls. In SNB3 you simply go to one table, figure out how many 'tubes" of artillery fired, look at the lower portion of the table to find the appropriate modifiers, and you're finished.
Another plus for SNB3 is the turn sequence. Certainly a very important part of any rules set, Bowden's turn sequence makes historical sense. In the combat phase each 'hourly round' is broken up into 'impulses' to simulate the push/pull of an actual battle. One side gets the initial impulse, does its best to somehow break the opponent, and then the flow turns around, with the enemy coming back in its own initiative. A nice feature in SNB3 is that, any time a unit charges, the opposing (charged) unit gets to shoot "defensive fire', depleting the charger's ranks prior to closing in. Other defending units that are within the allowed distance get to shoot 'opportunity fire", making it that much harder for an actual hand-to-hand melee to occur, since the charging unit may fall back from sustaining casualties.
A nice touch of realism is added by 'leader casualties". Our experience has been that you can expect to lose a fair number of brigade, or even division, leaders during a battle if they lead their "rnanuever elements" into the thick of the fight -just like the real war'
A final note on the plus side of these rules is the "command control' concept. All generals above brigade level are given a professional skill rating, ranging from "Superior' to "Despicable". The rating is based on historical performance and takes the efficiency of the staff into account. A "Superior" commander has an 80% chance to have orders acted upon (activated), while a "Despicable" leader has only a 30% chance. There are some modifiers to these percentages and a total of six professional skill ratings. As in the actual war, a table top encounter can be frustrating due to the best laid plans not being carried out. An example of command control can be found in the following:
An Army Commander wants a corps to attack. His rating is "Good", so he has a 60% chance of transmitting his orders to the corps leader. Let's say that the corps leader is excellent, giving him a 70% chance of sending the order down to his division commanders. They must also pass a dice roll to see if they can activate the original orders. Chances are pretty good that someone along the line will fail their roll, giving the possibility that only one or two of, say, three divisions will actually attack, with the rest hanging back.
Reading through the rules the first time can be a bit confusing due to the different concepts and terms. Yet it is these very differences that make SNB3 worthwhile. I believe that the average gamer, having read the rules COMPLETELY two or three times, can play a scenario without having to refer to the rule book many times during the game. The tables sheets are pretty complete and all that is required to master the rules is some experience.
SUMMARY
The truth is that I still prefer Johnny Reb to any other rules set. However, I have tried converting Johnny Reb to a larger figure ratio without success, leaving me to find a different set for larger scale games. I realize that I have 'picked on SNB3 quite a bit in this review, but the overall fact is that I did enjoy playing ACW battles using the system. There is NO rules set that a person couldn't pick apart so don't be put off by whatever negative comments I have given. These rules can be modified quite easily to fit your needs.
Stars 'N Bars 3rd Edition is certainly worth the money. This will be even more true when Scotty Bowden finishes his book containing orders of battle to be used with the rules. That book is supposed to contain troop ratings, numbers of regiments and brigades, along with leader ratings for each of the covered battles. Having engaged in similar research, I can safely say that Mr. Bowden has a large job ahead of him.
Anyone wishing to buy these rules can do so by contacting Empire Games, Inc. at P.O. Box 5462, Arlington, TX. 76011.
If you do purchase the rules and wish to make some "house rule"changes, but don't know how to do this, please let us know. We have changed some of the modifiers and rules to better fit our club's views on how battles were really fought. Because of the large number of members, I would not be able to personally answer every letter asking for advice on changes. I would also invite Mr. Bowden to write a reply to my review, since he may have some explanations that I haven't thought of.
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