As stated previously in this magazine, the New Orleans gaming club has used both JOHNNY REB (JR) and STARS 'N BARS 3rd Edition (SNB) in its engagements. We tend to prefer JR, but that rules set has limitations in the number of regiments one can comfortably handle. This is also true for SNB if you use it as written. However, we decided to make some slight alterations to SNB which allow us to handle approximately a corps per person in the same amount of time it used to take us when handling only a division per person. The major change done by us was to eliminate the regiment as the basic unit, instead making the brigade the smallest tactical infantry or cavalry element to be handled. We have found that such a move did not alter the intent or feel of the rules, other than to make a single artillery battery less effective. This was handled simply by having more than one battery together. The sum result has been to have large scale battles using an average of only 6 people per game, the average battle of 2 or 3 corps per side being completed in about 5 hours (with a fairly decisive outcome). Going to brigades rather than regiments had an unexpected advantage, that being the fact that it is far easier to determine actual brigade strengths for a scenario than to find out the number of troops in each regiment. Thus, we ended up with more accurate simulations than before. The concept of going to brigades was really rather simple. Troop and ground scale are totally unaffected. Since both sides are fielding brigades, the morale portions of the rules are also left intact, other than the fact that artillery must be grouped together to have the same effect as under the original system. Of course, this makes sense in that, since you are combining regiments, you must also combine batteries to even things out. An added advantage to our changes is the appearance of the units on the table. Certainly, seeing a brigade of, say, 10 stands (40 figures) has much more of a visual impact than seeing 4 regiments of 10 figures each running around the table. Players are afforded the opportunity to bypass recreating the role of a brigade commander and, at a minimum, are allowed to represent in actions the role of a division leader. Again, the key factor is that it takes no more time to be handle a corps than it did under the original rules when pushing a division around. We also added some morale factors which can be used by the reader or simply ignored. Probably the greatest alteration made was in adding a +5 to the morale factors for each friendly brigade or battery seen retreating in disorder or rout. This is, in my opinion, necessary to recreate the spread of panic so often seen when units began skeedadling from a fight. Under the original morale rules by Bowden, a unit only got a morale deduction when another unit routed THROUGH the unit in question. While this might have been more disconcerting to the soldiers, surely one must admit that they were bothered by seeing other friendly units running away from the fight. Another added morale factor was the inclusion of a +10 if the testing unit suffered at least one casualty from artillery fire that impulse. Since artillery tended to have a devastating impact on morale, this would seem to be an accurate appraisal of artillery effect on the troops. One final thought worth mentioning is the possibility of altering the fire factors for "suppressed" and "unsuppressed" fire. SNB3 tends to be quite a bloody affair when Scotty Bowden's rule on suppressed/unsuppressed fire is used. He does state that "casualties inflicted" also is meant to cover such features as stragglers and men who run away from a fight. However, he does not include a table to determine what percentage of the troops are actually casualties (this could be important if playing a campaign). Regardless, I doubt that as many "skulkers" ran away from Crack and Elite units as did those who would be termed "Green" or "Militia", making the system somewhat skewed. We agree that men shot better when not being fired upon and suggest a change to find a happy medium. One possibility is to have the regular effect count when being fired upon, and a factor of x 1.2 or 1.4 when not being fired upon. If this still seems too bloody, try x 0.8 for suppressed and the regular factors for unsuppressed fire. Although we have returned to JOHNNY REB as a club, this author believes that SNB3 is a thoroughly enjoyable game - especially when using the changes suggested in this article. By using our house rules, SNB3 allows you to play larger battles that could not be considered by the same number of participants using JR. Good gaming! Back to The Zouave Vol II No. 1 Table of Contents Back to The Zouave List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1988 The American Civil War Society This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com