War in Miniature: American Civil War was designed by Michael R. Childers. The rules use a ground scale of one inch equal to 100 yards, a vertical scale of one inch equal to twenty yards, and a time scale of one turn equal to twenty minutes. One infantryman or cavalryman figure is equal to 100 real soldiers; one artillery figure represents two real guns and crew.

War in Miniature: American Civil War is a set of rules of above-average complexity and of fairly large scope. The large scope results form the figure scale of one figure being equal to one hundred men. Consequently, each player would likely command a force of about 50-250 figures, about a corps.

The complexity comes from command control rules, leadership ratings, troop grade ratings, and fatigue rules, plus the inter-relationship of these rules and ratings. Mr. Childers explains his fairly complex rules in twenty-four pages.

The remainder of his fifry-six page rule set is leadership ratings for generals, a glossary of terms, a bibliography, and sample organization and effectiveness ratings for the Army of the Cumberland and the Army of Tennessee.

ACW gamers who wish to simulate the command control problems and decisions of corps and army-sized battles should consider using this rule set, if the gamers don't object to complexity in rules. A "beer and pretzels" gamer would probably find these rules exasperating, as the rules limit his ability tO do what he wants.

War in Miniature: American Civil War is available for $13.50 ($3.50 shipping and handling) from Michael R. Childers, 8206 W. Tidwell, Houston, Texas, 77040. Texas residents should include 8.25% sales tax.

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