Guns of Cedar Creek (SDC) Design: Richard Berg Review: Mark Boone The Battle: Guns of Cedar Creek (GoCC) is the 13th volume in the Great Battles of the American Civil War (GBACW) series. It uses the 2nd ed rules for the system which were first introduced in S&T 119 Horse Soldiers. The game covers the Battle of Cedar Creek that took place in the Shenandoah Valley at Middletown, VA on October 19, 1864. Despite being badly outnumbered, Jubal Early and his Army of the Valley boldly attacked Phil Sheridan's encamped Army of the Shenandoah. The Confederates are able to surprise the Union in their camps and sned them fleeing down the pike road. Sheridan quickly returned from Winchester and rallied the fleeing Union troops in what is known as "Sheridan's Ride". He saves the day by driving the Confederates back across the creek, and regaining all the ground lost that morning. Physical Components: There are two 21x34" multi-color maps which have a glossy finish. A nice improvement is that most elevation contours follow the hexsides, so there are usually no `which level a unit is at' questions. The map is functional but not visually inspiring (looks computer generated). For example, the pike road looks like a fat black magic marker was used to draw it on the map. A few errors on the maps are cleared up by the errata (camp locations, elevations levels). There are 400 counters, half of which are markers. Color bars are used on the top of the counters to signify division levels. Art work on the counters is good, the cavalry units are inspiring, but the artillery crew markers look unfinished (like Pillsbury doughboys). Leaders are backprinted with their replacements. This makes it easy to do leader promotions when one gets killed, but is confusing to see both leaders on one counter (which side is up?). Early releases of the game came with thin counters, no thicker than heavy paper stock, which easily scattered with a sneeze. These were replaced later with regular thickness counters. The scale is 170yd per hex and 45min turns. Each strength point represents 50 men or 1 gun. The basic unit is a regiment. There are two pages of errata for the game. Also, there are no designer notes nor historical background on the battle to help guide your tactical plans. 2nd Edition Rules: I won't try to give an exhaustive analysis between the 1st and 2nd edition rules, but just briefly cover some of the main differences. The 2nd ed rules were intended to break up the amount of overall coordination that players enjoyed in the 1st ed, since this was not deemed historical. The major change from the 1st ed rules is the use of Turn Continuation Table (TCT) dierolls. Instead of the familiar player sequence of: Move, Defensive Fire, Offensive Fire, Melee, Command Phase; all these actions are now lumped together in the Action Phase. The active player chooses an action and then rolls 2d6 on the TCT to see if it succeeds. If it does, then the action is performed and the player can select another action to try. If it fails, then your opponent becomes the active player and starts to attempt their actions. There is basically a 50% chance of success, with modifiers for leaders, troop status, etc. Add in a list of random events that occur on a dieroll of 7 and you get a lot of back an forth action between players. As units perform more actions they become fatigued. This allows the player to keep his units `fresh' by not having them perform too many actions or to run them into the ground with lots of actions. Pacing your actions with your units becomes important. When control goes to the other player on a failed TCT roll, the opponent gets a free action (no TCT roll). This free action can be used on units that would otherwise be hard to move or do something with. The turn ends on a 2 or 12 TCT roll or when both players pass. An early 2 or 12 in the turn can leave most of your army inactive, even when they are adjacent to the enemy. The errata for GoCC changes this so that the turn can't end until all active units have Action-2 or worse status. A possible house rule is, once the turn ends, all in command units that have not done anything, may attempt to perform one single action. How well does the new system work? Well, its certainly much harder to coordinate your actions using this system. The game also moves much slower since there are lots of die rolls, reaction actions, etc. to now handle. Play tends to degenerate into several local fire-fights instead of the whole battlefield; focusing on one area until all the units are Action-2/fatigued, then moving to the next area of the map. Some actions seem just a waste to use (like rally or ammo resupply) when compared with other higher level commands (Div actions). I don't think the overall commander should have to send a command to tell a Brigade commander to rally one of his troops. These smaller low-level command issues should be resolved somehow without requiring a TCT roll. The system allows a unit(s) to move up adjacent to an enemy unit (one action) and then fire off a round (next action) while the enemy just sits there. When a unit is fired upon, it gets to return fire as well (defensive fire), but only if it is still around after making any morale checks. This allows you to gang up on a hex without suffering defensive fire from adjacent hexes nor anything effective from the target hex if you hit it hard enough. The 2nd edition has rules for just about everything (including sun effects during dawn/dusk turns). Add to this about a bunch modifiers to every rule and table, plus a huge OB chart to track losses and you begin to see why the game takes so long to play. All things considered, I feel that the 1st ed rules gave a better feel of ACW combat. True, they allowed a fair amount of coordination of units that may not have always occurred on the battlefield, but the system was fairly quick to play and easy to pick up. The 2nd ed rules certainly breaks up this coordination, but doesn't seem worth the added time and multitude of rules and modifiers. I like the idea of TCT rules, but don't think they should be used to govern everything on the battlefield. Also, the idea of reaction fire gives me the impression that my bullets are ricocheting off my target back at me. Game play: For GoCC, rules are added to cover: Confederat looting of Union camps, Union Alert, Sheridan's Ride, and Fog. The Union Alert and Sheridan's arrival on the map are the biggest impacts to the game, so the these rules should be studied carefully. Setting up the game is your first chore. Basically, you set up a div/corps within 1-2 hexes of a specified hex, giving the players some freedom in initial deployment. This can be critical for the Conf player when setting up Kershaw's Division on the other side of Cedar Creek. Stacking limits are ignored in camp hexes, so you get tower (10+) stacks in many areas. The Conf player is on the attack and must inflict as much damage as possible early in the game before Union units become alerted. Then, when Sheridan comes on the map, to hopefully hold as much ground as possible against the Union counter-attacks. This requires a fair amount a coordination which is hampered by the TCT rules. The Conf player will try to maneuver behind the Union and fall on them from the flank/rear. Often, Union units will be LCE when alerted. These units need to be attacked first and started fleeing to the rear. Melee is better than fire combat for that initial alert/surprise. This, along with the Brigade Retreat rule, should keep the initial Conf assaults rolling. Try to wreck enough brigades so that even when Sheridan does arrive, many are still LCE due to casualties. On the other side, the Union player must hold on the first couple of turns, trying to activate as many units as possible. Hopefully, the WV Corps won't be destroyed by Kershaw's initial assault. The 2nd Div, XIX Corps will have to play fire brigade and try to stop any Conf spearheads. The Cavalry divisions are your best assets, proper use of them will stem the tide of fleeing Union units and can delivery a sharp counter-attack to unhinge the Conf attack. The Conf player needs a good deal of luck and coordination (plus long turns) to pull off the historical result and be able to reach Middletown. Otherwise, the Union will be able to stop him with the 2nd Div XIX Corps and then crush him with superior numbers after Sheridan is on the map. I'm tempted to play this game using the 1st ed rules and see how it well it works compared with using the 2nd ed rules. Conclusion: I'd give this game a mixed rating. On the down side, it seems to be too big of a battle to play in a timely manner using the 2nd ed TCT rules. If you are familiar with 1st ed and looking to change to 2nd ed, I'd try a battle with a smaller counter density (like a S&T game). Also, there is only one scenario available. On the up side, that game allows both sides a fair amount of offensive capability to be on the attack, with the momentum swinging to the Union as the day wears on. For those comfortable with and who enjoy the 2nd ed rules, then this a game you need; the opportunity to whack the Union while they are still in camp is too tempting for a Conf sympathizer. The large number of counters and map area lends nicely to multiple players, but I'm not sure how well this would work within the 2nd ed rules.