From: Grant Goodman Subject: REVIEW: Champion Hill (The Gamers) In another CONSIM-L tradition, here's my "review" of The Gamers' "Champion Hill." The game arrived yesterday, so, naturally, this "review" is not based on any play, or even setting up the game. It's a sort of "mint, unpunched" review of the components and situation. Champion Hill/May 16, 1863: The Road to Vicksburg The Gamers, Civil War Brigade Series No.10 Designed by Ken Jacobson, Developed by Dave Powell, Series by Dean Essig Situation: American Civil War, Vicksburg campaign, May 1863. Ulysses Grant has finally solved the Vicksburg puzzle after months of trying, crossing the Mississippi River below Vicksburg into central Mississippi. With his forces between the Vicksburg garrison under Pemberton and the relieving forces under Joseph Johnston, Grant defeated the latter at Jackson on May 14, and turned toward Vicksburg, defeating Pemberton's forces at Champion Hill on May 16. The Vicksburg garrison was bottled up, leading to a siege that was successfully concluded at the same time as the Battle of Gettysburg in the East. Components: One map, 22" x 34" 280 counters Series rules (2nd edition, revised) Game specific rules The components are physically very nice, the counters more to my taste than the map. They are the same style as The Gamers' other Civil War games dating back to "Perryville" and "Embrace an Angry Wind" (Spring Hill/Franklin). Scenarios include one historical scenario (18 turns), 4 "what-if" scenarios and 6 minor variants. The what-if scenarios are: 5.2 An Early Start (23 turns). 5.3 Pemberton on the Attack (25 turns). Confederates are on the offensive, with a larger force assembled from units available, but not used in the battle. 5.4 The Gathering of Hosts (23 turns). A meeting engagement. Each side has a larger force, with most troops entering the map as reinforcements at variable times based on die rolls. 5.5 Day of Reckoning (27 turns). Set-piece battle with maximum forces on each side. Game rules. Champion Hill uses the standard Civil War Brigade series rules. Units are brigades, with artillery in somewhat abstracted "battalion" sized units. Hexes are 200 yards, turns are 30 minutes. Command structure and morale are key elements. Overall impression. The subject matter is a difficult one. Rather like The Gamers' "Perryville" game (and to a lesser extent, their "Embrace an Angry Wind" Spring Hill scenario),"Champion Hill" depicts a situation that was strategicly very important, but tactically not terribly interesting. As at Perryville, the Confederate commander totally botched the task of assembling all available troops for the climactic engagement of the campaign. As a result, the battles historically were fizzles, not the all-out effort on the part of the Confederacy that the situation demanded. The designer has tried to make up for the weakness of the historical situation by providing hypothetical scenarios that assume significantly more competent Southern operational maneuvering and strategic concentration before the battle. This is a small game on a full-sized map. In the historical scenario, there are about 19 Union combat units (infantry and artillery) and 12 Confederate. The bigger "what-if" scenarios and minor variants add additional troops to each side, for a total of less than 40 combat units per side. To the combat units, you add leaders for each division, plus army and Union corps, supply wagons, line extenders for infantry and detached batteries for artillery. It winds up with a very low counter density for a battle-level game. I'm happy I bought this one, because I wouldn't want to have any gaps in my collection, but I kind of wish The Gamers had gone ahead with the planned "Seven Days' Battles" trilogy first. More about that in another message Grant Goodman ggoodman@fdic.gov