Rob Winslow - 09:04am May 31, 1998 PST (#5 of 6)

                   When I was doing some playtesting (last summer, I'm
sure the game has changed a lot since then), I found it to be a good
strategic representation, but it was lacking in some areas:

                   1. The South had no incentive to head into northern
territory; 2. The North's "grinding war of attrition" brought the South
to its knees every game; 3. There were some movement anomolies (spaces
not connected that should have been, or vice versa); 4. The 1861
partition of Kentucky (and rules pertaining to it) didn't really satisfy
me  -- too easy for one side or the other to take it, even if neither
invaded; 5. Luck in card play made the Strategic Will table seem too
random; and 6. The board got way too crowded in places, making spaces
hard to read.

I know Mark redid some things to alleviate my "problems" 1-3. Dont know
about #4 and 5, and I gave a suggestion to make spaces "bigger"
and to print the name of the space (and any pertinent info, such as
resource center) next to, not on the space (they were squares when I
playtested).

When I saw it, it was a "diamond in the rough." The mecahnics worked,
just a few things like play balance and encouraging historic actions had
to be worked out.

Game had:

Different sized "stacks" (division, corps, army) which meant you used
different commanders and movement rules.

A turn limit on how many armies can move (forced inertia).

Good, simple rules for the Union naval blockade, blockade running,
amphibious invasions, and riverine movement and combat.

An interesting CRT (no card battles -- I like 'em in WtP and Hannibal,
but I guess too many people didn't!).

Clever rules for building armies and relieving commanders (it'll cost
ya!)

Strategic railway movement that shows why certain spaces (Manassas, for
instance) are continuously fought over.

A nice mechanic forcing the Union player to reqch certain objectives
prior to the 1864 elections.

Map that stretched from eastern Texas to northern Florida )forget how
far north it went).

Mechanic that has leaders getting killed off in battles that seemed to
match historical rates.

All in all, it should be a good one, and I look forward to seeing it in
its final form. I just hope that they get all card anomolies taken care
of, so we won't have 3 pages of card clarifications as we do for Hannibal!