From: bieksza@erols.com Subject: Glory Road Review (Long) I just finished playing a solitaire game of _Glory_Road_ (3W), so I thought CONSIMers would like a review of this lesser-known title. (I had intended to make this a brief review, but it turned out otherwise.) _GR_ appeared in THE WARGAMER #52, which has a publication date of April, 1986. It covers the First Battle of Bull Run at a quasi- tactical level, i.e., only artillery has ranged fire but the sequence of play is the familiar list of rally / move / defensive fire / offensive fire / charge. The counters represent regiments and batteries. Though perhaps drab by today's standards (mostly NATO symbols on blue or gray) they are servicable. The map is scaled at 1000 feet per hex with Centreville in the northeast, Sudley Mountain in the northwest, and Manassas at the south edge. The color scheme is chiefly white clear terrain, green woods, and yellow hilltops. The time scale is 45 minutes per turn and the game lasts up to 20 turns. Movement tends to be slow. Movement costs are high, including expenditures to change facing and enter/leave enemy ZOC's. Also, there are limits on how many units can move into enemy ZOC's per brigade and per side in a single turn. Furthermore, movement is subject to an initiative die roll by brigade: a full move is available only by rolling 6 on the first two turns, and this gradually increases to 2-6 on turn 9 and later. Otherwise movement is limited to a single hex. Out of command units roll individually and receive a full move only on a 5 or 6. Command is ultimately derived from the army commander. The CSA has no division commanders but the presence of two army commanders allows some flexibility. The USA does have division commanders to extend McDowell's command distance ... but McDowell can only be in one place at a time. So, for instance, if McDowell crosses Bull Run to press the offensive the troops back at Centreville are out of luck even with a full set of brigade and division commanders around. As a bit of chrome leaders are differentiated by various abilities, e.g. some have a bonus for the movement die roll, some can commit one or more units to "support" or "coordinated" attacks, etc. A leader may become a casualty only if in an enemy ZOC and not stacked with a combat unit. Fire combat is purely attritional: the firing unit's strength is cross- referenced with a die roll to determine the number of strength points lost by the target. Casualties are crossed off on roster sheets. Though tedious to use they allow a wide variation in strengths -- from 1 for some artillery units to 20 for a few infantry regiments. In addition the check-off boxes for any given unit have a morale number for each strength. Generally morale declines slowly at first but increasing losses cause the morale to nosedive. In another interesting twist some of the morale numbers are underlined; a unit must make a morale check not with every loss but when a box with an underlined number is checked off. Failing an MC causes a unit to become disrupted. The main penalties are no offensive fire or charges. Each failed MC also causes 2 strength points to be lost (4 if the MC was caused by the unit's first casualties). If an underlined box is thereby checked off the unit must check morale again ... so a series of unlucky rolls can essentially make the unit disintegrate. A charge only forces an MC. If the defender passes the MC it gets a free shot, and the attacker is disrupted and must retreat. Otherwise the 2-SP loss applies, and the defender is disrupted and must retreat. Victory is determined by attrition and geographical objectives. Both sides score VP's for eliminating and disrupting enemy units. The CSA's objective is Centreville while the USA's objectives are Manassas and/or three lesser landmarks scattered along the Sudley Rd. The winner is the first to reach 25 VP's. The three solo games I've played have had the following outcomes: 1) Historical USA offensive vs. ahistorical CSA offensive (USA attacked near Sudley and the Stone Bridge, CSA attacked Centreville) -- CSA victory by a wide margin. 2) Semi-historical USA offensive vs. ahistorical CSA offensive (USA attacked only in the Stone Bridge area) -- narrower CSA victory. 3) Ahistorical USA offensive vs. ahistorical CSA offensive (both sides met head-on south of Centreville) -- an unexpectedly lopsided win for the USA. Evaluation: because of the high movement costs and various movement restrictions _GR_ is very much a game of attrition rather than maneuver. Once the opposing sides have come into contact very little changes on the map -- most of the activity is die rolling and checking off boxes on the roster sheets. Thus I would have to rate _GR_ as a decent game but not an exciting one. -------------------------------------------- | Dave Bieksza | bieksza@erols.com | -------------------------------------------- "The Net is vast and infinite." - Major Kusanagi, _Ghost in the Shell_ Mailing-List: contact consim-l-help@net.uni-c.dk; run by ezmlm From: robert lindsay Subject: Re: Glory Road Review (Long) bieksza@erols.com wrote: > > I just finished playing a solitaire game of _Glory_Road_ (3W), so I > thought CONSIMers would like a review of this lesser-known title. > (I had intended to make this a brief review, but it turned out > otherwise.) > > _GR_ appeared in THE WARGAMER #52, which has a publication > date of April, 1986. It covers the First Battle of Bull Run at a quasi- > tactical level, i.e., only artillery has ranged fire but the sequence of > play is the familiar list of rally / move / defensive fire / offensive fire / > charge. The counters represent regiments and batteries. Though > perhaps drab by today's standards (mostly NATO symbols on blue > or gray) they are servicable. The map is scaled at 1000 feet per > hex with Centreville in the northeast, Sudley Mountain in the > northwest, and Manassas at the south edge. The color scheme is > chiefly white clear terrain, green woods, and yellow hilltops. The > time scale is 45 minutes per turn and the game lasts up to 20 > turns. > A few notes: Their were supposed to be many more games in the glory road 'series' but none were ever released (what a surprise). The map bore a 'striking' resembalance to the map for AH's BULL RUN, released roughly around the same time. The combat system was a decendant from a earlier 3W game, Forward to Richmond, which had a much more 'variable' CRT, in that it was possible to have whole units run away at the first shot. FtR was a much better game. -- Robert Lindsay, NASA - Goddard, Greenbelt MD rlindsay@seadas.gsfc.nasa.gov #include Should we talk about the weather? -REM "I mean, if you're scared of NASA, that's like being afraid of wax paper." - James "Kibo" Parry, USENET, Jan 30, 1999 From: bieksza@erols.com Subject: Re: Glory Road Review (Long) > A few notes: Their were supposed to be many more games in the glory > road 'series' but none were ever released (what a surprise). In particular, the rule book presents this optimistic list: "_Glory_Road_ is the first of 3W's _North_and_South_ Civil War battle games. Games to appear in the series include _Gettysburg_, _The_Wilderness_, _Chickamauga_, _Shiloh_, _Antietam_, _Chancellorsville_, _Second_Bull_Run_, etc." > The map bore a 'striking' resembalance to the map for AH's BULL RUN, > released roughly around the same time. Not only the map, but the OB as well -- both games have two "1st Virginia Regiments," in Cocke's and Longstreet's Brigades. (As far as I can find out the one in Cocke's Brigade is spurious.) > Robert Lindsay, NASA - Goddard, Greenbelt MD > rlindsay@seadas.gsfc.nasa.gov -------------------------------------------- | Dave Bieksza | bieksza@erols.com | -------------------------------------------- "The Net is vast and infinite." - Major Kusanagi, _Ghost in the Shell_