I got the chance to play this the other day. It's been very hectic at work, and some mindless violence was just what was needed to relieve some stress. This is a game of small unit action in the ACW. It's from One Small Step games, the people who put out Game Fix. There are two rule books in my package. One, a second edition is a regular rule books, things in order with an index. The original book is "programmed instruction". You learn a few rules, play a scenario, learn a few more, play another, and so on until at the end you've got the full rules. The idea is to learn a little, and keep it by repetition, and add on only a little at a time. The idea was not well received by the gaming community. But, in a contrary mood, I've decided to try it and see. Counters are companies, add enough and you get a regiment. In the first scenario, you have no command control, and you learn only movement and combat. A unit has 10 MPs, but even a clear hex costs one MP, and any sort of terrain can cost 4 MPs or more. You won't be zipping around the map. ZOCs cost an extra MP to enter or exit. Combat is an interesting combination of weapon type, unit strength, and terrain. An example: Musket units have a one hex FP of 4, two hex FP of 0.5. All units have a base strength of 1. So a unit fires at one hex range, at a unit in clear terrain. It's final FP is (4x1) =4, add one for the target being in clear for a final of 5. Had the target been in woods, the modifier would have been -1, and the final FP 3. Units can take three hits (called O hits in the game) before being destroyed. Had the unit above take a hit, it's FP would have been (4x1) -1 =3. Then it would also have been modified for terrain, and could have been 2 had the target been in woods. The final FP is the line of the CRT you roll a D 10 on. You can increase the FP by stacking units (up to 5 per hex), but you are a better target that way, and prone to being flanked as well. Worse, a "disrupted" result affects the whole stack. It's an interesting balance and choice as to how much to stack, and where to do so. I have also found that combat is somewhat like a battleship taking damage. Not much happens at first, FP is little affected, and you can often recover from disruption with good troops. But the hits add up, and eventually even good troops don't rally. The turn sequence also helps show this. It's divided into sequences. Some seq. you can do an action, which is move, rally, or fire. Others you only get to fire. Get a disrupted result at the wrong time and your unit sits through a fire period. Worse, it may get shot at while disrupted, which can cause it to rout. As an avid CWBS player, it took a while for me to "get" the morale rules, and how they worked. Once I did, I liked the effect. Just like in the real thing, the troops line up and bang away for a while, until one slowly worsens, then suddenly falls apart. I can also see that troop quality matters, a good unit being able to handle twice it's numbers of green ones. The game handles differing regiment size by having more or less companies. I've seen this criticized, but it seems OK to me. A regiment with 30% more guys would surely cover more ground. And so also here. I am encouraged, and plan to continue my way through the sections. Given that I got it for an attractive price at the local game store, I think I have a real bargain. Regards, Pat tippecanoe@netzero.net http://tippecanoe.tripod.com/ Last Played: Matanikau, Breakout Normandy, Rebel Yell ------------------------------------------- Introducing NetZero Long Distance Unlimited Long Distance only $29.95/ month! Sign Up Today! www.netzerolongdistance.com