Hello, I would like to submit some files to be included on the Web Grognard site. They are in reference to SPI's "War Between the States" and include a review of the game, game strategy hints and two sets of variant rules. These were all taken from articles in Fire & Movement #12. Thanks, Michael Dye GAME REVIEW War Between the States, 1861 - 1865 By Richard F. DeBaum, with Frank Aker, Brent Ellerbroek, Jim Loughlin and Jeff Schwartz (From Fire & Movement #12) War Between The States (abbreviated in the Elmer Fudd acronym of WBTS, pronounced 'wabbits') is SPI's operational (division level) simulation of the American Civil War, 1861-1865. WBTS was the swan song design of SPI's former R&D honcho Irad (Terry) Hardy, before he departed 44 East 23rd Street for Connecticut pastures. Though by no means a perfect game - the rules required three pages of errata in Moves #35, errata which you must have to play the game properly - WBTS is a legacy of which Hardy can be extremely proud. In size and scope it qualifies as a monster game, but unlike its predecessors in this category (e.g., Drang Nach Osten!, War In Europe, Terrible Swift Sword, Highway to the Reich, etc.). WBTS is playable. In fact, WBTS is one of the most playable games on the market, regardless of size. The WBTS Campaign Game simulates the war from 1861 on. The burden of attack is on the Union Player, since he must capture and occupy Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta, New Orleans and Richmond by the conclusion of the 200th Game Turn in order to achieve an 'Historical Victory'. If he fails, the South rises again... For those of you who like to win on a single die roll, Players can go for a 'Political Victory'. To win a Political Victory, Players calculate their current Political Point differential and appeal to the Political Victory Matrix. Political Points are awarded when your opponent resorts to volunteer or draft calls to raise men for his armies or when he relieves Leaders of command, and the first time you capture an enemy Fort. The Union Player. receives Victory Points as he captures each of the five major cities listed above. plus one Victory Point per Strategic Turn that the Mississippi River is under his control. The South receives Victory Points for capturing Washington, Baltimore, St. Louis, or Cincinnati, or cutting the rails which lead to these cities. A Player may roll for Political Victory as many times as he wishes, but each roll after the first one gives his opponent an increasing number of Political Points which, of course, alters the differential. The Appalachian Mountains neatly divide the playing area into East and West Theatres which makes the campaign an excellent and logical four-Player game. In our four-Player playtest Campaign Game, the division of command had some embarrassing results for the Confederate Players. They had left the boundary of their areas of responsibility rather vague, and each thought the other was keeping an eye on the Knoxville- Bristol region. Consequently, a Union raiding force was able to slip through and tear up the Southern railroad throughout the mountains. Most distressing... This raid was typical of many events which happened in our first Campaign Game that would not happen in another (I bet a lot of generals say the same thing). Such embarrassments seem to be normal in the Campaign Game, and while it's easy to get embarrassed, it's tough to get really hurt. This is because rapid exploitation of enemy errors is difficult and it's impossible to overwhelm an opponent quickly. In addition to the Campaign Game, WBTS also includes six short scenario games which range from 8 to 24 Turns in length. These scenarios portray the situations on the Eastern and Western fronts for 1862, 1863, and 1864. The inclusion of the scenario games is a big plus in that they provide interesting, self-contained games, even the longest of which is playable in a long afternoon. Besides the scope of the operations, there is a significant difference in 'feel' in how WBTS plays as a Campaign Game and how it plays in its individual scenarios. The big difference in Turn-to-Turn play is that Players tend to be a little more reluctant to take losses in the scenarios than in the Campaign Game. This is because losses in scenarios cost Victory Points, sometimes at an uneven ratio. In the Campaign Game, losses only affect victory indirectly, by limiting a Player's operational capabilities. Scenarios succumb to strange end-game maneuvers and Players are much more reckless with their Leaders in scenario combat than they are in the Campaign Game. The Campaign Game is long enough and big enough that it can absorb major Player gaffes and allows Players to learn and recover from their mistakes. It's tough to do any one thing that's so dumb you'll lose the entire war because of it. Scenario games are much less forgiving. Although intelligent operational planning is important in the Campaign Game, the scenarios require even more careful planning. Time is short, even in the longest scenario, and a wasted movement command can be fatal. The scenarios don't have the length or the production system to cushion your errors. In these games, it's the ol' self-imposed idiocy factor that'll get you every time... The only major complaint I have with the game - and this may bother no one but me - is that the only way to play a full-scale, East-and-West-Front Campaign Game is to start from the 1861 situation. There is no provision for picking up the Campaign Game in, say 1862 or 1863. And you can't just meld the 'At Start' situations for the two 1862 or whatever scenarios because they aren't contemporaneous. Besides, there is no way of knowing how much supplies each side has in its General supply bank or what volunteer draft call they're in. God Bless the intrepid scold who figures this stuff out and shares it with the rest of us. The WBTS package is standard SPI; die-cut cardboard counters, unmounted hex-grid mapsheets, an assortment of handy play-aids, and a rulebook. The three big, beautiful game maps box the USA/CSA from St. Joseph to Philadelphia and from Jacksonville to Galveston. The 800 units in the game represent infantry and cavalry divisions and brigades, Army and Corps HQ, entrenchments, naval and river gunboat and transport flotillas, supplies, leaders, and a variety of utility counters. The units are back-printed for easy step-reduction to reflect losses taken in combat. Each Game Turn in WBTS represents a week of real time. Within each Game Turn, first one Player attempts to move and initiate combat, then his opponent attempts to move and initiate combat. The same Player is or necessarily the first in each Turn. At the start of each Game Tom, both Players blindly draw a numbered Initiative Chit. The Player who draws the higher initiative number moves and fights first. In the Campaign Game, the numbers in the Initiative Chit pool change as the war goes on to reflect staff operational experience - from '0' thru '3' in 1861 to W thru '9' in 1865. The Confederate Player gets a significant break in determining his initiative. One chit in each of the scenario and Campaign Game Initiative Chit pools is designated as the 'automatic' Confederate Initiative Chit. In the 1861 pool, for example, the automatic CSA chit is '2'. The Confederate Player may, if he wishes, choose the known automatic chit rather than draw blindly from the-general pool. Every fourth Game Turn Players conduct a special 'Strategic Turn' in which they may besiege fortifications, produce new units. determine supply consumption. and/or attempt to win the game via the Political Matrix. The Production and Supply Phases are abbreviated in the scenario games, which speeds up playing time considerably. The key to the WBTS game system, the thing that keeps the melange of units from being unmanageable, is the portrayal of Leaders and Headquarters. Almost every major Civil War military commander is included in the game, from Grant and Lee to Butler and Floyd. Each Leader has four characteristics or ratings for game purposes: the first is his Initiative Limit Value, a numerical expression of his relative ability to initiate movement or to attack; second, his Command Span, or the number of units or subordinate Leaders within the same hex to which a Leader may direct commands to move or to attack; third, his Combat Rating, which may be used to affect the combat results die-rolls; and finally his Rank, which reflects a Leader's effectiveness as a Corps, Army or Army Group Commander. All Leaders, except those who were in command of forces at the start of the Civil War, enter into play via a periodic. random draw from the Leadership pool. This means that it is possible, and highly probable, that most of any game will be played without an appearance by Grant, Lee, or several other notable figures. Headquarters units greatly increase a Player's ability to effectively employ large field forces, and require the use of the HQ Display sheet play-aid. Pictured on this display is a box for each HQ unit, and next to each HQ box is a slot labeled Corps (or Army) Combat Units. Combat units in an HQ slot on the display (up to three Corps or two Army HQ) are considered to be under the HQ unit which is on the map. Movement of the Corps (Army) HQ represents movement of the combat units assigned to that HQ. More importantly, when a Leader is in command of an HQ (i.e., he is stacked directly on top of the HQ unit), his Command Span is significantly amplified: his Command Span is redefined as the number of combat units or subordinate Leaders which the Leader can control In addition to the HQ (cum units) he is stacked with. Furthermore, HQ commanders may extend command to units in adjacent hexes. The appearance of HQ's is also random. Each Player must first roll a '1' in designated Strategic Turns in order to receive any Amy or Corps HQ's. Each Campaign Game will be different, sometimes frustratingly so, due to this random roll/draw for HQ's and Leaders. Leaders are critically important to a Player's ability to move large numbers of troops and absolutely essential to initiate combat. Remember the Initiative Chit Players draw to determine who moves first in a given Game Turn? Well, that same initiative number is also the number of Movement Commands a Player may freely issue for that particular Game Turn. All units, with the exception of Naval units, require a Movement Command to move. Movement Commands may be given directly to individual units or to Leaders, who may in turn activate units within their Command Span. In addition, after a Player has used up all these 'free' moves, he may try to activate additional Leaders (and their subordinate units) by rolling a die for each Leader he wants to activate. If the die roll result is equal to or less than the Initiative Limit Value of the Leader in question, that Leader and all the units under his command may be moved. Most Leaders have an Initiative Limit Value of '2' or '3'. The best have a value of 4, the worst has '0'. The result of this Movement Command system is that, although a player may field an army of 100 or more units, only a fraction will be able to move in a given Game-Turn. It is possible - and not uncommon - that a Player who draws an Initiative Chit of '0' will be unable to move my of his land forces that Turn. This keeps the number of units you have to worry about in a single Game Turn within manageable limits and prevents the game from being unplayably ponderous, despite its scope and the large number of units. In addition to 'normal' movement, units may increase their movement allowances by '1' or '2' movement points through 'Forced March'. Units which Force March run the risk of being reduced in strength due to stragglers, but a Force March can add up to four hexes in extra distance if traveled by road. Units may also be carried on River and Naval transports, and each side has a limited capacity to move units by rail. Combat can occur between adjacent enemy units only if the attacking force has a Leader commanding it and only if the owning Player is able to activate that Leader by rolling his Initiative Limit Value or less with a die. If a force can attack, combat is resolved using a percentage-computation/intensity- of-combat system and can require the expenditure of Supply Points. Briefly, the attacker's strength is stated as a percentage of the defender's. Then both Players select a Battle Intensity Chit, the number of which may be equal to or less than the Initiative Limit Value of the Leader commanding the Player's force. Players then use the Combat Results Table that equals the sum of both Players' chits (from '1', the skirmish table, to '4', the Shiloh table). Combat results are either a mandatory retreat and/or a percentage loss to (usually) both sides. In addition, both attacker and defender have the option to voluntarily retreat after combat. A very handy, special type of combat called 'Attack-From-March' may occur during the Movement Phase of a Player's turn. In order for a force to conduct an Attack-From-March it must have received a Movement Command that Game Turn, be stacked with a Leader, and have been able to move into the defender's hex if the defender had not been present. The attacker's combat strength is halved and the combat intensity total can be no higher than '2' in an Attack-From-March, but the attacker need not roll for attack initiative, and no supply is expended. Part of the great fun of the Campaign Game, of course, is the production system. This system enables Players to create Orders of Battle tailor-made to their particular strategic plans. Units are built with a recipe of Supply Points + Personnel Points + Time. The Union receives a specific number of Supply Points each Strategic Turn (with the possibility of looting additional supplies from captured Confederate cities). Confederate supplies depend upon the number of cities in Southern hands and whether or not certain ports are blockaded. Unused Supply Points may be accumulated from Strategic turn to Strategic Turn. Players receive Personnel Points by issuing calls for volunteers or through conscription. When a Player resorts to such manpower calls his opponent is awarded Political Points. The number of men received per volunteer/draft call diminishes with each successive Strategic Turn. For example, in the initial Confederate volunteer call, the South receives 80 Personnel Points in the first Strategic Turn of the call, 70 in the next Strategic Turn, then 60, 50, 40, and 30 in the following Strategic Turns, and finally 10 per Strategic Turn thereafter until the Second Volunteer Call, or the First Draft Call is ordered. Unlike Supply Points, Personnel Points unused in the Strategic Turn they are received are lost and may not be accumulated. Union and Confederate production differ in the times and costs required to build the various unit types, and some types of 'builds' are prohibited to one side or the other. Only the CSA may build ironclads; only the USA may build siege trains. It takes the Confederate Player 3 Personnel Points + 4 Supply Points + 4 Strategic Turns to build one strength point of cavalry. the same unit costs the Union Player 6 Personnel Points + 5 Supply Points + 5 Strategic Turns. In addition to building units outright, the production system can be used to augment the strengths of existing infantry or cavalry units, or to convert militia and garrison units into regular infantry. Augmentation or conversion of units is cheaper than building from scratch, but requires more time. Newly produced units are placed on the map at unbesieged, supplied Military Departments. If more than one unit of a given type are to appear in the same Strategic Turn, a Player must distribute them to his various Departments equally and not have, say, five infantry divisions all appear at Richmond and none at Memphis, Charleston, etc. The WBTS production system allows you to satisfy a lot of 'What-if's' simply by fooling around with production priorities. One of the closest calls for the Union in our Playtest Campaign came when Frank Aker (CSA West) built two ironclads on the Mississippi. The Union players scoffed at these (paper gunboats' until both ironclads suddenly appeared on the river just as a couple boatloads of Union troops were en route to Memphis. In the ensuing naval engagements, Aker came within a single die roll of severely crippling the Union effort in the West and giving the South absolute control of the Mississippi/ Ohio/Missouri Rivers. Supply Points are used not only as raw materials in the production process, but are necessary to fulfill general maintenance requirements and may also be required to sustain land combat. In fact, the biggest single pain of the game is the supply consumption routine in the Strategic Turn, in which each hex occupied by a unit must be checked individually for its specific supply requirements. There Is a lot of die-rolling, a lot of tracing back supply lines to rear-area supply sources, and a lot of work for the South to determine its fluctuating supply base. The CSA task can be facilitated slightly by outlining potential supply cities in red for rapid identification. Units unable to draw the required supply during the Strategic Supply consumption routine are subject to 'isolation' - and have a good chance of wasting away entirely. (This is the fate of units which raid deep into enemy territory without carrying supplies with them and why such raids, although irritating to an opponent, are unlikely to be fatal. The demand for supplies during combat depends upon the number of units engaged and the combat intensity a player commits his forces to. The more units involved and the greater the combat intensity, the greater the chance the force will require combat supply. This must be drawn from Supply Points an the board adjacent to or stacked with the force needing them. Dire consequences befall forces which require combat supply and don't have it: they suffer double losses in combat. Supply Points can be transported by boat or RR, but are usually lugged to the front on slow-moving supply wagons (each wagon having the capacity to carry up to ten supply points) or by Army HQ (which can carry a maximum of two supply points). Supply wagons are restricted in their movement capabilities and are road-bound for much of the game. Also, supply wagons lose one Supply Point for each rough or forest hex they enter. This tends to channel advances. Combat often occurs at or for control of key river crossings, mountain passes, etc. which, oddly enough, are often the locations of historical engagements. Unprotected supply wagons are juicy targets for cavalry raids in enemy rear areas and worth the risk, since loss of supply wagons puts the 'kibosh' on major offensives. Players will find that there is a direct relationship between the number of supply wagons they have in play and the number of offensive operations they are able to mount. Cavalry have certain special abilities. They are the fastest land units (aside from RR movement) with a movement allowance of '4' - as opposed to infantry's '3', supply wagon, siege train, and militia's '2', and garrison's '1'. Cavalry, which is attacked by a purely infantry force, may retreat before combat; cavalry may ignore infantry zones-of-control; and cavalry are not halved in strength when making an Attack-From-March. Players may attempt to build forts and fortresses during the Production Phase of each Strategic Turn by expending Supply Points and rolling on the Fort/Fortress Construction Table. The more Supply Points expended, the greater the chance the Fort/Fortress will be built (e.g., expending 10 Supply Points gives a Player a one-in-six chance of successfully building a Fort; expending 60 Supply Points guarantees its construction). Any hex may be fortified if it contains at least three Friendly ground combat strength points and is not adjacent to Enemy ground units. A Fort may shelter up to ten Strength Points, a Fortress, 100. Units defending in fortifications do not have to retreat and have their combat strength multiplied (by '2' in Forts; by '3' in Fortresses). Although units in fortifications do not have Zones-Of-Control (even in the hex they occupy) and enemy units may freely enter and transit fortified hexes, garrisoned fortifications control any city, road, and RR in their hex and can block enemy supply paths traced through the hex or on adjacent hexside rivers. Enemy fortifications may be reduced by siege train during Strategic Turns. Enemy Units within the fortifications may either be attacked during the Siege Phase of Strategic Turns or by 'Storm' during the Combat Phase of regular Game Turns. If a Player attacks units in fortifications by storm, however, his losses are doubled. Units garrisoning fortifications may also be attacked solely by enemy naval units, although the naval bombardment has no effect on the fortification itself. Enemy naval units which leave a coastal hex or a river hexside protected by garrisoned fortifications must suffer a transit attack, with the possible result of either being unable to move or destroyed. (Naval units do not undergo step reduction in combat.) THEY LAUGHED WHEN I SAT DOWN TO PLAY... To give you an idea of what can happen in a typical game, the following are some highlights of a recent play of the 1862 East scenario between veteran wargamer Abe Baktu (Union) and local amazon. Delia Limb (Confederate). In this scenario, the Union Player receives Victory Points for controlling Morehead City, New Bern, Norfolk. Lynchburg, or Richmond, plus 50 points for besieging Richmond at the end of the game if he has failed to take it, and one Victory Point for each Confederate strength point lost in action. The Confederate Player receives Victory Points if, at the conclusion of the game, he controls Harper's Ferry, Fortress Monroe, Wilmington. Charleston, or Savannah. He also gets points at the conclusion of any Union Player-Turn if he controls any Union city, is besieging Washington DC, or has Rebel troops adjacent to Washington. He also receives 1.5 Victory Points per Union strength point lost in action, which means battles of attrition favor the South. 1) In the opening situation, McClellan (1-5-2) and the Army of the Potomac, 130,000 men strong, sit next to Washington across the Potomac River from the 34,000 rebels of the Army of Northern Virginia, which is commanded by J. Johnson (3-3-1). The Union lucked-out in the very first Game Turn by drawing a higher Initiative Chit than the Confederates. This enabled the Army of the Potomac to completely surround the Army of Northern Virginia and quashed any CSA hopes for an easy early strike against Washington. Instead, the Rebels spent the first four Turns of the game fighting their way out of the encirclement at unfavorable odds, giving the Yankees an edge in Victory Points due to casualties. 2) Because of the high Initiative Chit drawn in the first Tom, the Union was able to send General Burnside (2-2-1) and a force of 9,000 men to immediately capture Morehead City by sea and move on to attack the small Confederate force at nearby New Bern. As events developed, Burnside battered at the gates of New Bern for the entire game without success, involving a total of 25,000 Union troops and 12,000 confederates over the course of the game, with eventual losses of 5,000 Yankees and 7,000 Rebels. 3) After the Army of Northern Virginia slipped out of his clutches, the Union Player diddled around adjusting his line along the Rappahannock River. In a classic bit of oversight, he neither garrisoned his western cities in Ohio nor adequately blocked the Appalachian mountain passes which lead to them. Consequently, JEB Stuart (3-3-2) and 4,000 Confederate cavalrymen blew through the Charleston gap into Ohio and captured Zanesville and Pittsburgh on the 7th and 8th Game Turns. This force was eventually eliminated by Turn 10, but the damage had been done (20 Victory Points worth). 4) By Turn 16, the Amy of the Potomac had thwarted an attempted invasion up the Shenandoah Valley by the CSA I Corps under Jackson (4-4-2) and sealed-off the valley from further incursions. (In fact, Jackson and his 20,000-man force were very nearly trapped in a Federal envelopment which deployed out of New Market and Winchester.) At the same time, the Army of the Potomac succeeded in breaching the Rapidian River south of Culpepper Court House with the Union I Corps under Heintzelman (2-2-1). It was too early in the game for the South to permit this Union penetration, so A. Hill (3-3-1) launched a desperate counterattack with 28,000 men against Heintzelman's heretofore invincible 39,000-man I Corps. The valiant Rebels inflicted 4,000 casualties on the superior Union forces and drove them back across the Rapidan while losing only 3,000 of their own men. Unfortunately, General Hill was captured when he personally lead the charge against the Union U.S.O. detachment... 5) At the end of Turn 16, J. Johnson was replaced by Robert E. Lee (4-5-3), the best Leader in the game. To celebrate, the Union embarrassed the new commander of the Army of Northern Virginia by getting back-to-back Movement Phases in 'Turns 17 and 18 (being second to move in Turn 17 and first to move in Turn 18). As a result of this double movement and a little Forced Marching, Union General McDowell (2-2-0) ran through the same western mountain gap that Stuart had used earlier - only in the opposite direction - and took Lynchburg (20 points) without firing a shot. Sic transit gloria mundi… 6) As things got down to the wire, both sides were a little nervous about who would win. On Turn 20, McClellan slipped through the Confederate infantry lines with 5,000 Union cavalrymen and wiped out a Rebel supply wagon in an Attack-From-March. The loss of these supplies momentarily halted effective Confederate operations. Bent on revenge, Lee counterattacked McClellan's audacious little force with his own Attack-From-March - 46,000 rebels vs. the 4,000 remaining Union troopers. Lee's men took 3,000 casualties against only 1,000 Union lost (plus a retreat to safety), thus learning the dangers of overkill in a percentage loss Combat Results system. 7) Enroute to Richmond on Turn 22 - several Turns too late to do any good - McClellan got lucky and was able for the first (and only) time in the game to attack with the entire Army of the Potomac, some 89,000 men, against 13,000 Rebels under D. Hill (3-3-1). McClellan's Initiative Limit Value is so low, however, that the engagement was limited to skirmish intensity and the two forces merely exchanged 2,000 losses instead of the crushing Union victory that would have occurred under a more aggressive Union Leader. 8) There were some very unrealistic end-game maneuvers in which the Southern Player, knowing he had the final move of the game, withdrew his troops from their defensive positions and ganged-up on a lone 7,000-man Union infantry division with almost the entire Confederate field force in the Richmond area - 57,000 men. The Union lost 4,000 men, the Confederates none. At the conclusion of the 22-Turn scenario, the Confederates had control of Wilmington, Charleston, and Savannah, and had inflicted 42,000 Union Casualties. This, plus the 20 Victory Points Stuart's raid into Ohio had gained, gave the South a final Victory Point total of 98 points. The Union had seized Lynchburg and Morehead City, and had inflicted 39,000 Confederate losses plus a 20-strength point loss when the Union Navy blew a Confederate ironclad out of the water for a total of 84 Victory Points. The South had won by 14 Victory Points. The game, of course, settled nothing. There were too many 'What-if's' to argue about: if only the Confederates had had the higher Initiative Chit on Turn 1; if only New Bern had fallen; if only the Union Player had paid attention to his western flank and blocked Stuart's raid; if only the Confederate Player had paid attention to his western flank and blocked McDowell's raid on Lynchburg, etc... Twenty-eight engagements had been fought in all. The South had clearly come out ahead in 15, the Union had won 11, and 2 were draws. Many lessons were learned, and a good time was had by all. WHAT HATH CHARLIE ROBERTS WROUGHT? Wargame kingpin Redmond the Simonsen implied in an editorial in MOVES #35 that game designers could get away with virtually anything when they created 'monster' games. According to Redmond, people who buy the monsters set the things up a few times to see what they look like, maybe even play a few Turns - but monster-owners mostly just sit and stare in awe at the games, o.d.-ing on the humungous hordes of cardboard counters spread across vast hexagon-grid maps that seem to stretch on forever. Since the monsters are bought to be admired, not played, Redmond suggests (with a wink, I think) designers can legitimately load the big games down with an unlimited burden of Player-smothering detail and convoluted rules complexities. 'Mother of Mercy,' I gasped upon reading the editorial. 'Is this the end of wargaming as we know it?' 'No!' came the answer from the WBTS box. With WBTS, Terry Hardy (may his tribe increase) has succeeded in creating a 'monster' game that can be both admired and played. If you have never bought a monster because you're into this hobby to play wargames, not to be intimidated by them. or if you've sworn off them because the one you did purchase makes you feel like you're the victim of an unplayable practical joke perpetrated by a gleefully sadistic game designer, I strongly urge you to give WBTS a try. War Between The States should have universal appeal among the wargamers, and is probably the only monster game truly worth the money. Trust me. Have I ever tied to you when it counted?GAME STRATEGY War Between the States: Lessons Learned By Chris Cornaghie and William Glanker (From Fire & Movement #12) The authors are two Gentlemen of Memphis (Tenn.) who have tramped through the wineyards where the grapes of wrath are stored a la WBTS. What follows are a few of the things they stumbled across along the way... 1) Combat. As Sun Tzu said nearly 2,500 years ago, 'A commander who fights 100 times and wins 100 times is not the very best commander. A truly great commander wins over an enemy without fighting.' This maxim should govern operations in "TS. Try to make your gains through maneuvering, rather than in battles, whenever possible - especially if you are the South. The Combat Results Table calls for mutual attrition, and this benefits the Union with his greater manpower resources than it does the Confederates... When possible, choose defensive positions where your opponent must attack across rivers. His percentage combat losses will be higher in cross-river attacks because he'll need to use much larger forces than you to achieve reasonable odds... And don't forget you can voluntarily retreat after battle as attacker or defender. This could save you a lot of grief, and sometimes amounts to a free move to a better position... Attack-From-March is extremely valuable since it sometimes allows you to attack the same enemy force more than once in the same Game Turn. Remember, when commanding an Amy HQ each subordinate Corps can be ordered to attack in turn, all with a single Movement Command. 2) Movement. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security by the low movement factors. Nothing is certain. The enemy could Force March and there is always the danger he could move twice in a row. The two-move advantage can be devastating. Most positions and forces can be made safe from attack in one move, but rarely in two. Be prepared... It is usually better for the Confederate Player to stick with the Initiative Chit he gets automatically. The exception is when you want to deliberately try for a lower initiative number than the Union so you can try the o1' double-move operation on him. 3) Leaders. The Southern Player should note that, unless he draws Lee, Beauregard and J. Johnson are his best Army commanders. He should try not to lose these guys. Also note that Forrest and Jackson, despite their three-star rank, make better Army commanders than Bragg, A.S. Johnston, Price, or Smith. 4) Production. A mistake on the battlefield will be painful, but a mistake in production can be disastrous. Miscalculations in production have to be lived with for many months before they can be corrected, if they can be corrected at all... The North has a great volume of Supply and Personnel Points which, at first glance, seem to guarantee an overwhelming combat superiority over the South. A look at the production costs, however, reveals that the Rebs can produce infantry and cavalry more cheaply than the North can. Also, starting in 1863, the South can use garrison units to bolster regular infantry divisions. It is critically important to both Players to squeeze the most combat strength possible from the available resources. The Golden Rule of production is: 'Never, never, never waste a personnel -point!... Although exactly what you produce pretty much depends upon your specific operational plans, there are a few things to remember concerning how and when to build certain types of units. In most strategies, for instance, the Number One production priority is infantry, infantry, and more infantry. The least expensive way to build infantry is build militia, convert the militia to 3-3 infantry divisions, then augment these to 10-3 infantry divisions. This procedure saves 17 Personnel Points over building the 10-3 division outright. The problem is that the militia-conversion-augmentation process takes time. It takes nine Strategic Turns to run full cycle, and although Johnny Reb can afford to make extensive use of this technique, the Union usually needs an Army to take the offensive immediately and can't wait around for 36 Game Turns while the South establishes its defenses undisturbed. The North, therefore, should usually produce militia and turn these straight into infantry. The militia-conversion process only takes five Strategic Turns and still saves 10 Personnel Points per 10-3 division. When doing all this, Players must watch out for possible militia demobilization on various Strategic Turns and plan their production accordingly... Plan ahead in your production. If things are going right, the Union will need a siege train in early '62 or even late '61. Siege trains take five Strategic Turns to build and move very slowly, so be sure to get them into production early enough... Both sides should start a Rail Repair unit in the production cycle immediately on Turn one. You'll need them to repair the rail cuts that are certain to be made by any competent opponent... The Union will need naval units, too - simply to provide the strategic movement capacity to offset the South's interior lines if for no other reason (and there are plenty of other reasons). Again, just how much and what type depends on your operational needs, but Naval units are probably best constructed rapidly to give yourself as many operational options as possible as soon as possible... The South should probably avoid building units which have high supply cost until 1862, with the exception of at least one Rail Repair unit and several supply wagons. You'll probably need some garrison troops, too, (50 should be enough) to guard your static positions. With careful building, the Confederate Player should be able to turn the manpower from the First Volunteer Call into about 250 combat factors, which will leave the CSA only slightly outnumbered. In fact, the differential in strength after this call is about the smallest it will ever be between the two sides. As more manpower calls are made, the strength advantage shifts heavily to the North... 5) Cavalry. Cavalry is expensive, but you're going to need some no matter what, either to help squash enemy cavalry raids or to conduct disruptive raids of your own. Something to remember is that cavalry Attack-From-March at full strength. A hefty cavalry Corps is a deadly strike force... Cavalry are of great importance to the CSA, particularly in the Western Theater. They can retreat before combat if the Union attacker has no cavalry, thus making a Union advance very tedious. If the CSA gets the chance, it should attack Union cavalry even if the odds aren't very good. Union cavalry is much more expensive than Confederate, and if you can eliminate Yankee troopers, it'll be a long time before they can be replaced. (This is an exception to the above suggestion about avoiding combat; an even trade of cavalry losses is much more than an even trade for the South)... Yes, cavalry is expensive, but it's also necessary and some saving can be made by building small cavalry units and then augmenting them. It takes twice as long but saves lots of Personnel Points. 6) Gunboats. When moving land units by River Transport, be sure and put at least one River Flotilla between your RT and the enemy's gunboats as a protective buffer. 7) Manpower Calls. After the First Volunteer Call, both Players should carefully prepare for the Second Volunteer Call to maximize the use of the new Personnel Points. Both Players should have 3-3 infantry divisions ready for augmentation on Military Departments and try to have enough Supply Points accumulated to take full advantage of the flood of manpower... The Confederate Player shouldn't initiate his Second Volunteer Call until the Union Player starts his. The Union Player should make this call as soon as he can do so without giving the Rebels a shot at Foreign Intervention on the Political Matrix. Barring unforeseen debacles, this will probably mean the North will hold off until he can capture a Fort, so the South should try to keep from losing any Forts for as long as possible. If the Union decides to give the CSA the chance for Foreign Intervention, the Confederate Player should take a shot at it and then make his Second Volunteer Call... Because of its low manpower, Players should consider skipping the Third Volunteer Call altogether and going straight to the First Draft Call. The timing of later drafts depend on the Political Point standings and the military situation. 8) Fortifications. Proper deployment of fortifications is essential to a successful Southern defense. The Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers are deadly highways into the Confederacy, and early placement of Forts on the two rivers is a top priority... Most of the other southern Forts should be built along the Mississippi. Here is a partial list of good sites: in the forest north of Memphis on the Arkansas side; Helena; Vicksburg; in the 'U'-bend in the river five hexes north of Vicksburg; and at Natchez. Every Fort built on the Mississippi is just one more the Yankees have to take, so build as many as practical on both sides of the river... Remember that Forts have no Zone-Of-Control even when garrisoned (even in their own hex) and do not block passage of enemy ground units through their hex in any way (see rule 9.2)... Entrenchments are the best defensive thing going in the game. They are far better than Forts/ Fortresses since, as the rules now stand, they can't be besieged... Fortifications alone won't stop the Union advance. A covering force is necessary to protect Forts by threatening the supply lines of besiegers... Taking fortifications can be a tough, time-consuming process. Unless a Player vastly outnumbers the garrison, fortifications are best handled by maneuvering around them, isolating them, and starving them out. Direct assaults against fortifications, although sometimes unavoidable (especially in scenario games), are a stupid and expensive waste of resources... Finally, the Union should not overlook the capability of his Naval gunboats to blow away small Confederate garrisons in coastal Forts. 9) Partisans. These nasty little beasties have a value far beyond appearances. They don't have a ZOC and don't prevent the enemy from moving, so they can't be subjected to Attack-From-March. A Partisan should be kept with the Army of Northern Virginia in the East, ready to lash out and destroy the supplies the Yankees must carry with them on the push to Richmond. In the West, Partisans will prove valuable wherever the Yankees depend on rails for supply and communication. Indeed, Partisans can prove so upsetting the Union Player will probably expend some of his valuable movement commands just to track them down. 10) The Confederate Pre-empt. The South begins the game with two good leaders, Johnson (3-3-1) and Beauregard (3-3-1), and their forces, including cavalry, in close proximity to Washington and Baltimore. The Southern forces at this point in the game are roughly equal to the Northern forces, and the North has neither Forts nor strong garrisons in Washington nor Baltimore. Also, the Initiative Chit pool is '0' thru '3', with the South having an automatic '2'. The situation is ripe for a Rebel invasion of the North... If the CSA gets the first move, the Confederate Player should consider a strike toward weakly garrisoned Baltimore. If Baltimore falls the war is all but over, since it is worth 10 Political Points to the South at a time in the game when even one Political Point is a vast margin. There are risks in this pre-emptive strike, of course. Beauregard may get to Baltimore and not attack. Furthermore, he might not make it back if he fails. But the initial set-up leaves an open route to Baltimore through Leesburg for Beauregard's force, and it's a shot at total victory the South may not get again... 11) Fortress Monroe. Another operation for the Confederates to consider early in the game is an attack on Fortress Monroe before the Union can bring in reinforcements. If successful, such a move gains the South the all-important Political Point, opens Norfolk to import supply, and not only the capture of the mighty fortress itself but its miserable commander 'Beast' Butler (whom you can 'parole' at an opportune time). If you decide to try this operation, be careful not to let the Yankees land behind your besieging force and cut its supply lines... For his part, the Union Player should reinforce Fortress Monroe with real garrison troops as soon as possible and be aware that his militia there may evaporate on Turn 2. 12) Coastal Operations. Union coastal operations are extremely important. They cut Southern supply and provide beachheads from which offensive strikes can be launched into the heart of Dixie. Despite their importance, such operations are the most common area of Union mismanagement. Players are usually so hot to outflank Southern armies with a seaborn blitz they throw forces against the coastline piecemeal, frittering away their strength and tipping their intentions without having made enough preparations to allow the strikes to be followed through... The establishment of Union enclaves on the coast is only irritating to the South, but the ability of the Union to conduct sustained operations into the interior of the Southland from these enclaves - supplied by rail - is a deadly threat. The Union Player should hold back until he can land a strong, mixed force of both infantry and cavalry, at least two Leaders, supply wagons and supplies, and a Rail Repair unit to establish a railhead that allows the expedition to push inland supplied... The only exception to these extensively prepared landings is when the CSA has screwed up and failed to garrison one of the supply ports. By all means, strike quickly to seize such lucrative targets, but be sure to follow-up with enough reinforcements and (especially) supplies immediately. The Union should use garrison troops to reinforce seized ports and allow the regular infantry to move inland. If the Southern Player is on the ball he will probably garrison the most important ports - New Orleans, Charleston, Savannah, and Mobile - in the first two Game Turns to prevent Yankee windfalls. If he doesn't, he shouldn't be playing the game... 13) Kentucky Neutrality. Both sides should keep an eye on Kentucky. Sometimes one Player or the other will rely on neutral Kentucky as a buffer zone a little too much. A quick, well-coordinated invasion can catch such a Player with his strategic pants down (e.g., if the South fails to adequately protect Nashville and/or the Tennessee and Cumberland River approaches, or if there are no Yankees within miles of Cairo or Cincinnati)... The ideal time for the North to invade Kentucky is in the last Turns of 1861 when Southern supply is low and the Confederate Player won't be able to do much with the fifty Personnel Point invasion penalty. The Southern Player would be wise to keep a cushion of supplies on hand for just such a contingency - especially if he's been successful in frustrating Union operations in the West during 1861... The South, too, can gain several things by invading Kentucky. Columbus is a good place to build a Fort, and the capture of Bowling Green denies the Union the best staging point for an advance on Nashville. At best, such an invasion could delay the Union by several months, but it will cost the Confederates those badly needed 50 Personnel Points - and even worse, give them to the Yankees. If the Southern Player does decide to invade Kentucky, he should wait until Union supplies are low. 14) Planning. No matter what your overall strategic plan in the Campaign Game, don't get carried away by your killer bloodlust early, squandering movement commands on big, spectacular offensive operations from which you expect immediate, decisive results. VFBTS isn't that kind of game. (The notable exceptions to this are the Confederate Pre-empt and Union Naval raids on ungarrisoned Southern ports.) Take your time, the Campaign Game is long. Tend to your defenses first. After you've tipped your hand, you won't want to be embarrassed by enemy counterstrokes which force you to stop your offensive operations simply because you need your movement commands to rush units to deal with the new 'emergencies'... Emergencies are usually caused by not making adequate defensive preparations. The Union must block the Western Virginia mountain passes and the CSA must fortify the river routes and garrison the supply ports. Be methodical. Get the mundane defensive stuff done first. Then, even if the enemy should try to distract you with a counter thrust you won't have to push the panic button in order to deal with it. If your defensive preparations are proper, you should be able to ignore almost any enemy demonstrations intended to disrupt your offensive until you're ready to deal with them on your own terms. 15) Strategy. It would be ridiculous to suggest specific 'perfect' strategies for WBTS. Too much depends upon the Leaders you draw, the competence of your opponent, and your own abilities as a commander. Generally speaking, however, unless the Union Player leaves the door to Baltimore or Washington open, the limited Confederate resources are best put to use in a strategic delaying action and should avoid becoming entangled in major battles. On his part, the Union Player must apply constant pressure on the Confederates at all points to wear away their defenses through attrition until the Southern lines grow brittle and shatter under the pressure of the superior manpower resources of the North. Simple, isn't it?WBTS: A Case of Double Vision Variant Rules By Brent Ellerbroek (From Fire & Movement #12) War Between the States is a refreshing counterexample to the claim that 'monster' games must be hopelessly unplayable by their very nature. Unfortunately, it also serves to illustrate how just a few minor production mistakes and incomplete playtesting can seriously injure these juggernaughts. In particular, contradictions between the campaign game and the scenarios make WBTS one of the most inconsistant games on the market; players playing the campaign game will find it simply impossible to even loosely approximate the historical 1862 and 1863 situations presented in the scenarios. Ironically, this problem occurs not because of any deep conceptual flaw in the rules for the campaign game, but rather because Irad Hardy somehow managed to goof up on what should have been some very mundane calculations. What follows is a list of four of the most obvious of these differences and some stop-gap suggestions on how to rectify them. COUNTER MIX - The WBTS errata appearing in MOVES #35 state that the counter mix is an intentional limitation on the players' production capacities. Unfortunately, nobody remembered to inform the Confederate Navy. The 1863 and 1864 scenarios show the South as having built almost twice as many naval units as are included in the game. I recommend allowing the Confederacy to build up to five river flotillas and four river transports (these are the quantities actually appearing in the scenarios). HEADQUARTERS UNITS - This is somewhat more serious. The odds against players generating as many headquarters by production cycle 4/63 as were generated historically (that is, according to the 1863 scenarios) are virtually astronomical (see chart). the following changes in the Corps headquarters generation probabilities will reconcile the campaign game with the 1863 scenarios: 1. Starting with production cycle 4/62, the Union player generates Corps headquarters on each production cycle marked 'Corps HQ' on his turn record track on a die roll of four or less. Starting with production cycle 4/62, the Confederate player generates Corps headquarters on each production cycle marked 'Corps HQ' on his turn record track on a die roll of three or less. Comparison Between Number of Headquarters Present in Campaign Game and Scenarios Union Confederacy Army 1/2.9 1/3.3 1862 Corps 1/3.3 1/3.9 Army 5/5.8 5/4.7 1863 Corps 22/7.4 15/8 Explanation - the numbers before the slashes are the numbers of headquarters units of the indicated type listed in the scenarios' orders of battle; the numbers after the slashes are the quantities of headquarters units of the indicated type that players with average luck would generate in the campaign game. The differences in number of corps headquarters at the start of the 1863 scenario is somewhat suspicious. LEADERS - The biggest gap is again between the campaign game and the 1863 scenarios. In particular, the Union player has twelve more leader units in the 1863 scenarios then he would have in the campaign game at that point. To correct this allow the Union player to pick two leader units instead of only one on every other production cycle from 3/62 to 4/63 inclusive (this has the additional effect of getting all Union leader units into play by the end of the campaign game). PRODUCTION - The number of variables here is too large for a precise analysis, so about all that can be done is to roughly compare the force levels given in the 1862 scenarios with what both sides could produce by that point in the campaign game. Not surprisingly, the campaign game gives both the Union and the Confederacy somewhat more personnel points in their first volunteer calls than have been utilized in the 1862 scenarios; however, the opposite is the case concerning supply points. A rough calculation of the amount of supply necessary to build and supply the historically produced combat units and forts shows that both North and South have used about 350 more supply points than are available in the campaign game! Needless to say, I am somewhat hesitant to suggest a compromise for such an enormous contradiction, but a conservative solution would be to let both sides construct a number of forts and fortresses for free. Specifically, let the Union player construct a fortress in Washington and forts in Cincinnati and St. Louis at no cost in supply points, and do the same for the Confederate fortress in Richmond and forts in Norfolk and Charleston. I never expected the WBTS campaign game to receive much playtesting, but I had hoped that it would be proofread. Most of the above inconsistancies became dismally apparent after about an hour of planning for the campaign game, and the rest were spotted almost as soon as I decided to look for them. This is not the first time that SPI has nearly ruined a conceptually excellent game design due to lack of attention to detail, and I am unfortunately fairly certain that it will not be the last. Variant Rules by William Glankler (From Fire & Movement #12) 1) Even though drawing Leaders at random means every game of WBTS is unique, it also means you can get screwed by drawing poor Leaders. There is only a 39% chance that the Union player will draw Grant, Sherman, and Meade by 9/1864, and that is only if no Leaders have been returned to the Pool. Rather than get an ulcer, if a Player does not already have Lee or Grant, say he may automatically pick him on the first draw of 1863. After all, what would the Civil War be without Lee and Grant? 2) The same problem applies to the random allotment of HQ's. If you are determined not to invest a lot of time in WBTS only to get shafted by a few bad die rolls, try the following rule: During 1862-63 a die roll of '1' or '2' results in the Player getting Army/Corps HQ's. The die roll for the number of Corps is further modified to: 1 = 1 Corps, 2-3 = 2 Corps, 4-5 = 3 Corps, and 6 = 4 Corps. The result of this change is quite positive on the play of the game. 3) Trying to starve out well-supplied fortifications takes too long in game time (the siege of Vicksburg took six weeks). To correct this, have a besieged Fort or Fortress roll twice on the Supply Consumption Table. Additionally, fortifications in a city hex should throw once on the 101+ column (for the civilian inhabitants of the city). 4) The SPI rule which allows supply to be broadcast directly to supply wagons and Amy HQ's seems to defeat the purpose of depots. Change this so that broadcast is only to depots except when supply trains or headquarters are on a Military Department, in which case supply can then be broadcast directly to them. 5) There really weren't very many 10,000-man divisions in the Civil War. They proved to be unwieldy and few commanders at division level could adequately control them in combat. In WBTS, however, it doesn't pay to build anything less than 10-3's since you want your leaders to control as many men as possible (which results in Corps with as many as 80,000 men in them!). To correct this, stipulate that a Leaders Command Span is not only the number of units but also the number of men that may be controlled. (e.g., each point of Command Span can control, say, 7 strength points, therefore a Leader with a span of '5' could control five units totaling 35 strength points.) You can clean this up a but with some extra production rules, too: a unit may only augment itself to twice its original size, and militia converts to infantry by units rather than by strength points (so the largest infantry division that could come from conversion would be a 4-3).