Thoughts on the American Civil War

Not seen this for a long while - a brigade level tactical board game covering the American Civil War and published by Yaquinto. My curiosity was sufficiently aroused so that once again the wallet fell open….

Although my interest in the American Civil War has been primarily directed at the naval side I have not been averse to fighting the odd land battle or two. In recent years this has been via Battle Cry - the Command and Colours game designed by Richard Borg - or more usually a variant of Bob Cordery’s Portable Wargame. I have an unused 18mm WoFun collection for the period - these are the original WoFun release and not the later Peter Dennis penned versions - that I had half an idea of using with either of the above mentioned rules in support of my naval endeavours but as yet have not done anything tangible about it. 

Battles and Leaders is a tactical ACW boardgame set at brigade level that was published by Yaquinto back in the very early 1980s. It is scaled at 50 metres per hex and a unit counter represents around 200 men. There are separate counters for leaders and skirmishers and the former have a rating for charisma - as well as a rather evocative ‘leader injury’ table.

This is a board game that is very much of its era - lots of charts and tables - but beneath it all there is an interesting system that offers a little more ‘meat’ in terms of detail compared to, for example, Battle Cry.

I will take this game as it is although the potential for using the WoFun collection is certainly there. 

Something to think about anyway.

In other news, the final phase of my recent bout of ‘wheeling and dealing’ is coming to an end. I have a few surprises to unleash - actually not really that much of a surprise overall - but regular readers of the blog will recognise the inspiration behind them!