Looking for a good Civil War board game.   Does anyone have suggestions?

Brennan,
  There are several to choose from. First, however, a few questions. What
scale, the entire war, a campaign or a battle? Second, how complex? Are you
a grognard, a beginner or some where in between?
    Allan

I'm somewhat of a beginner.  My experience has been limited to games like
Battletech.  However, this is for a friend of mine who loves to play games
and loves the Civil War.  She would be fine putting hours of strategic
thought into a game, but she probably would have trouble finding friends to
play with her.  We're looking for something not overly complicated with a
playing time of no more than a few hours per sitting.  Campaigns would be
fine as long as we could put up the game for a few weeks before continuing
with the next stage.
news:49QW5.34325$II2.3142632@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...

Battle Cry by Hasbro is pretty simplistic but the gameplay is fun, fast,
and interesting.  It's very easy to find someone to play with you.  It
looks great too.

Blue vs. Gray (QED) is card based.  The rules are tough to figure out, but
once you do, I think it plays great.  It's much more involved and has a
great deal of history.

In Battle Cry, each game is a specific battle (you set up the board
differently for each battle).  Blue vs. Gray covers the entire war.

I'm sure you'll get plenty of other suggestions too!

Brennan,
  Okay. You should be able to finish almost any of these in several hours,
depending on how much time you can invest each week. Some can be played out in
just 2 hours and the longest shouldn't go over 8 hours. Generally, the more
complex, the more time.
  Strategic Games: GMT, For the People. Although the rules are a bit wordy, the
game is actually quite simple mechanically. If you can get past the shear
volume of rules,this one plays well.
   Victory Games, The Civil War (out of print). Easily the most fun game out
there. The major complaints about it is that you can get wildly ahistorical
outcomes. It is also moderate complexity, but Victory Games wrote the best
rules in the wargaming industry. Well phrased with loads of illustrations and
examples of play. If you can find this one on the resale market at a decent
price, grab it.
   GDW, A House Divided (also out of print). The easiest wargame on the
American Civil War. Easy to learn and fast playing. The drawbacks to it are
that it has almost no bearing to the actual war and is less a historical
wargame than a game.
    Battle Games: The Gamers Civial War Brigade Series. There a whole handful
of games published by The Gamers that focus on the Command and Control aspect
of civil war battles while reducing the intricities of combat and movement. Not
a simple system, it is rewarding for the effort exerted. The added plus is that
once you learn it for one game inthe series, you know if for all the rest.
There are two monster games on a Regimental Scale that use a modificationof the
system, but they may be a bit much for a beginner.
   Hasbro: Battle Cry. An abstract approach to the battles, this game has
gotten a lot of popular acclaim form both beginners and grognards. A set of
generic units and terrain pieces are arranged on a map to represent several
battles of the ACW. Simple rules and simple mechanics. While the game contains
a bunch of scenarios there are many more available for donloading on the net. I
just received a review copy of this last week from Hasbro and I have only
managed to assemble the game so I can't really offer much of an opinion on it
yet. If you are leery about trying the more 'hardcore' wargames, this may be
the way for you to go.
   Campaign Series: Avalon Hill/Hasbro/MultiManPublishing: The Civil War.
Another series of games that use a common set of rules. These games focus on
the maneuver aspects of the campaigns rather than combat or command. Somewhat
easier than The Gamers series and more easily mastered.
    There are also a slew of other games out there. I left out them out as they
tend to be a lot more complex or way out of print. (SPI's Civil War Quadgames
would be perfect for you, not too complex, not too long. The normally complex
chrome has been stripped away, leaving a basic game. About 12 games in the
series. Alas, out of print.)
     Final analysis: GMT's For the People, Hasbro's Battle Cry or The Gamers'
Civil War Brigade Series.
        Allan

Brennan,
  I should add that the rules for For the People and the Civil War Brigade Series
are available for free download if you are interested. (www.gmtgames.com and
www.tgamers.com).
     Allan

Awesome.
Thank you for all your comments.  What a great help!
news:49QW5.34325$II2.3142632@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...

one other: "Across 5 Aprils" by Victory games is out of print but should be
accessible and fun.
Using a more or less similar system there is also Glory by GMT (also out of
print) which playable yet sometimes a bit slow.
For the people is probably the best currently available title if you don't
want ultra complexity (amateurs would rather say detail, realsim instead of
complexity...). The card engine ensures a lot of fun. Not very easy rules
but easier to play than you would guess when you're learning the rules, so
try to learn it and play through a few sample rounds before you try to
explain it to your opponent.
Tom

In article <49QW5.34325$II2.3142...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net>,
  "Brennan Flora" <bwfl...@pop.uky.edu> wrote:
suggestions?

Brennen,
Take a look at For the People by GMT.  It takes about 6 hours to play
the entire game.  There are 13 turns and you can stop at any point.
Its a little complicated for a beginner (actually the basic idea is
very simple, but there are lots of special cases).  Its a card based
game like Hannibal.  Many civil war games take a long time to play.
You can look at Glory but its not one of my favorites.  The South
Mountain series frm West End is good, but is harder to set up and take
down after a few hours of play.
Also Blue vs Gray and a House Divided are two fun civil war games.

BvG is a card game that takes just a few hours!

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

In article <49QW5.34325$II2.3142...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net>,
Brennan Flora <bwfl...@pop.uky.edu> writes

Which Civil War? Around here that means the one with battles like
Edgehill and Marsden Moor. I've only come across miniatures rules.

(There is a slightly serious point to this posting.)

--
Christopher Dearlove

Christopher,

I've never heard of those places, are they up North near Chicago?

Jason

One more suggestion -- if you don't mind having to cut out the counters with
scissors, the Civil War brigade series games from Ivy St Games are a great
mix of elegance and simplicity.  I think it's the best tactical ACW system
out there.   The games are very affordable ($10-20 if I recall correctly)
and can be played in 1-2 hours.  The games in the series are:

Williamsburg 1862
Stonewall at Cedar Mountain
Chantilly (my favorite, and not just because I used to live within miles of
the battlefield in northern Virginia)
Bethesda Church ( a module the requires one of the other games)

You might be able to still find them at Boulder Games
(www.bouldergames.com).

As far as the games mentioned above, I'd second Across Five Aprils and A
House Divided.

The Blue vs Gray system is brilliant, but it takes some getting used to.

One final note: if your girlfriend's taste runs to the Revolutionary War,
you might check out We the People.

In article <k6DYg5A2uCL6E...@mnemosyne.demon.co.uk>,
   Christopher Dearlove <ch...@mnemosyne.demon.co.uk> wrote:

There is more than a hint that rec.games.board = usa.games.board
Though obviously in a majority, and hence dictating the discussion, it's as
well to insert an occasional reminder.  ;-)

--
Fleur Designs - Manchester UK http://www.cartmell.demon.co.uk
~ designer craft products ~ information products ~ information services ~
~ see our unique modular board games at:
Altrincham Marketplace every Tuesday & Saturday~
and in Acorn User magazine - November 2000

Red Badge of Courage, currently in the GMT P500 list (waiting for 500
potential pre-orders before printing/final development) is supposed to
be a smaller scale rendering of some of GMT's earlier ACW games (such as
Glory). It focusses on Manassas/Bull Run and the two battles fought
there. No idea when it will see the light of day, but it might be a good
intermediate step if you're looking for battles rather than the entire
campaign.

Blue vs Gray is a *great* game, but you really need to be taught it
rather than learn from the rules. The trick for the South is to push
hard at the start, then hang on for dear life when the tide inevitably
turns. You can be getting beat unmercifully about the face and neck as
the South and still win the game, which requires a certain mindset if
you want to play that side! ;-)

Doug
--
Doug Cooley                    
Mentor Graphics Knowledge Products
Wilsonville, OR   (503)685-1394
doug_coo...@mentor.com        

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In article <90hdtr$agl...@newssvr06-en0.news.prodigy.com>, Jason &
Jeannette <flyb...@prodigy.net> writes

First, I'm hoist on my own petard. That's Marston, nor Marsden. I
blame it on being about midnight when I posted.

Actually they're both well north of Chicago. Chicago is about 42
degrees north, Edgehill about 52 degrees north and Marston Moor
about 54 degrees north (and about 1 degree west in each case).

Sorry, that was the best I could manage in humorous responses.

--
Christopher Dearlove

The IVY St games indeed enjoy a good reputation, but the designer has
stopped producing them and I believe also shut down his web site. Sad,
really.

Tom