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Author Topic: FOCUS ON.....Great Battles of the American Civil War (GBACW)  (Read 8103 times)

bob48

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Great Battles of the American Civil War (GBACW)

The 1978 'Mar/Apr', issue 67 of Strategy & Tactics (S&T) magazine included a game that had a profound influence on both my gaming and historical interest.

The game in question was 'Stonewall in the Shenandoah 1862' and the battle was that of Kernstown, designer being one Richard Berg.

I really liked the scale and simplicity of the game; the use of regiments, an attritional combat system and the representation of different weapon types. Over a period of time I collected all the games published by SPI in what became the 'Great Battles of the American Civil War' series, and this included the couple published by TSR after the demise of SPI.

This game also gave me a very keen interest the ACW period that I still have to this day. I have read countless books on the subject and watched as many movies and documentaries as I could find.

Obviously, the series has continued with something like 30 games being published over the years by a variety of publishers, GMT being the responsible for the last few games in the series.

There have been obvious changes to the rules over the years and the later games have benefited from modern production methods, giving us more colourful components and larger counters.

So, as usual, we ask the questions; who owns/plays games from the series – what are your likes/dislikes and so on – we wan't to hear about it!
« Last Edit: December 07, 2021, 04:15:24 PM by bob48 »

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Ardwulf

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Reply #1 on: September 24, 2021, 08:48:11 AM
The series has a long history and has evolved considerably. There's an active fanbase for the current iteration of the series, and still fans of the SPI-era games. There are multiple new titles in the pipeline with GMT, the next one being Shiloh, which hasn't seen print in the series since SPI.




bbmike

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Reply #2 on: September 24, 2021, 09:25:42 AM
I first read the title as Great Campaigns of the Civil War.  :D

I only have one title in this series- Death Valley: Battles for the Shenandoah. I haven't put it on the table yet so I'm looking forward to what people have to say about these games.


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Ardwulf

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Reply #3 on: September 24, 2021, 09:50:03 AM
Death Valley is a great entry point, as it has a mix of small, medium and large battles. Also it brings back some battles that we hadn't seen in the series since the 70s, e.g. Cross Keys and Port Republic.



bob48

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Reply #4 on: September 24, 2021, 11:13:18 AM
Not too long ago, I picked up a good used copy of 'Twin peaks' in order to see how the games differs from how I remember it.

Whilst I can appreciate some of the revised rules, somehow, it had lost the charm and simplicity of the earlier game (to me, anyway). Whilst I also like the better unit and map graphics, what did cause me a problem was the elevation colours as the colour graduation between some of them I found to be very indistinct, especially under some lighting condition.

I have often wondered, and even posed the question in the past in various places, why publishers do not simple append an elevation number to the hex number,: thus,  for example, hex 1234/5 immediately solves all questions of elevations and would greatly ease establishing LOS.

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bayonetbrant

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Reply #5 on: September 24, 2021, 11:27:23 AM
I have often wondered, and even posed the question in the past in various places, why publishers do not simple append an elevation number to the hex number,: thus,  for example, hex 1234/5 immediately solves all questions of elevations and would greatly ease establishing LOS.

I will say that (1) I don't know that I've ever seen you ask that anywhere, but (2) that's a great idea and I might totally steal it

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bob48

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Reply #6 on: September 24, 2021, 12:30:44 PM

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Ardwulf

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Reply #7 on: September 24, 2021, 03:00:14 PM
Whilst I can appreciate some of the revised rules, somehow, it had lost the charm and simplicity of the earlier game (to me, anyway).

In fairness, Stonewall rules are IIRC simpler than even the other SPI-era games in the family.

Whilst I also like the better unit and map graphics, what did cause me a problem was the elevation colours as the colour graduation between some of them I found to be very indistinct, especially under some lighting condition.

The  battles in Twin Peaks (Cedar Mountain and South Mountain) are on less even terrain than most of the other battles in the GMT games. Certainly we did not find this to be a problem with Gettysburg. (Definitely do not check out the Line of Battle games.)

I have often wondered, and even posed the question in the past in various places, why publishers do not simple append an elevation number to the hex number,: thus,  for example, hex 1234/5 immediately solves all questions of elevations and would greatly ease establishing LOS.

This is in fact a pretty good idea. The Blind Swords games do mark elevations numerically, but not in every hex.



bob48

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Reply #8 on: September 24, 2021, 03:09:38 PM
Yes, you are quite right insofar as 'Stonewall' was a very simple game compared to later games. Also agree that, by their very nature, the two battles in Twin peaks are set in fairly extreme terrain :-)

I have played a little of the LoB game, 'To Take Washington' although being fair, it was a game with my two buddie, the game owner acting as moderator since he knows the system very well.

I really enjoyed playing 'At All Costs' and the earlier game on Mars-la-Tour using the Blind Sword system, it is very good.

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Achilles

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Reply #9 on: September 24, 2021, 10:04:58 PM
I have 1st blood, in a box somewhere, I remember it being regimental in scale, and fairly large, but it has been so long since I looked at it I dont know if it is part of that series or not.



thecommandtent

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Reply #10 on: September 24, 2021, 10:07:10 PM

I only have one title in this series- Death Valley: Battles for the Shenandoah. I haven't put it on the table yet so I'm looking forward to what people have to say about these games.

I am in the exact same spot with the series.

I think I've looked through the rulebook but not taken time to push counters around or actual learn how to play.



ArizonaTank

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Reply #11 on: October 20, 2021, 01:03:57 PM
GBACW is my favorite Civil War tactical level system. I have most of the games, and none of them have disappointed me. The system is close to many miniature systems, and that is just the "feel" I want in a tactical Civil War game. If you like Berg games, then you'll love GBACW...but then again if you like Berg games...you have probably already been playing a bunch of GBACW.

The system is typical Berg, not afraid of complexity... Also, most of the games are well represented by Vassal modules, a very big plus in my book.

However, recently I have been becoming more fond of Herman Luttmann's "Blind Swords" system (there are games from several publishers including GMT, Compass and Tiny Battle. But most of the titles are published by Revolution). The scale is different (GBACW is regimental, while Blind Swords is brigade level.) Also, Blind Swords does not feel like a mini game, but still I like many of the elements of the system that really bring out the problems of maneuvering 19th century armies. 

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bayonetbrant

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Reply #12 on: January 10, 2023, 01:05:19 PM
Ardwulf has a teaching session of this one coming up on Saturday at The ACDC if you want to learn to play

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