The American Civil War (Eagles Games)

I was very excited opening the big box of this new strategical game on the ACW, but my hopes were soon frustrated finding a game that is no more than an expensive game to play with toy soldiers (and I’m too grown up for this – and having to choose I prefer Hasbro Battle Cry over this on all points).

Yes, inside the box you find a really big map (definitely too big), hundreds of  colored toy soldiers (with too many potential Foreign intervention soldiers – France and Great Britain – and not enough Unionist and Confederate ones) and a rulebook with three different levels of play (actually two, as the Advanced games are only additional rules for the standard games).

The basic games is no more than a sort of Risk variant, with production and a tactical board disposition of the units, and it doesn’t need to be analyzed.

The standard game, the heart of the system, is another matter and I’ll speak on it really soon. First of all I would like to express disappointment for the map: is not unpleasant to the eye (no, it’s almost gorgeous), but it’s very unfriendly for the players, with borders not clearly visible, a lot of chrome that it’s totally useless and put in confusion on how to put the pieces and how to move them from one place to the other. Another sign of careless design is the fact that there is no battle board (yes, the author explains that you may use the vast clear space on the map to arrange the various battlelines for the tactical resolution of battles, but it’s a lame excuse) and that there are no counters to use on the various track on the board (you may use toy soldiers even for these tracks, but a sheet of counters should have been put in the box). And there is no track to count for the production totals of both sides. Actually, none of these lacks is really terrible, but summing them up you obtain a bad impression for such an expensive production.

The standard game uses monthly turns to fight the entire war. There are 5 kinds of units (Infantry, Artillery and Cavalry, plus Leaders and Elite Cavalry). Each type of units may move one space each turn (Cavalry 2 spaces). There are simple rules for Railroad movement (with a Rail point tracks) and Amphibious movement/invasion (with another track and a simple system to resolve Naval battle every fourth turn). When units of both sides are in the same zone on the map, a battle starts: it will be a Major battle if both sides have more than 6 units – other than leaders – involved; otherwise it will be a Skirmish. In this case, the battle board use two zone (Battle line and Reserve area) for both sides plus a Middle line dividing the contenders. In the case of a major battle the battle line is divided in a center and two flanks, with more movement possibilities.

In battle, Artillery may fire till two spaces away, cavalry and leaders have two actions, while Infantry has only one action. In battle, each unit rolls two dice and refers to a table to see if they hit their target. If this is the case, a second roll defines the fate of the unit – elimination or Retreat box.
The battle ends with a Pursuit phase, where the winner may inflict more losses on the loser.
Once every three months there is a political phase (where the South may get Foreign aid or intervention) and the production phase (with different costs for the Union and the South for buying the same kind of units).

To win the Union must take all the Confederate cities on the map in 1865; otherwise the South wins.

The game is a very long and not very fun dice rolls marathon, with thousand of dice rolled on the board. It’s only a too complicated Risk (or a too simple Axis and Allies) and it lacks most of the features needed in a real wargame. As it stands, other than for the complaints on the production and the missing components (in my opinion), the game is not too bad for beer and pretzels (even if perhaps too long and limited to a two players game – even if there are rules for 4 players), but far from a competitor in the wargaming field for strategical simulation.

Probably, the future Eagles Games project on the Napoleonic Wars will be more succesful, because it will feature multiplayer options (the same should be true for War! Imperialism, the game on Colonialism already on the market).

I rate this game 5 in a 1-10 scale (6 ½ as beer and pretzels nightly game).

Roberto Chaivini