From: Roberto Chiavini Subject: One review Rebels & Redcoats (Decision Games) This series of battle of the American Civil War designed by Christopher Cummins is a very good addition to my library of simulation games. They are simple, normally very small battles, that you may easily play solitaire (most of them are probably better for this particular situation, as they are not well balanced), are not time consuming and do not use much space (except for a few of them). The system is an intelligent mix of standard wargame rules (like an almost locking ZOC, but with a clever disengagement rule) with a few innovations: not all the battles are really playable, but most of them are more than one time. Units are rated for strength morale and movement, while the leaders have ratings for command (used for both combat and morale) and a command range (units out of this range cannot enter enemy ZOC and are limited in force march). Each turn start with an evaluation of command status for the units of the active side, then by artillery bombardment (normally used only in the first phases of each battle, as the artillery units have their LOS blocked by both terrain and units), movement and combat (that is forced for all units inside a ZOC). The heart of the system is in the morale of each unit, another clever way to simulate the difference between the English units and the Rebel American ones. Combat results vary from no effect to elimination, with retreat and distruption (that is more similar to the rout result of most other games) as the more frequent ones. Each army has a disintegration value and when one army reaches this value, the other side wins the game. As I said before, even with a few problems in particular scenarios (for example, Cowpens is not fun to play, so it is the historical Camden) other are very balanced and fun to play (like Eutaw Springs among the ones that I have played). With a little effort, you may tinker with the rules and get something more palatable for a veteran player, but even it stands the game is worth both your money and your time. I rate the game 7 in a 1-10 scale