A Brief History of the GCACW Series
According to series designer Joe Balkoski, it was in hex SJW S2618 (Kelly's Ford, VA) that he was inspired to create a new game:
I also wanted to add that I determined the other day that it is almost exactly ten years ago that the series was born. I was on a spring vacation from my job
as a MD state historian in 1991, and I was reading E.P. Alexander's memoir "Fighting for the Confederacy." The book stimulated game ideas (which I needed
desperately because the "Fleet" series had come to the end of its useful life). I bought the OR volumes for 2nd Manassas, and by late summer of 1991 had had
playtest maps of SJW ready. Seven games in ten years is not a bad track record these days.
Joe
[Posted to the GCACW yahoo groups list by Ed Beach, April, 2001.]
And so was born a "classic" game that grew into a very popular series.
In this article, I give you a guided tour of how the series unfolded over the years, specifically, how the rules evolved over time. In many cases, rule changes were instituted to make the game more realistic and to eliminate "gamey" tactics. In other cases, the rules were changed or expanded to handle new situations that didn't apply to the initial games. I divide the seven volumes into three "chapters," with each chapter representing a substantial change in the rules. These divisions are based on my observation of how the series unfolded and aren't "official" designations in the GCACW series.
Chapter 1: The Series Begins
SJW, HCR
The series debuts in 1992 with Stonewall Jackson's Way, depicting the Second Manassas Campaign from Cedar Mountain to Chantilly. The core of the system is introduced with maps that are spectacular not only for Balkoski's excellent research but also the fine artwork by Charlie Kibler. Balkoski originally designed SJW and HCR as one game beginning with Lee's offensive against Pope and continuing through the first Confederate invasion of Maryland. A four-map game was not cost effective, so AH decided to publish two games and in 1993, Here Come the Rebels! was released. HCR had virtually identical rules and picked up the campaign where SJW left off. Both games provided well written day-by-day anthologies of the campaigns and a gazetteer that noted historical sites (towns/land marks) depicted on the map.
The key rules that were introduced and eventually changed where the use of artillery in combat and fatigue recovery. In these games, units lost two fatigue levels at the beginning of the recovery segment and then units at fatigue level 0 recovered from disorganization and demoralization. The campaign games handled logistics via a supply phase every 5 turns. Units out of supply have to forage during later turns.
RTG
In 1994, Roads to Gettysburg (RTG) took the series to the most popular ACW battle. In his designer's notes, Balkoski observes that though the battle has been "gamed" in numerous ways, less attention has been paid to the campaigning that lead to the epic conflict. Balkoski's historical commentary and map gazetteer add a lot for us history buffs.
The core rules remained consistent with SJW, but some fine tuning of the system introduced Artillery reserve units, increased stacking penalties in mountains, minor tweaks to the extended march table, reduced leader transfer range, and changes to flank qualifications and flank attacks in mountain hexes. None of these changes were earth shattering and made the system more realistic (e.g., showing that mountain passes were more difficult to transverse than open terrain or that demoralized units were not threatening enough to generate flank modifiers). The campaign game shifted the focus of logistics from butter (supply) to guns (ammo) since Lee's primary logistical concern during the campaign was ammunition. It is assumed that the Rebels can live off the land just fine and that the Union army is well supplied.
Chapter 2: New Marching Orders
SIV
Volume IV of the series introduced the first (and ultimately) biggest change in the system--the fatigue recovery system. Stonewall in the Valley (1995) covered Jackson's Valley Campaign from March to June of 1862. Three beautiful maps of the Valley and historical commentary are included though the gazetteer is absent.
The primary unit shifted from the division (with Corps and Army leaders) to the brigade (with Division and District Leaders). Division leaders act like Corps commanders and District leaders take on the role of both an Army and Division leader. The other change related to leaders was to the command roll for Assaults and Grand Assaults. Command values were increased and the number of units or hexes participating in the assault were included as modifiers to the command roll. If the modified command roll was less than or equal to the command value, the attack took place. This change made attacks with more units harder to pull off than in the earlier versions of the game.
Because these small units (especially those led by Jackson) made several long marches in the campaign, Balkoski altered the extended march procedures and introduced a new unit status: exhaustion. Units ending the day at fatigue level 3 or 4 become exhausted. Thus, unit status is now marked along five dimensions: normal/exhausted, organized/disorganized, not-demoralized/demoralized, in supply/out of supply, ammo/out of ammo. In the new recovery phase, units at Fatigue level 0 or 1 at the start of phase recover from disorganization, exhaustion and demoralization. All units then lose 3 fatigue levels. Because units recover three instead of two fatigues, the possibility of consistently marching three times per day was introduced. In volumes 1 to 3, you could march three times in a day but you would have to give up a march later on to make up for it (since your units only lost two fatigue levels). With the new recovery system also came a new extended march procedure. Normal units still check for extended march when moving to F3 or F4. In addition, exhausted units check at F2 or more. So, while you can march more, there is also an increased chance that attrition will result.
SLB
Stonewall's Last Battle (1996) simulates the Chancellorsville Campaign and though its rules were very much in line with SIV, in many ways it was a turning point the series' evolution. Volume V introduced designer Ed Beach to the GCACW system with his first design. Ed was a player and fan of the system since its birth in 1993. His interest in Stonewall's career led him to develop a Chancellorsville campaign module originally destined for publication in the General. Since Volume V uses the South-SJW map, Avalon Hill decided to print it as a stand alone game due to the cost savings. The counters in Volume V are two-colored and of higher quality than the earlier versions of the game and are a precursor to the improved production quality of the counters and playaids for the later volumes in the series.
Unlike many first time designer's, Ed was not eager to put his mark on the series by adding his favorite house rules or spicing things up with un-needed chrome. The rules mirror SIV and also utilized the Division leader structure in addition to Corps leaders for Confederate division leaders that acted more independently during the campaign (Early, McLaws and Anderson).
As it turned out however, Ed did leave his mark on the series. Ed brought a player's perspective to the scenario design and in the end the scenarios in SLB (and all volumes thereafter) are much more balanced out of the box than in volumes I-IV. While the scenarios in previous volumes assigned VPs in a historical manner, it was often difficult to win as the Union. In SLB, both sides have a fair shot at victory making for a more enjoyable gaming experience.
On a personal note, SLB holds a special place for me because it was the first game of the series that I purchased.
Chapter 3: The Standard Series Rules
OTR, SK1, GTC, SK2
Joe and Ed teamed up to co-design the next volume, On to Richmond (1998) featuring the most ambitious campaign yet, the Peninsula campaign. Kurt Miller took over as the Map Artist and gave the maps a greenish hue that feels "right" given the amount of rain you get in the campaign game! This game is the total package as it includes two rules books (basic and advanced), several good basic game scenarios and a four month campaign for Richmond. The campaign game utilizes a strategic cycle every seven turns (similar to the strategic cycle in SIV) and also introduces rules for amphibious movement, strategic movement and Union gun boat support. Each strategic cycle, the Union's command posture is determined for the coming week. When Little Mac is Active, turns are played out normally (though the action cycle ends on a 1-1 initiative roll). A Passive McClellan speeds up play because a tied initiative roll will end the turn early and rain turns are skipped. The campaign also utilizes off-map boxes to cover the action in Norfolk and the Valley.
The design team decided that the series rules evolution had reached maturity and it was time for a standard rule set that would apply to all previous and future volumes in the series. Given the minor rule set differences, this was a welcomed development allowing players to master one set of rules as opposed to having to re-learn the minor nuances of the previous rule sets. The Standard Basic Game Rules were published in GTC and also online.
The major change from SIV/SLB is to the assault procedure. Instead of adding the number of attacking divisions to the command roll, the command roll is subtracted from the command value to yield the number of divisions that can attack. For example, if two divisions are selected to attack, it is possible that only one will be allowed to follow through with the assault (e.g., if the die roll is a 5 for a command value 6 leader). Since the attack cannot be called off, this sets up situations where single divisions are forced to make piecemeal attacks. The new assault system is slightly more complex than the original procedure but is definitely more realistic as the old system made it too easy to launch attacks (usually a 5/6ths chance no matter how many divisions attacked). The grand assault procedure is similar (except it is based on hexes instead of units).
The other major changes include the retreat and flank modifier rules. The retreat rules as written originally are subject to gamey tactics and unrealistic abuse. The new retreat rules specify retreat priorities that force units to avoid enemy ZOC and retreat away from the enemy, thus preventing many of the gamey tactics that often allowed you to retreat unrealistically. The flank modifier rules are rationalized to better handle impassable terrain and the edge of the map syndrome in one set of rules as opposed to addressing these situations with exceptions (e.g., mountain attacks) or ignoring them altogether (e.g., edge of the map attacks).
Additional minor changes include increased stacking penalties for large forces (12 CV or more), increased losses for large disorganized forces during extended march, a smoothing out of attacker combat letter results (+3 goes from D to F, +4 from E to f), a common set of rules for bridge and ferry destruction and construction and a rationalized set of entrenchment rules that base entrenchment capabilities on the year of the scenario played.
The OTR basic rule book is consistent with the standard series rules but only covers the rules for OTR. Soon after OTR was released, The Skirmisher I (2000) was published and contained an abbreviated standard series rule book. The abbreviated rule book covers all the new rules and includes the game specific exceptions. SK1 also included a new set of leader counters with updated command values for the new assault rules. Also on the counter sheet is RTG counters in color with the artillery values on the reverse side since in the standard rules, the reverse side of the counter is exhausted not out of ammo.
About the time OTR was published, AH folded and the GCACW series was picked up by Multi-man Publishing. (MMP's first publication in the series was SK1 incidentally.) Ed took the lead for the next volume in the series, Grant Takes Command (2001) covering the Overland campaign. The turnover in publishers delayed the next edition in the series, but this delay allowed Ed's design team to develop the most comprehensive treatment of a campaign in the series. GTC has the most scenarios, with lots of variability (one, two, three and five turn scenarios, two cavalry scenarios). In addition, the campaign game is in my opinion, the best in the series. Rick Barber took the reigns as the Map Artist for maps that include hand painted redoubts along the Rapidan and around Richmond.
GTC also includes the official GCACW Standard Basic Game rules as a separate rule booklet. The entrenchment rules for GTC are included. The rules are identical to OTR and represent the most historically accurate and cleanest set of rules in the series. The last publication in the series was Skirmisher II (2003) which includes two new modules, Burnside Takes Command (Fredericksburg) and Rebels in the White House (Early's 1864 raid) which are basically two new mini-games.
That brings you up to date on the series progression. Currently, there is talk of moving the series west with the Chickamauga campaign and behind the scenes there is enough material for another Skirmisher or two. Hopefully we haven't seen the last of the GCACW!