Game Night – Zulu Edition (by Mark Robbins)

An article by Don Quixote

Friday, September 17 was another Night of Two Gaming Tables, as the American Civil War in miniature flared up once again in the kitchen, while Bob led four players in German games (San Marco at least) in front of the fireplace.

Bob’s group included Michelle, Tom and Ty, while I hosted Paul, Jon, Adam and Jonas. I’ll defer to Bob for a full report on San Marco.

Battles of the Rebellion is a home-grown miniatures game with essentially Corps-level action. The intent of the game, unlike most miniatures games, is to simulate command problems rather than the detailed tactical combat. One of the first command problems simulated was my lack of command of the game, having let it sit on the shelf for two or more years. It is still very much a design in progress; still, I have fun with it every time, and I hope the players did as well.

Adam and Jon were the rebel leaders, with orders to occupy the ground around the town of Bojrabville. They were to dispatch any smaller Union forces, but not get pulled into an engagement with a larger force. Since their forces were spilt some miles apart and separated by a river, this was no easy task. Add to that the uncertainty of the situation – they did not know the size or location of the Union forces – and they had their work cut out for them. They did have mobility, as each general could write two orders or messages per turn.

Paul and Jonas led the Union army, which had advantages in size and information. Jonas was aware that the rebel army was split, and was ordered to pin it down and hit it hard. Paul, on the other hand, was out of communication, with no orders. The first order of business for the Union was coordination, which was made more difficult by their relative inflexibility in issuing orders compared to the rebels.

Jon and Jonas appeared on the board first, with Jonas’ forces marching hard for the town to the north, and Jon’s men coming in from the west. It appeared that Jon might catch Jonas in flank, but a good iniative roll gave Jonas time to form a hasty line. By that time, Adam’s force entered the battlefield from the north east, and threatened Jonas from behind. Again Jonas was fortunate, as Adam’s men responded rather slowly and Jonas was able to get his last brigade into place on the right flank.

Meanwhile, Jon attacked Jonas’ line from the west and was repulsed, losing a regiment. Shortly thereafter, Paul’s army appeared from the southwest, and Jon and Adam watched with pained expressions as four brigades formed up south of Jon’s line. Jon assaulted here, too, and was repulsed; Paul assaulted as well, with some success…another of Jon’s regiments was destroyed, and Jon’s forces were thrown into retreat.

Simultaneous with the retreat was an order issued by Adam for one of his brigades to assualt the center of Jonas’ line. I thought it was a mistake at first read, as it would engage much of Adam’s forces with a superior foe. But Adam thought it would take some of the pressure off Jon’s men, had they not retreated. And it worked. Adam destroyed one of Jonas’s regiments and threw part of the line into retreat, and Jon’s regiments disengaged without incident. This left, after turn twelve, Adam close to contact with Jon’s men to the west, and only one confederate brigade engaged with Union forces. But Paul’s men were hot on Jon’s heels, and one of Jonas’ brigades was moving north as well.

From my perspective, everyone played the game well. This is an especially difficult game for new players, and both Jon and Jonas learned lessons the hard way. Impatient for orders to come through, Jon kept writing and had several turns where his men received conflicting orders. Given that, they retreated, which was probably for the best anyway. Jonas wrote a lot of orders, and also had his men take initiative several times, only to have an earlier conflicting order arrive later. Both Jonas and Adam had a couple of orders misunderstood by their brigadiers, but it was not serious in any case, though it slowed Jonas down.

So who won? I really don’t know, especially as the game ended after only twelve turns. The Union forces commanded the fighting and the battlefield, but they had the advantage to begin with. In one sense, they failed their orders because they did not pin the enemy forces. Adam’s men would execute an order to disengage on turn thirteen, and a rebel retreat might have taken them out of the engagement – fully consistent with their original orders. On the other hand, Jon and Adam did not really get their forces in line, and the pell-mell retreat in the west might have made it impossible to do so. If Paul and Jonas succeeded in keeping the two rebel wings apart, they surely could have wrecked at least one of them and had fair claim to victory.

Well, I have more to do in the game design. The combat needs simplified, and the order of events in the turn clarified. The attacking regiment had a bit of an advantage last night, and cannon were (due to an oversight) allowed to march into line. Much of the problem is the haphazard nature of the design, which hasn’t received attention for several years, and some details were forgotten. But Battles of the Rebellion does provide, I think, the appropriate atmosphere of uncertainty, impatience and frustration for commanders in a Civil War battle. Strategy is important, tactics are important, but in the end execution is what matters…and in that there is always a bit of luck, good or bad.

Thanks to all for a great Game Night, and I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.

- Mark R