Excellent overview!! The Worthington guys have done a great job of adapting the best of old-school rules with newer refinements and beautiful components. I'm happy to see easy-punch counters that I don't have to clip. Looking forward to Shiloh.
Thanks for the review! This looks like an updated AH game, which is fine! I like the color coding on the units and the simplicity of the board. might be a good fit on my buy List.
Main reason I think in the game there's no melee, is because there really wasn't very much in the Civil War. It was very rare for the troops to come into contact with each other. And many times troops would indeed blow away at each other until one side or the other ran away. When units did charge they either didn't get to their destination before they're Blown Away, or the Defenders just ran away.
Strictly speaking, you are right. I was really comparing the game to the old Phoenix games which use a virtually identical system but include melee as a (very bloody) option. I would also put "melee" into the close quarters action that happened much more frequently. Rifled muskets at 50 yards is probably just as nasty as zero.
Reminds me somewhat of Battle Hymn, from Compass Games,, what with the strength markers & single unit stacking. Battle Hymn doesn't have melee either, though it does have two rounds of combat possible so perhaps an abstracted melee. I get you with respect to Worthington's cheapness in paper quality & player aids, but still, the map & counters look gorgeous, and it seems easy to get to the table.
Nice review. Would’ve enjoyed a tiny gameplay segment added but you maintained an even review level throughout. Wonder if/how the gameplay would change if one house-ruled in the melee rules from the other games back in.
I too have a wargaming friend who is color blind. A lot of times we can switch to a different nationality color, but this one could be tricky. Luckily he usually likes to play the confederacy.
You nailed it! Also nice that Antietam is not an overdone topic. I can't think of another that I'd put in the "highly playable-can do in one day" category!
Arrrrrrgh!!!! Why is it nobody can pronounce mélee??? Yeah, sure, it's French but it's not hard to say. It's pronounced "m'LAY", or "MAY-lay", not MEE-lee or MEE-LAY. Otherwise, a *great* intro to the game, both pluses and minuses. (Lack of facing and melee are two that shake my confidence)
And my opponent in Manassas yesterday insisted on calling the Abatis counter “A-bah-tee”. I told him that here in East Tennessee we calls it Ah-BAY-tis, and if he kept on swearing at me in French i’d rename my dawg A-BAY-tis in his honor. Ah-BAY-‘tis, y’all stop snoot’in around in the garbage! Strange thing is that my opponent was Rick Britton, the Virginia Gentleman who designed Manassas some 40 years ago, and I’m from Chicago. Go figure! The lack of facing actually works out okay. The most excellent Napoleonic “Eagles” series by Hexasim also has no facing; in their opinion there’s an officer in the unit whose job is to choose formation and facing, so there is no need for the player to do so. At the Brigade level, it may be right, and it does not seem to hurt play any. But without Melee (choose your favorite pronunskiation) I think the game becomes somewhat static. I hope they reconsider and add something in the next entry in the series - Shiloh.
And my opponent in Manassas yesterday insisted on calling the Abatis counter “A-bah-tee”. I told him that here in East Tennessee we calls it Ah-BAY-tis, and if he kept on swearing at me in French i’d rename my dawg A-BAY-tis in his honor. Ah-BAY-‘tis, y’all stop snoot’in around in the garbage! Strange thing is that my opponent was Rick Britton, the Virginia Gentleman who designed Manassas some 40 years ago, and I’m from Chicago. Go figure! The lack of facing actually works out okay. The most excellent Napoleonic “Eagles” series by Hexasim also has no facing; in their opinion there’s an officer in the unit whose job is to choose formation and facing, so there is no need for the player to do so. At the Brigade level, it may be right, and it does not seem to hurt play any. But without Melee (choose your favorite pronunskiation) I think the game becomes somewhat static. I hope they reconsider and add something in the next entry in the series - Shiloh.
