Wargames Illustrated - very early in it's life - published the best one and a half sides of A4 I’ve ever read. This was an article by Brian De Witt titled “The Pain of Giving Orders”, which was inspired by Paddy Griffiths excellent ACW tome, Rally Once Again. It was a simple set of rules - no more than A5 in size - with a unique order system based on a pack of 10 cards. It was a few years before I tried them out, but it resulted in some cracking games that the participants thoroughly enjoyed. It was ages before I had a go because I was usually organising and umpiring, but when I did I was surprised how challenging it was. With some slight modifications, this is my go-to set for the ACW.
Each side has a set of 10 cards. From the original article, these are:
1. Fire and move
2. Fire OR move
3. Move
4. Fire
5. Move (units in column only)
6. Double move (units on road only)
7. Resupply ammo, move leaders and units roads
8. Resupply ammo, move leaders with units
9. Rally and stand up
10. Rally and stand up
Each bound, both sides select five cards from their deck and take it in turns to play one - and one only. So if you play a move card, one or all of your units can move; then your opponent plays a card and so-on until all five cards are played and the bound ends. Another five cards are chosen for the next bound and it all kicks off again.
I won’t repeat the entire article here, but you get the gist and can probably see where I am going… but for info, the Rally cards apply to all your routing or shaken units: routers move every time you fail to play a Rally card, so it pays to stop shooting and inspire the troops sometimes.
My ACW armies are based on Neil Thomas’ Intro book: I just double the number of infantry units. This gives me manageable forces for North and South. Each side has one general and two staff officers (leaders). The gives the Rebs a better leader:unit ratio. The general, as per Shako, takes up a position and only moves if the enemy come within 12”. He is too busy choosing cards to do anything else! The staff officers are attached to units and give a combat/morale bonus or an extra move if card 8 is played. You can only switch them to another unit if you play card 7.
So that’s how my ‘one general’ idea fits into my ACW games. Simples!
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