War Between The States

Strategic Game of the American Civil War
Designed by Irad Hardy
Published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (1978)


War Between the States (WBTS) is generally considered to be one of S.P.I.’s ‘monster’ games. Having played it I must say it doesn’t really feel like a monster. I have played several other ‘monster’ games – War in the East and Fire in the East both feel monstrous due to the high density of counters and the physical size of the map; Empires in Arms feels monstrous due to the time commitment necessary to complete a game. WBTS doesn’t feel in any way overwhelming.

I have very pleasant recollections of the times I have played WBTS. There are only three map panels and the no large stacks of counters on the map – let alone a wall of counters stacked from one side of the map to the other. To be fair, there are four large charts taking up almost as much space as the map. The turns represent one week of real time and, over four game years, that comes very close to 200 turns. Okay – it is big in terms of the number of turns in the game (although many of the turns don’t actually take very long due to movement and combat limitations) and the amount of space required for the maps AND the charts. It is very playable – especially when taken on by two teams of two players. I have only played WBTS in a four-player team situation. It actually gives the game a relaxed and leisurely feeling as you play the game, only having to focus on one part of the map and being able to discuss strategy with your ‘off-sider’.

Quite apart for the pleasant sensations one experiences while playing WBTS, it seems to simulate many aspects of the American Civil War very accurately.


The Components

These are exactly what you would expect from an S.P.I. game made in the late 70’s. The map comes in three panels – it has a cream background, brown for rough terrain, green for wooded terrain and blue rivers. The Appalachian Mountains really break the map into two quite distinct theatres. It is difficult to quickly redeploy forces from one theatre to the other. There are 1200 counters – only a small percentage of the counters will be on the map at any one time. Each side has a Production Spiral (which will show when a unit that has been produced will be placed upon the map. Each side also has an Organisational Display where units attached to Headquarters are placed – the H.Q. counter will be on the map but the divisions allocated to it will be on the display.


How to Play the Game

The game is fairly straightforward to play as there is a simple sequence of play, a relatively small number of units on the map and fairly simple and straightforward choices to be made at most points in the game.

Once every four Player Turns, there is a Strategic Turn. In the Strategic Turn players attack forts and fortresses that they are currently besieging using the special siege procedures. Players then use Production Points to mobilize new combat units for mobilization. As time goes by, the number of Production Points will decrease. Whenever you feel like it you can call up a new draft of troops. This will cause an initial increase/boost in Production Points but as the number of points drops down each Strategic Turn you will soon reach a situation where your Production Points are less than they were before you called up the draft. Calling up a new draft is very much a double-edged sword with short-term benefit and long-term problems. Players then use supply to feed ground units and to broadcast supply points to depots, supply trains and army headquarters that are on the map.

After each Strategic Turn there are four Player Turns, each one representing a week of real time. At the start of the Player Turn each player draws a chit. This tells them who has the initiative (goes first) and how many movement commands they may issue (the number on the chit). In the first year the chits are numbered 0, 1, 2, and 3. The chits are adjusted from time to time. From May 1863 until October 1863 the mixture of the initiative chits is 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. This means that at some periods the war will speed up and have more armies being active while at other times the pace of activities will slow down.

Which ever player has drawn the higher numbered chit will go first. During the Movement Phase they will active a number of armies up to the number on the chit (e.g. if they drew a ‘3’ chit they would activate three armies for movement). After the movement commands have all been used you may try to activate other leaders by rolling a die and comparing it to the leader’s Initiative Rating (Grant and Lee have a rating of ‘4’ which means they would activate under their own initiative two-thirds of the time). As many leaders have low initiative this means that, each turn, many and perhaps most of your troops will not be moving. You need to decide which moves are the most crucial and issue commands to those leaders.

The Movement Phase is followed by the Combat Phase. Any leader can try to attack, even if they did not move. Each leader who wishes to attack must roll against their Initiative Rating. If they roll equal to or less than their initiative they may attack.

This means that leaders who move may not be allowed to attack while some leaders who were unable to move may still be able to launch an attack.

At this point the player who lost the initiative draw has their player turn – movement followed by combat.

There are rules for naval and riverine movement, transport and combat.

As you can see, from a mechanics point of view, WBTS really is fairly simple to play.


Leaders & Headquarters

The creation of the H.Q.s and selection of the Leaders is a rather random but extremely important process in the game.

Leaders are selected randomly during the Strategic Turn. Leaders are rated for Initiative (the likelihood of units moving without a command and launching an attack at any time – it is also reflects his ability to intensify the combat), Command (the number of units or leaders they can effectively take control of) and Combat (his ability to modify the combat die result). Quite apart from leaders (who are allocated to an army headquarters), army HQs are also introduced into the game during the Strategic Turn via a random process.

It can take quite some time to get the leaders you need to effectively wage a war. Once you have them it can take a little while to get them where you need them. Having an effective leadership and command structure is crucial to the effective waging of the war.

Until such time as you have the leaders and command structure you need to wage a war you still need to try to do something with the leaders that you have.

This game mechanism contributes to a game where both sides gear up for war throughout the game and gives the feeling of a war where initially neither side is ready and both sides are fumbling around to a certain extent. As the leadership and command structures develop during the game both armies become more mobile and more likely to be able to engage the enemy when and where desired.


What I Quite Like About The Game

IMHO, there is much to like in this game.

I have already mentioned that I like the size and scale of the game and feel very comfortable with the simple sequence of play. I think that there is a very relaxed feeling as you play the game that is missing from many other wargames that I have played. I must admit that I do enjoy the experience of a team game where you are sharing the forces available to one side.

To make a very generalized comment – I think that it is desirable when designing a wargame to give the players a clearly-defined role in the game and to try to limit the decisions that they are making to the same sort of decisions that would be made by their real-life counterpart. I feel that WBTS does this very effectively. The players take the roles of Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln (or perhaps the respective Theatre Commanders). In WBTS you are the commander in chief of either the USA or CSA forces. You can attempt to direct your field-commanders but you are never in the field and you never have direct control over what happens to your armies.

You can directly give movement orders to a limited number of troops or H.Q.s – naturally, using H.Q.s is a much more effective way to move troops. Do you give some orders to Leaders with a high initiative rating or do you trust them to move without a command? Even if you do move them there is no guarantee that that will launch an attack. This can cause massive frustration at times – which I suspect is a fairly realistic reaction. This is exactly the trouble both Lincoln and Davis had with many of their Generals.

As the President and Commander-in-chief of your respective nation’s armed forces you have the right to make decisions, but as your decisions are transformed into reality by a bureaucratic process you can’t expect it to all come together in one fell swoop – and this is part of the beauty of the game.

It is almost certain that, given time, the forces of the U.S.A. will push the rebels back. It is almost certain that the forces of the C.S.A. will find opportunities to counterattack. It is almost certain that losses will hurt the C.S.A. more than it will hurt the U.S.A. The question is will the U.S.A. run out of time before the C.S.A. runs out of manpower and/or space.

WBTS is a fine game. I am only sorry that it takes quite a long time to play to completion, requires so much space to set it up and needs to have that space dedicated to it through to the completion of the game. Were it not for these three factors I am sure that I would play it more often.

It holds sweet memories.


“Dead Men Tell No Tales!”