Horse Soldiers: Forrest at Bay (1988)

Horse Soldiers: Forrest at Bay (1988), (Included in Issue #119 0f Strategy & Tactics magazine), is part of the Great Battles of the American Civil War series (GBACW). This series is an offshoot of the Terrible Swift Sword: The Battle of Gettysburg (TSS) system.

Included are two color map sheets and one sheet of 200 two-sided, die-cut counters and a 2nd half-sheet with 100 die-cut counters. These components represent the participants and locations of two ACW Confederate Cavalry engagements that involved the southern raider, General Nathan Bedford Forrest. The two battles, Brice's Crossroads and Tupelo, resulted from U.S. General William T. Sherman's campaign to remove Forrest as a threat to his flank and supply lines. Before the Union Army marched on Atlanta, Elements of Sherman's Army pursued Forrest, and others, into Mississippi and engaged his cavalry twice before its destruction at Tupelo.

All game-turns represent approximately 1 hour real time, and each Strength Point is the equivalent of 50 men or 1 gun. In Brice's Crossroads, the map scale is 115 yards per hex. In Tupelo the scale is 160 yards per hex.

This game is an excellent example of the, ever evolving, TSS/GBACW game system. New rules for Cavalry and a modified sequence of play are just couple of the many refinements. I've always wanted to adapt these refinements to the earlier TSS Cavalry game Rebel Sabers: Civil War Cavalry Battles by SPI (Simulations Publications, Inc.). The game components are on par with any game in the system.

Nominee for the 1988 Charles S. Roberts awards for Best Pre-World War II Boardgame (Charles S. Roberts Awards).