Great Battles of the American Civil War – The GMT Series (Series 3)
Welcome to an extended addition of CWBG. Join Bill for an in-depth discussion of Great Battles of the American Civil War – The GMT Series (Series 3). Topics Bill covers include:
What makes Series 3 different than what came before?
1) Fog of war:
-- Old series: Individual games in the series achieved uncertainty with special rules such as the US entry hex in Wilson's Creek, the location of the Monocacy Ford in Drive on Washington, and variable activations for US formations in Pleasant Hill and Gleam of Bayonets.
-- Middle series: required a die roll on the Turn Continuation Table (TCT) for Activation attempts. Generated lots of uncertainty, although you could choose which formation made the attempt. Unfortunately, the TCT involved lots of extra die rolling, frequent Random Events, and occasional sudden ends to the turn.
-- GMT Series (3):
* Formations activate from 1 to 4 times in games with hour-long turns; 1 to 3 times in Twin Peaks and some Gringo scenarios. Number of a, depending on their Efficiency, which is determined by blindly drawing Efficiency chits.
* A Formation's brigades activate when the players blindly draw the "chits" representing that formation. These chits (Activation Markers or "AMs"), are placed in an opaque container at the start of the turn.
* Which player receives the first activation depends on a die roll; the selected AM is not placed in the opaque container.
2) Orders: March, Advance, and Attack. Neither of the older series featured anything like this.
-- Players place their in-command brigades under one of three orders at the start of each turn.
-- Orders determine what a brigade can and cannot do.
-- A brigade can attempt to change its orders when it activates, but risks not being able to move at all, or worse.
3) New "Chrome":
-- Extended Units
-- "Wrap around" (possible free extra movement for Extended Units in Shock situations)
-- Refusing the flank (three frontal hexes rather than two)
-- Simultaneous Return fire (big improvement over the Middle Series)
-- Approach Fire for Artillery
-- Incremental ammo depletion for Small-arms units (an optional rule)
-- Defender's Pre-shock cohesion checks
-- Continued Shock (Rebel Sabers & the Middle series featured a limited version)
-- Guaranteed disorder consequences for shocking Attackers (TSS2 had an optional rule providing for possible Fatigue after Melee)
-- More severe penalties for 2nd
