"Rate Peter Pig's Civil War Battles" Topic

On a scale of 1 (awful) to 10 (perfection), how would you rate Civil War Battles, the ACW set from Peter Pig?

5

7.13256986562

I love the Peter Pig figures, her is some I painted earlier:

DSCF0049 by britishlinescarlet, on Flickr

It's a good set of rules, in particular the pre-battle planning and set-up sections. These sections could be easily lifted into other rules, and are worth the price alone. The actual rules themselves are good, but a bit fiddly, and as usual with Peter Pig presented in a sometimes confusing manner.

Pre-battle and setup sections: 9
Battle rules: 7
Clarity: 6

Overall, a 7. If you don't like tracking table-top details on individual units, that might drop to a 6, whereas if you like tracking that sort of thing it might hit the right spot and be an 8, but it would still require a bit of slogging.

I have played it quite a few times and have one or two issues with how certain details are handled, but it does work very smoothly, is reasonably plausible and you can do quite a big game in an evening …

On a scale of 1 (awful) to 10 (perfection),

… and accepting the old standard 'Fire & Fury' as a 5 …

CWB is a 7.5, narrowly pipped by adapted BP with, say, an 8.

The only reason my local contacts aren't 'sold' on CWB is because BP has a looser framework, I think, and so can be pulled around more easily to suit the history (CWB giving a more generic but more 'complete' game … which is very good but not always what we want).

Hope that helps

Phil
ecwbattles.wordpress.com
Great Civil War pic from britishlinescarlet2 BTW :) Rupert's Bluecoats looking very blue …

i'd say a 4. a friend got it and talked the club into playing 4 or 5 times. we went back to our beloved johnny reb3. imo the best acw game out there.

I would have to give it a 9.
Easy to fit a large game in an evening and we regularly play two games in competitions.

I too would give it a 5. Tried it 4 or 5 times but then moved on to Rank & File and then On To Richmond.

As others have said the setup procedure is good for any set of ACW rules.

8

The only thing that friends dont like is the ineffectiveness of artillery at anything but short range.

But the positives far outweigh the negatvies. Favourite fastplay set of rules.

As someone who isnt greatly into ACW as a period, but have friends who are….I have played CWB, FNF, Rank and file, BP, and TCHAE.

Starting with FNF, I would give it 6.5. It is unfair to put it at 5…. It was never an 'Average' game..

I do not rate BP at all….its a 1….Too eclectic with units swirling like waltsers. My pistoling cavalry pinning artillary event was just too….'wrong'

Rank and file is a game I really like and with its acw supplement does a very good job….A sort of slogging battle / quick-play means it is up there with FnF, but simpler so its a 7. If you feel like simple and are doing the bigger or biggest multi day battles, it could score a 8.5, even 9.
It would be my choice for big battles for almost all horse and musket periods.

I have been playing TCHAE… it is an excellent game and it really gave me a delema. I was just discussing last week how good it was and comparing it to CWB.

Basically because CWB feels like the gold standard for the ACW to me.

But CWB just tips TCHAE as a game so is 1/10th higher.

CWB 9,
TCHAE 8.9….with a carefully considered card deck.

SO, Not having a great interest in a period doesnt seem to stop me having a rich range of games to play….and CWB wins by a photo finish.