"Realistic Modelling's Valley Campaign Game" Topic

I see lots of rave reviews of Realistic Modelling/Real Time Wargames' "To the Last Gaiter Button" campaign & battle rules for the Franco-Prussian War, but I've never seen a comment about another Realistic Modelling product--Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Has anyone played it? Would it provide a good campaign system for battles played with either Fire & Fury set or Black Powder?

I own both sets, and they are very different creatures. I read through the rules a while back but never used them. Here's a quick sumary.

SVC is a multi-player (i.e. more than 2; up to 6?) game where all the players play generals on the Union side. Nominally on the same side, in reality they are competing with each other for prestige and their longterm career plan is to actually gain enough Prestige Points to be noticed in Washington. There is actually a dedicated politicking phase where your character "goes to Washington" to spend his PPs!

On the military front, each turn the various "armies" will manoeuvre on the map (colour map provided) trying to bring Jackson into battle. A die-roll determines whether or not the rebel army stands and fight. If battle is joined, one of the non-engaged Union players will play the role of the Rebel commander.

Now a word on the forces. The scale used here is:

1 Inf base = 100 – 125 men
1 Cav base = 50 – 60 troopers
1 gun = 2 pieces

A Union Division is about:

40 – 60 Inf bases in 3 to 5 brigades
10 – 30 Cav bases in 1 or 2 brigades
6 to 12 Arty bases

I suppose they can translate directly to F&F, or you can dock 20% off the number of bases.

Now bear in mind that your players are competing against each other and may not fight the Rebels ll at once, so 2 or 3 divisions is perhaps all you will field.

There are also rules for calling up militia and training troops.

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There are 3 Rebel "armies" (Jackson, Ewell, Johnson), and their composition is diced for each time they are brought to battle. Each one is about the same size as a Union Division ("army").

The tactical rules are abstract, and instead of actually measuring distance, the battlefield is conceptualised as having Key Features, a reserve area, and a transit area where forces pass through as they move from one Feature to another.

Units/brigades tigger combat as they move into KFs. I suppose it's a bit like the Dixie card game, but with more granularity.

You can perhaps use F&F or BP for your combats, but this means spending a lot more time for the campaign.

Now I think if you are planning to play this campaign "as is", you need a dedicated group of players who can afford several evenings/weekends to play it to a satisfactory conclusion. They should ideally have some knowledge of the period and get into the spirit of being a "political" rather than "career" army officer, and keep in mind the longterm aim of the game – this isn't a "strictly military" campaign!

If you don't think you can get a dedicated group, but are still keen to use the rules as a bais for your campaign, I think it will be a good resource to have.

If I am doing it, I will use the map, the army lists, and the Rebel movement rules from the original rules.

Divide the Union divisions amongst your players so each player or team will have roughly equal forces. Ignore the rules for Prestige.

Have the players manoeuvre their forces on the map to try to bring the rebels into battle; when one player/team does, the other player/team will play the rebel. Have rules for recovery of wounded/stragglers/routers.

Award Victory Points per your tactical rule.

Play for a pre-determined number of turns, then total up VPs to see which side/team is the winner.

To end, I strongly recommend the rules as a source of inspiration, even if you don't eventually use them "as is". You may even apply the concept to other periods and theatre (perhaps Roman hunting Hannibal?).

The Key Features mechanism sounds like what they use with the AWI rules "The World Turned Upside Down". Cool on paper, but I could not get it to work in practice, leading me to believe I was doing something drastically wrong. Probably one of those games where you have to watch someone do it right in order to figure out the key concept you are missing.

Love the campaign of TWTUD though. Just couldn't get the battles to work.

Dale