"Altar of Freedom - team play for Seven Pines" Topic

I'm planning a learning game of AoF using the Seven Pines scenario.

Any suggestions on how to assign commands for 4-5 players?

The Federal side seems pretty easy, with 3 corps commanders (or maybe 2, and let them agree on how to use Keyes' "hesitant" command)?

The Confederate side seems trickier, since Longstreet's and G. Smith's commands are so uneven (4 divisions vs. 1). I was thinking giving army command (Johnston) and Smith to one player and Longstreet to the other, but I don't know if that's satisfying to the Johnston/Smith player.

How would you go about it?

I have the western scenarios, not the eastern ones.

However, we have played Perryville scenario and discovered players could have fun with just a good sized division. At Perryville Leonidas Polk has just a single 5 brigade division in his corps and it is still fun to play.

I hope that helps you.

That's a good point. The problem I run into with the uneven size of commands is the need to divide priority points between divisions.

After playing the Battle of Atlanta last weekend, I was also thinking about how to best involve players in a multiplayer game. I came up with this:

The army commander players spend the priority points (reserving some for end of the turn adjustments as requested by their subordinate players) and roll initiative and turn clock checks. The corps commander players move the troops and roll the shooting and close combat dice.

The army commander players are free to move about offering advice and even helping move divisions. This will be very helpful when the army commander is experienced at AoF and the corps commanders are new.

Each player would be in charge of his own generals personality traits and leftover points on end of the turn adjustments.

If commands were greatly uneven, I'd give the most experienced players the larger commands, and let the army commander get involved moving these larger commands to keep the game moving and keep them involved.