"Best ACW Boardgame?" Topic

Best American Civil War boardgame, with or without miniatures?

Original Avalon Hill Gettysburg. First time I played it was 1969. Started me down this hobby road. Good game. Simple but thought-provoking.

AH Gettysburg
MB Battle Cry

The AH GCACW series was in many ways the best simulation of ACW operations I've ever played. Unfortunately it ran at roughly real-time – it took us about a day to get through the first of the Seven Days Battles, so we cleaned up rather than try to play for 6 more days. Oof.

- Ix

Another GCACW vote, excellent series of games.

Best strategic title so far is "For the People" but it looks like "The US Civil War" is going to top it.

House Divided. Play the whole war 4 times in a day.

Simple? AH Gettysburg.
Sort of complex? Terrible Swift Sword.

Victory Games "The Civil War".

I am with Rallynow. Victory Games' The Civil War is a classic! The Gamers' Civil War Brigade series are a must have too.

House Divided, my favorite wargame.

Victory Games "The Civil War".

+1

In fact, I have the game off the shelf right now.

Rallynow dead on: The Game, Sir!

House Divided is on my list

Ironclads

A House Divided

Strategic: "The Civil War" by Victory Games

Tactical: "Thunder at the Crossroads" by The Gamers

"The U.S. Civil War" by GMT and "Last Chance for Victory" by MMP look like interesting follow-ons.

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Strategic--the Victory Games "Civil War"

+1 Frank Chadwick's A House Divided.

+1 Richard Borg's Battle Cry for 2nd place.

I still am a huge fan of Richard Berg's GBACW series. but AHD and BC are such clean, clear, *playable* designs, that they're freaking works of genius.

Blue Vs. Gray by GMT is a wonderful, card-driven game. I've played it countless times and it always gives a good contest. The cards themselves are very nicely done with potted biographies (some of which are very witty) of all the leading generals and brief unit histories of all the regiments involved.

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gmtgames.com/nnbg/main.html

depends on what you mean by best? Best playable, best looking, best detailed, best complex, best simple, best supported, best accurate, best quality, etc.

Even though the following would be in "best" different categories, I would say:

Battle Cry (150th Anniversary Edition)
A House Divided
The Civil War (VG one)
Gettysburg (AH one)
…and probably a couple of others I can't think of right now.

SPI's War Between the States, or "WaBetS." Sure it's a "monster" game with a clunky supply mechanism, but it plays really fast.

SPI's Chickamauga from the Blue & Grey Quad.

It's hard to narrow it down to one "best" choice. The different levels make for very different games.

Strategic:
For the People (GMT)
The U.S. Civil War (GMT)
Blue vs. Gray (GMT)
Rebel Raiders on the High Seas (GMT)
The Civil War (Victory Games)
A House Divided (GDW and Mayfair)

Operational:
Great Campaigns of the American Civil War series (Avalon Hill and MMP)
Blue & Gray Campaign Series (Worthington Games)

Tactical:
Battle Cry (Avalon Hill and Wizards of the Coast)
Stonewall's Sword (Revolution Games)
Line of Battle Series (MMP)
Civil War Brigade Series (The Gamers and MMP)
Great Battles of the American Civil War Series (SPI and GMT)

Another for Victory Games' "The Civil War", but "A House Divided" is good too, though on a much simpler level.

The Civil War Brigade Series from The Games, now part of Multi-man Publishing.

I wish we could get together and have a go at "The Civil War" love that game. Haven't played it in quite a while. We could have a mini-tournament.

A House Divided, old and new.

I loved the SPI's big boxed Terrible Swift Sword (Gettysburg). Had many hours of enjoyment playing that one!

Multiman Publishing/The Gamers "Line of Battle" (LoB) series is a derivative of the Civil War Brigade Series (CWBS) "Regimental Sub-Series" or RSS and is my definitive game at the more operational/tactical level. The rules have been finely polished over the years and are fairly easily grasped by experienced wargamers.

The aforementioned CWBS can still be purchased through MMP (most are out of print however) or via after-market sales for reasonable prices (save for "Thunder"- Gettysburg). This is simply a wonderful series at the Brigade scale and is the grandfather of the LoB and RSS series of games.

I never played the more operational level of games as they were in sort of a strange (to me) "inbetween" where they certainly weren't tactical enough nor were they strategic enough for my tastes. Still, I've heard wonderful things about the "Great Campaigns" (GCACW) series and really should investigate that some time.

Strategically, one can hardly surpass Victory Games' "Civil War" (as mentioned several times already) despite some obvious gamey tactics that can be exploited with the leader promotion rules. GMT's new "U.S. Civil War" (mentioned already as well) has roots in both VG's Civil War and GMT's card driven game "For the People" (FTP). I have a copy but have yet to play it at this time. I also have FTP but have not had the pleasure of playing it yet either but have heard wonderful things about it as well. "A House Divided" is certainly something to look into and can be purchased new for around $20. USD It's much lighter than the others mentioned but will certainly give you a good game.

Not asked for but I'll offer it anyway is the "Scourge of War" series (Matrix Games) on the computer. Simply the best tactical ACW game that you can play- it is very immersive and worth looking into if you do play PC wargames.

For me it was AH Gettysburg and On to Richmond. Later Fire & Fury.

Berg's games a beautifully researched and excellently designed. I also like Dean Essig's Civil War Brigade series. I own almost all of these two series of board games.