Divided We Fall: The American Civil War

Divided We Fall presents the events of the American Civil War. As part of our Strategic Decision Series of games, this is a game of skill for two players - there are no random events. Yet, each game is amazingly different from the others - this is because the two players focus their attention on the most crucial decisions, and there are many to be made! USA and CSA troops are scaled from brigades to corps, plus state militias. Forts, naval/riverine and leader counters (army, some corps) are included.

Players are limited to a fixed number of actions per turn - early, the Confederacy gets the most Command Points (actions), later in the war the Union does. Use the Command Points to move leaders - army commanders who can move the armies they're with - or to move individual units which usually move more quickly by themselves. Or use the Command Points to build your defensive works. There are six turns per year: Winter (Dec-Apr), May, June, July-Aug15, Aug16-Sept, and Oct-Nov. These time frames were selected because the 135 most important civil war battles are spread equally across them. Reinforcements and leader arrival/departure occurs each turn, and replacements are spread out across each combatant's territories - but the Union gets 11 replacements per turn, while the South gets 7. These 7 are spread among the 7 groups of key ("Flag") cities, which are grouped from the Trans-Mississippi, the Mississippi River, Alabama, Tennessee/Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. As the Union player takes the Flag Cities in each group, CSA replacements decline.

The Confederacy, however, can make a lightning strike into the North, either shooting for Washington DC or other targets which can end the war and the game immediately, or warrant intervention on their behalf from France and Britain.

Movement is point-to-point and is affected by weather and terrain. Access to the rivers and seas gives the Union a significant bonus and the CSA another headache. Sea and river invasions are a staple of Union attacks, but are expensive to conduct and limited in number. Leaders permit large army movements, but also heavily affect combat, increasing unit effectiveness and reducing losses. Combat is dice-less, based on our algorithms of civil war combat, in which terrain, weather, force size, and leadership all play a role. The biggest army doesn't always win, nor does the one with the best leader!
The Union Navy threatens all the Confederate ports with blockades and invasions, but the CSA's ironclads can block them. The CSA also relies on fortifications to help out, and once these get big the Union must slowly (and expensively) reduce them to force the rebels out.

Political events are included: Missouri, Kentucky and West Virginia all have special considerations. Early occupation of these can provide bonuses to the Confederacy, or deny the Union additional troops.

Scenarios starting in 1862 and 1863 are also included.