Question for those that play miniature or board games on American Civil War-artillery

TravisMelton

Cadet
Joined
Aug 10, 2017
Okay, got a question for any "gamers" board games or otherwise on ACW. I have been working on my own game for couple years now that covers the whole war, all fronts, mostly a labor of love. I have play tested it at conventions and folks have liked what they see. Yes I know there are tons of games on ACW already, like I said its a labor of love:smile:
As with any other game of this type it is always a challenge to balance "historical" accuracy and "feel" but still keep the rule set flowing smooth and easy enough so the game is still fun to play, so here's my question.
The basic unit players "buy" each turn are brigades. I thought to keep things simple I would include an artillery factor(or two for the union) with each brigade counter to help limit the number of types of units players had to think over what to buy and the amount of counters to shuffle through.
I know that historically artillery was mostly assigned to units or areas were the generals thought it would be needed. So to do this I would need to make separate artillery counters representing X batteries as well as infantry & cavalry brigades. I think which ever way the end result would be the same, the union would normally have more guns. So do any of you, from the view of one playing the game, have any input if you think making separate artillery counters is worth it for the extra "flavor" or is not that big of an issue if I just have them "pre-assigned" to the brigades and end up with basically the same effect.
Any and all input is welcome, I am really on the fence about this:smile:

Thanks in advance, Travis.
 
Keep artillery separate counters....Let the "Generals" (players) decide if they should assign them to a brigade or to mass them (ie Ruggles' Line at Shiloh)....Don't automatically give the Union more artillery.....
I think the rules for artillery are best written in the Johnny Reb III game.....
 
Finding this thread very late indeed... but as my own labors of love over the years include both a 'whole-war' strategy level game and a grand-tactical simulation system, I feel led to make a better-late-than-never comment. I've found that representing separate artillery is just another game-lengthening complication in the first project but an absolute necessity in the second. It depends on the "level".

If this message reaches you, I'm curious as to what you decided.
 
Finding this thread very late indeed... but as my own labors of love over the years include both a 'whole-war' strategy level game and a grand-tactical simulation system, I feel led to make a better-late-than-never comment. I've found that representing separate artillery is just another game-lengthening complication in the first project but an absolute necessity in the second. It depends on the "level".

If this message reaches you, I'm curious as to what you decided.

His post count is 1, from Aug 10, 2017, so he probably won't see your message.
(I hope he didn't go away mad!).
 
His post count is 1, from Aug 10, 2017, so he probably won't see your message.
(I hope he didn't go away mad!).

Yeah I figured this would be a long shot but couldn’t resist. (LOL) For anyone out there who still has interest in these things, I’m always up for a discussion. (I hope he didn’t go away mad, too!)
 
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