Grand Tactical Battles in the American Civil War
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Campaign Poll Results

7/4/2016

10 Comments

 
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153 years ago today...

On July 4th 1863, General Grant formally accepted Pemberton's surrender at Vicksburg. It was a defining moment of the war, although a more complex event than celebratory newspaper headlines of the time suggested (Grant paroled all 30,000 rebel defenders under the errant assumption most would never fight again). If you haven't yet downloaded our free Vicksburg campaign, today would be a fitting day to do so!  

Poll Results are in!

Early this May, we opened voting on a poll to see what great Civil War campaign players would most like to fight. There are so many excellent choices, but we initially narrowed the finalists to six--three from the east, and three from the west. The democratic process is an inherently messy one, which means our players wrote in three more vote-earning candidates. In another great American tradition, quite a few voters attempted to cast multiple ballots, sometimes all during the same day, and sometimes cleverly spacing out their votes over the course of weeks. Although we are not fortunate enough to have sensible voter ID laws here at 6mmACW, we do have IP address screening technology, allowing us to weed out about 50 of the 250+ votes cast in this poll. 

After the break, we'll reveal the results in detail!
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What does it all mean?

While the winner of the poll was not necessarily surprising, I was quite surprised none of the western theater campaigns cracked the top three. This poll confirms the east-coast bias remains strong with wargamers, though it's worth noting that this poll did not necessarily ask which campaigns players find most interesting to study--it was specifically a question of which campaign they'd most like to play in a game setting. I suspect some famous but lopsided campaigns--like Atlanta or Antietam--may have suffered as a result, as wargamers assume these will be less "fair" or strategically interesting. Personally, I find the "unfair" campaigns to be the most interesting challenges as both a scenario designer and a player.

Does this poll mean the next campaign released for Altar of Freedom will absolutely be Gettysburg? Maybe. There are several campaigns in various stages of design and play-testing right now. I'll certainly use the results to inform the pace and order of future projects, but in another great tradition of the American Republic, I reserve the right to ignore the will of the people when it suits me. On that note, Happy 4th everyone!

​--GRW
10 Comments
Mitch
7/4/2016 06:55:13 pm

Gettysburg? Yawn. That battle has been overdone in the wargame hobby. Something new and different would be more refreshing.

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Eric
7/11/2016 12:35:56 pm

I agree, but maybe it hasn't been done at this level much?

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Andy Fuller
7/16/2016 01:30:54 am

TBH I'm pretty east coast worn out as well. I was hoping for Atlanta or the campaign to take Corinth.

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Will Corlett
7/25/2016 11:54:20 am

Agrred Gettysburg itself has had a lot of coverage games wise, but in all fairness this has concentrated on the battle itself and not the campaign.

The Atlanta campaign would be intersting but maybe a little dull. Sherman has the manpower simply to overlap and flank Johnson and the Confederates should have little oppotunity to counter punch - unless you are feeling like John Hood.

I believe Gettysburg offers more oppotunities for both players .

Perhaps , going forward the theatre of operations could alternate?

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Ray
8/10/2016 06:48:25 am

Wasn't sure how to reach author with a question.

Close combat. Can units be driven into support range? If a brigade causes enemy brigade to recoil, can the now "unengaged" brigade support a nearby combat in that turn.

I ask these questions because it then makes the order of close combat resolution rather important, very similar to DBM.
Example: you drive two opposing brigades off of either side of an enemy brigade, and now that enemy brigade is facing your attacking brigade with two supporting units, instead of none (they were engaged before driving off the defenders).

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GRW
8/21/2016 10:51:38 am

Hi Ray--the answer is YES, the order in which you choose to resolve the combats is indeed very important. Units that lost a combat and may have received Fatigue can still act as support for others in a later combat. In practice, this doesn't actually happen too often, as victorious units are typically pursuing and following up, but in just about every game this circumstance will occur at least a few times.

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Tom Talasco
8/30/2016 08:23:33 am

Personally I would look forward to a campaign setting for Gettysburg!

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Andy Fuller
12/18/2016 06:08:16 am

As Gettysburg looks pretty much like being the next campaign I bought myself a copy of Stephen Sears 'Gettysburg'. I must admit that he is a superb writer. The narrative is gripping, one of the best pieces of military history I have read. Consequently, despite my earlier comment, I am now looking forward to playing this particular campaign.

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Chris
5/12/2018 07:33:16 am

Are there any forthcoming up dates on the next campaign supplement? Have not heard any this site in a long time.

Reply
Columbus Attic Insulation link
8/8/2022 03:21:22 am

I enjoyed reading your blog thanks

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