BROTHERS AT WAR

Brothers at War: 1862is a quick-playing, tactical wargame exploring civil war brigade command. Units are regiments, batteries and companies of skirmishers. This is a quadrigame or set of four games, each featuring a full-size, 22×34″ game map and covering battles from 1862:

• Antietam, 5am-9am, September 17th
• South Mountain, 9am-6pm, September 14th
• Mill Springs, 7am-12pm, January 17th
• Bloody Valverde, 10am-5pm, February 21st

Command rules are simple and abstracted. There are no combat results tables. Combat and all checks are resolved using six-sided dice, in which results of 5-6 mark success, and 1-4 failure. Brigades activate via chit pull, with their constituent units moving and fighting individually. Stacking is limited to two units per hex. Massive 1.5 hexes allow two 3/4 units to fit side by side no information is obscured!

Distinctions are made between formed and unformed infantry, deployed and limbered artillery, mounted and dismounted cavalry. Unit facing is not an element of play. Instead, unit deployment in adjacent hexes can trigger pass-through fire, which simulates flanking fire, or fire on compressed lines (both dangerous situations for civil war units).

Battle Cards introduce an element of uncertainty and excitement to play. Unique off-map displays track every brigade’s reserves and casualties. Once a unit’s reserves are used up, it becomes exhausted and liable to break.