Civil War (board game)

1961 board wargame

Civil War

Players| 2
Setup time| 5 minutes
Playing time| 60 to 90 minutes
Chance| Medium
Age range| 12+
Skills| Tactics

Civil War is an early strategic board wargame published by Avalon Hill in 1961 that simulates the American Civil War. Unlike other games produced by Avalon Hill during this period such as Gettysburg, Civil War did not sell well and was dropped from production two years later.

## Description

[edit]

Civil War is a two-player wargame in which one player controls Union forces and the other controls Confederate forces. Like other wargames produced by Avalon Hill, Civil War uses a hex grid map and a Combat Results Table to adjudicate battles. But unlike other wargames, it uses plastic tokens rather than cardboard counters.[1]

The game covers the entire period of the American Civil War from April 1861 to March 1865. Critic Joe Scoleri noted that "Victory generally depends on the control of replacement centers located at the north and south ends of the mapboard."[1]

The game included a heavy cardstock game board, a rules sheet, advertisements for other AH games, and a pamphlet on the historical setting. There were two cardboard trays with sixteen blue plastic pawns, nine red pawns and one six-sided die.

The game board displays the eastern part of the United States from Missouri to Pennsylvania and eastern Texas at the top to northern Florida on the lower half. The map itself is white, with blue rivers, black railroads, brown rough terrain, and various cities and ports.

Six of the blue Union army pawns begin on the board, as well as six of the red Confederate States Army pawns. Reinforcements arrive much faster for the Union, with a total of fifteen pawns eventually in play versus nine for the Confederates.

Each game turn represents a month of time (1861 through 1865). Only one pawn may occupy a square at a time, and all pawns may move 1 or 2 hexes per turn, plus a bonus of 8 hexes if using the railroads.

Union pawns may move 8 hexes via rivers or the sea, while the Confederate pawns may only use rivers (and only get 2 hexes for that movement). All, any or none of the pawns may move each turn.

## Publication history

[edit]

In 1961, the centenary of the start of the American Civil War, Avalon Hill published a trio of Civil War games designed by industry pioneer Charles S. Roberts: a reissue of Gettysburg with a new hex-grid map; Chancellorsville; and Civil War. Unlike the first two, which were marketed under Avalon Hill's "Tournament" line of wargames, Civil War was grouped with the "Family/Social" game line. The game failed to find an audience, possibly because it was too simple for wargamers but too complex for social gamers,[1] and it was dropped from the Avalon Hill line in 1963.[1]

A 1980 company history noted that the game was "A very abstract strategic game using a hex grid and plastic pawns. It is remembered primarily for its value to the collector due to its relative scarcity."[2]

## Reception

[edit]

Writing in the inaugural issue of The General, Carl Knabe admitted that he disliked Civil War because it was unbalanced, saying, "If he plays his cards right, the North can always win."[3]

In a retrospective review in Issue 12 of Simulacrum, Joe Scoleri commented on the relatively quick failure of this game, saying, "I wouldn't be surprised if that was because it was too complex for social gamers yet too simple and abstracted for the Tournament gamers."[1]

## Computer version

[edit]

1988 video game

Civil War

Developer(s)| Avalon Hill
Release| 1988
Genre(s)| Wargame

In 1988, Avalon Hill released a computer version of Civil War. It was not well-received. In a 1993 survey of pre 20th-century strategy games Computer Gaming World gave the game zero-plus stars out of five, stating that it "shows how one can take a highly playable boardgame and turn it into an unplayable computer 'product' [with] incomplete rules, incomplete graphics and incomplete programming". The magazine noted that Avalon Hill did not ship a promised update.[4]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e Scoleri, Joe (July 2001). "Civil War". Simulacrum. No. 12\. p. 31.
2. ^ "Civil War". General Index and Company History. August 1980. p. 9.
3. ^ Knabe II, Carl (January 1990). "Plan Red". The General. Vol. 1, no. 1\. p. 6.
4. ^ Brooks, M. Evan (June 1993). "An Annotated Listing of Pre-20th Century Wargames". Computer Gaming World. pp. 136–143. Retrieved July 7, 2014.

## External links

[edit]

* Civil War at BoardGameGeek

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Avalon Hill

Wargames|

* Tactics (1954)
* Tactics II (1958)
* Gettysburg (1958)
* U-Boat (1959)
* Chancellorsville (1961)
* Civil War (1961)
* D-Day (1961)
* Bismarck (1962)
* Afrika Korps (1963)
* Stalingrad (1963)
* Midway (1964)
* Blitzkrieg (1965)
* Jutland (1967)
* 1914 (1968)
* Anzio (1969)
* PanzerBlitz (1970)
* Caesar (1971)
* Origins of World War II (1971)
* Outdoor Survival (1972)
* Richthofen's War (1972)
* 1776 (1974)
* Alexander the Great (1974)
* Panzer Leader (1974)
* Rise and Decline of the Third Reich (1974)
* The Russian Campaign (1974)
* Tobruk (1975)
* Wooden Ships and Iron Men (1975)
* Starship Troopers (1976)
* War at Sea (1976)
* Air Assault on Crete (1977)
* Arab-Israeli Wars (1977)
* Hexagony (1977)
* Napoleon (1977)
* Squad Leader (1977)
* Victory in the Pacific (1977)
* Wizard's Quest (1979)
* The Longest Day (1980)
* War and Peace (1980)
* Hitler's War (1981)
* Storm Over Arnhem (1981)
* Panzer Armee Afrika (1982)
* B-17, Queen of the Skies (1983)
* Up Front (1983)
* White Bear and Red Moon (1983)
* Panzergruppe Guderian (1984)
* Advanced Squad Leader (1985)
* Empires in Arms (1985)
* Platoon (1986)
* Patton's Best (1987)
* Turning Point: Stalingrad (1989)
* Battle of the Bulge (1991)
* Midway (1991)
* Advanced Third Reich (1992)
* Guadalcanal (1992)
* We the People (1993)
* Empire of the Rising Sun (1995)
* London's Burning (1995)
* Axis & Allies (1999)
* Battle Cry (2000)

| Axis & Allies|

* Axis & Allies: Europe (1999)
* Axis & Allies: Pacific (2001)
* Axis & Allies: D-Day (2004)
* Axis & Allies Miniatures (2005)
* Axis & Allies: Battle of the Bulge (2006)
* Axis & Allies Naval Miniatures: War at Sea (2007)
* Axis & Allies: Guadalcanal (2007)
* Axis & Allies: Europe 1940 (2010)
* Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940 (2010)
* Axis & Allies: World War I 1914 (2013)

|

Role-playing games|

| Victory Games|

* James Bond 007 (1983)

|

* Lords of Creation (1983)
* Powers & Perils (1983)
* RuneQuest (1984)
* Tales from the Floating Vagabond (1991)

Computer games|

* B-1 Nuclear Bomber (1980)
* Computer Acquire (1980)
* Lords of Karma (1980)
* Midway Campaign (1980)
* North Atlantic Convoy Raider (1980)
* Planet Miners (1980)
* NukeWar (1980)
* Conflict 2500 (1981)
* Empire of the Over-Mind (1981)
* Galaxy (1981)
* Voyager I (1981)
* The Alien (1982)
* Andromeda Conquest (1982)
* Legionnaire (1982)
* Telengard (1982)
* Computer Football Strategy (1983)
* Panzer-Jagd (1983)
* Gulf Strike (1984)
* Incunabula (1984)
* Jupiter Mission 1999 (1984)
* Quest of the Space Beagle (1984)
* Space Cowboy (1984)
* Under Southern Skies (1984)
* Under Fire! (1985)
* Darkhorn: Realm of the Warlords (1985)
* Guderian (1987)
* Wooden Ships and Iron Men (1987)
* 5th Fleet (1994)
* Flight Commander 2 (1994)
* Operation Crusader (1994)
* Kingmaker (1995)
* 1830: Railroads & Robber Barons (1995)
* D-Day: America Invades (1995)
* World at War: Stalingrad (1995)
* Avalon Hill's Advanced Civilization (1996)
* Over the Reich (1996)
* Wooden Ships and Iron Men (1996)
* Achtung Spitfire! (1997)

Board games|

* Management (1960)
* Squander (1965)
* Kingmaker (1975)
* Acquire (1976)
* Diplomacy (1976)
* TwixT (1976)
* Rail Baron (1977)
* Speed Circuit (1977)
* Bowl Bound (1978)
* Dune (1979)
* Magic Realm (1979)
* Source of the Nile (1979)
* Circus Maximus (1980)
* Civilization (1980)
* Machiavelli (1980)
* Amoeba Wars (1981)
* Conquistador (1981)
* Paydirt (1982)
* Titan (1982)
* Wizards (1982)
* The Mystic Wood (1983)
* 1830: The Game of Railroads and Robber Barons (1986)
* Britannia (1987)
* Kremlin (1988)
* Merchant of Venus (1988)
* Republic of Rome (1990)
* Advanced Civilization (1991)
* History of the World (1993)
* Age of Renaissance (1996)
* Air Baron (1996)
* Stratego: Legends (1999)
* Cosmic Encounter (2000)
* Star Wars – The Queen's Gambit (2000)
* Risk 2210 A.D. (2002)
* Betrayal at House on the Hill (2004)
* Risk Godstorm (2004)
* Monsters Menace America (2005)
* Nexus Ops (2005)
* RoboRally (2005)
* Vegas Showdown (2005)

| Card games|

* Down with the King (1981)
* Enemy in Sight (1981)
* Titan: The Arena (1997)

|

Magazines|

* The General

People|

* Charles S. Roberts
* Eric Dott

Related|

* Hasbro
* Wizards of the Coast
* List of Avalon Hill games

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