State of Play: Brothers at War: 1862

 

 

Charles S. Roberts Award nominee: Best American Civil War Game (2022)

 

I’ve been eager to get Brothers at War: 1862 (Compass Games, 2022) to the table since it arrived around the middle of last year. It’s a brigade-level command game covering four battles from the second year of the American Civil War that haven’t traditionally got much if any attention, especially at this level. The production quality is solid, map art is provided by the designer, Christopher Moeller (who also designed Napoleon’s Eagles: Storm in the East (Compass Games, 2020), and the upcoming Burning Banners (Compass Games, ~2024)). The maps are both gorgeous and functional, with lexes large enough to accommodate two of the .75” counters side-by-side.

The Fifth Virginia Cavalry choose the better part of valour.

I took Moeller’s advice for my first outing (a two-handed solo run) and set up the first scenario (numbered Scenario 5) for the Battle of Fox’s Gap (a narrow pass west of Turner’s Gap, and a minor but crucial action which was a pivotal part of the general unpleasantness at South Mountain). This scenario is an ideal introductory situation to get to know the rules. It has a low counter density overall, starting with just two full brigades and a cavalry brigade, and only adding a single brigade each for the US and the CSA as the action continues.

Brothers at War uses a chit-pull activation mechanism, making it especially friendly for solo play. Each unit begins with two tokens in the draw cup, along with two timer chits. When the second timer chit is drawn, the turn is over; the turn marker is shifted the next turn, and the drawn chits go back into the draw cup.

The object of the scenario is for the Union forces under Scammon to take (control) either Wise House or Hutzel Farm, and the Confederate player must prevent this from happening. At first blush, the situation would appear to be fairly one-sided, with Scammon’s three regiments spread out across the board (and his rather ordinary attached artillery some distance behind), while Garland has five regiments at his command, two of them already occupying Wise House, and a detached command of Stuart’s Cavalry under Rosser – mounted infantry and horse-drawn light cannon – screening the meandering western approach to Hutzel Farm. But Scammon’s regiments are not to be sneezed at.

Crook's 11th and 36th Ohio break form to cross into the walled paddocks.

I’ve played out the opening couple of rounds twice so far. The first game I played three rounds, to get the feel of how the rules worked, before getting down to a proper game. In both instances, Scammon was the first draw, and each time the 23rd Ohio moved quickly and effectively to engage Rosser’s unmounted screen. In both instances, the screen was pushed back (the first time it was nearly annihilated – not just disrupted – but there are provisions a player can take to keep their brigades intact). When Rosser got his chance, he pulled both his mounted infantry and his paltry cannon back along the wide-curving road to Hutzel Farm. Even combined, the light brigade is no match for the 23^rd Ohio fighting in the open.

This game does a lot of things I’ve seen in other games, but it does them differently, and the overall effect is really quite good. The chit-pull activation adds a measure of drama to the back-and-forth of the action; nothing new, especially for ACW games (Herman Lutmann’s Blind Swords system springs to mind), but the inclusion of the timer chits ratchets up the tension a little. Each battle represented in BaW has its own bespoke Activation track. During a turn, each activation chit is placed on the track in the order drawn. If a timer chit is drawn and placed in a position on the track with a matching clock icon, another (third) timer chit is placed in the mix. Remember, on the second timer chit draw, the turn comes to an end. One turn in my full game only saw three on-board brigade activations (plus one free activation for Crook’s (Union) brigade, just coming on that turn, which began on the track), from an in-pot total of nine activation chits. This unreliability really adds to the “no plan survives contact with the enemy” vibe of the game.

Activation chits to be drawn.

The units do something interesting as well. Various regiments have differing strengths going into a fight. The steps aren’t captured on the pieces, though. Rather, the overall brigade strength is recorded off-board, on a brigade track. Each brigade has its own quota of Reserves, and these can act like hit-points for any of the regiments from that brigade. The counters have two sides, but these represent the disposition of the unit. For infantry, the sides are formed or unformed. Unformed units are much less restricted by terrain but field a slightly lower weight of lead in combat. The Cavalry units are either unmounted (fighting like light infantry, as was the doctrine of the time) or mounted, and artillery, of course, are unlimbered and capable of firing but not moving, or limbered (on the reverse side) and mobile but mute.

Brigade leadership is represented by a Brigade commander marker, bearing the name and a portrait of the commander and a coloured band, which is shared by all the units in their command for easy identification (not a new idea, but one more thing I like about this game). For all the individual regiments to be “in command” they have to be placed within four hexes of their leader marker. A leader can’t be targeted by the opposing side, and they can be repositioned after the regiments have all move/d acted to best fit the situation. If a regiment is out of range of their leader, they will need to perform a Command check at the beginning of their next activation. If they fail that, the unit is automatically disrupted and is limited in its actions until it is back within command. I can see there might be instances when it would be worth the gamble to purposely place a unit out of command and hope for the best, but I’d be hard-pressed to make that call.

Confrontation at the Wise House.

Early in the ruckus (and under threat of decimation from the 23^rd Ohio) Rosser’s mounted troops pulled back to all the way to Hutzel Farm, which they may not have had to. On retrospect they could have had a couple of fall-back positions for defence in the unlikely event of the 23^rd pushing ahead on the long road and trying to take Hutzel Farm, though the stone walls of bordering the farm’s fields would have lent he cavalry better cover. Wise House is the more obvious target, being closer to the starting point of the Union and there is a road leading to Hutzel Farm from Wise House, which the Confederate forces could use to reinforce Hutzel Farm if the Scammon had tried to circumvent Wise House in favour of the second target. And then there is the issue of Scammon keeping his forces in his command radius; not impossible, but a big ask, even for his seasoned troops.

Due to time constraints, I wound the scenario up after the seventh turn of nine. At that point a Union win seemed inevitable. G.B Anderson’s brigade was set to enter the fray in the next turn, but unless they received their second activation immediately after the first “free” activation, and maybe get a couple of timer chits in quick succession, it was unlikely they’d make enough haste to change the outcome. I called it as a likely but costly Union win.

An early round. Scammon received the first activation
in the first five consecutive turns.

I’m still getting to know the BaW system, and I’m certain I made a few mistakes on this first run, but at first blush, I really like how the narrative unfolds. Brothers aw War was the first game I settled on for my 5x3 challenge for 2024. I think the hard part will be stopping at just three games.