Stripped Down for Parts: Rebel Fury: Battles of the American Civil War

 

 

So, I got mail on Friday. Two much-anticipated games that seem to have been on GMT’s P500 list for longer than I can recall, the reprint/revision of Mark Simonitch’s France ’40, 2nd Edition (GMT Games, 2024) and Mark Herman’s Rebel Fury: Battles of the American Civil War, Vol. 1 (GMT Games, 2024). While I’ve been looking forward to both for some time, France ’40 - as I understand it - is essentially a reprint with some new shine, while Rebel Fury is all new, sort of. I will get to France ’40, I promise, but lately I’ve been on a bit of a American Civil War kick, so today I want to talk about Rebel Fury, and there’s a lot to talk about.

Rebel Fury had its origin in Gettysburg, which first appeared in issue 32 of Roger McGowan’s C3I Magazine. Having never played Gettysburg, I can’t say with any authority what has changed or remained from the original game.

Simply put, the cover art for Rebel Fury is great. It’s clear and compelling, announcing the subject of the contents both verbally and visually. The three pairs of battles are each represented by three separate illustrations depicting an event from one of the battles.

The three pictures used on the cover are all lithographs produced by a company called Kurz and Allison, which specialised in sentimental, patriotic battle scene prints (among others) from the mid-1880s and into the early part of the next century. Frames lithographs were a popular wall adornment at the turn of the century in households that couldn’t affords paintings. The representations aren’t the most accurate of depictions of Civil War scenes and events, but Louis Kurz’s illustrations illicit a sense of heroism and triumph in the face of adversity, tinged with a little jingoistic pomp. Kurz, though Austrian by birth, was himself a veteran of the Union Army; perhaps he chose to highlight the positive aspects of the events portrayed because he didn’t want to expose an ignorant public to the true brutality of war, even forty years later. Or perhaps he just wanted to sell more lithographs.

The cover also announces that Rebel Fury is the first volume of a planned series, The Civil War Heritage Series. From what I've seen so far, the response to Volume 1 has been pretty positive, so I think we can count on at least a second set of battles to hit the P500 list before too long.

The box back offers details of the scope and style of play of the game, outlines some of the features of play and the battles covered, and states parameters of play; the game is firmly a two-player game (though special rules are included for playing the Battle of Fredericksburg as a single player introductory game) and that it is recommended to players 14 years and older. The unit scale in Rebel Fury is division/brigade scale with regimental detachments, The map is a half-mile to a hex, and turns represent half a day. The difficulty for the game is rated 3 out of 9, and I think going over the rules that I’d concur with this evaluation. I don’t think I’d meet with too many problems teaching Rebel Fury to an inexperienced gamer. The Solitaire rating is listed as 5 out of 9; apart from the introductory rules for Fredericksburg, there are no explicit solo rules or Rebel Fury, but I think an experienced lone player will have no issues double-handing this game.

Mark Herman is one of the most careful writers of rules I’ve experienced. Every sentence is crafted to deliver a point or to elucidate a possible point of confusion. If something is repeated, you know its important to the game, or more accurately, to the way in which the game is played. I think some designers slip into a little shorthand sometimes without realising it, and experienced gamers don’t see a problem in this because, well, we know what so-and -so means in this part. Somebody on YouTube – I forget who (maybe Ardwulf) – quipped that Herman’s response to nearly every rules-query on BGG regarding Pacific War, Second Edition (GMT Games, 2022), was “Go back and read the rules; it’s in there.”

I’m still on my first read-through of the rules for Rebel Fury; I’m in the habit of reading the rules to a new game twice through before popping some counters out and pushing them around on the board. The rulebook is not long, but I’m finding myself referring back constantly to the glossary of terms used in the game, which I had read already, but they warrant harking back to for clarification. The glossary (2.5 Definitions) does a lot of the heavy lifting in explaining a given term or notion in context of rule functions.

Rulebook sample page (extended movement example).

I’m making it sound like the rules are hard to read. They’re not. They are, as I’ve already suggested, clear and concise, and there is no trimmable fat here. It’s the concepts that are new (to me, at least). The booklet is twenty-four pages in length, but the actual rules come to a mere fifteen pages when you take out the four pages of extensive movement and combat examples, the comprehensive index, production credits, cover page and end-page with a handy Sequence of Play an Attack Resolution tables. The rules are presented in a familiar serif font at about 9-point at a guess; I find it easy enough to read without glasses. Both the Rulebook and playbook are printed in the heavy-ish weight matt-finish paper that will be familiar to fans of the GBACW or BoAR series games.

Playbook sample page (Battle of Chattanooga scenario brief).

The playbook also comes to a total of twenty-four pages. The first two pages cover some extra details concerning the scenarios generally (Setup conditions, Reinforcement, scenario-specific Victory Conditions, etc.), and the last couple of pages are given over to some in-depth designer notes about how and why Mr Herman put the game together the way he did. The rest is given over the scenarios (or, more accurately, Battles), of which, as mentioned previously, there are six. These each run from two to four pages, covering special rules and victory conditions, and set-up tables for each side, helpfully colour-coded.

There is an absence of historical prefacing to the scenarios. Some commentators have expressed their profound disappointment at this. I think it’s probably part of an effort to keep the page-count down, which in turn helps keep down the price of the finished product. Being a keen reader, I am more disappointed in the lack of a bibliography. I’m sure over the course of his career, Mr Herman has gathered a wealth of head-knowledge regarding many aspects of the American Civil War and the particular battles covered in this volume, but I’m almost as sure that the designer would have had at least a couple of historical treatments to hand for reference inn the construction of the scenarios. With any luck, maybe we’ll see an Inside GMT article offering some recommended reading covering the campaigns featured in Rebel Fury, and in particular, which books he kept in reach during the design process.

The scenarios are presented in a uniform format. Each begins with the name and date of the battle, notes on the battle-length in game turns and Artillery Points for each side, applicable Special Rules, and Victory Conditions for that scenario, and a set-up table for each side. Set-up has been made significantly easier by the inclusion of a separate set of troop counters for each battle – no having to sort through all the CSA counters for Early’s or Anderson’s brigades.

Both the Rulebook and Playbook are peppered with Design Notes. I’d encourage anyone taking the time to learn Rebel Fury to read through these. Mark Herman has taken efforts to make the game appealing to as broad a range of players as possible. The three pages of Designer’s Notes and the box-text throughout the shed some light on why certain decisions were made in the construction of the game experience. And, really, anything Herman has to say is worth noting.

Maps (good things come in threes).

Rebel Fury comes with three 22” x34” maps. Each map accommodates two battles; the first covers the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the second, Chickamauga and Chattanooga, and the third. Battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania.

Chickamauga-Chattanooga Map (apologies for the quality -
here's a close up so you can see some of the detail).

 

The lighting in the pictures don't to the maps justice, but you get the idea.

The maps are really quite lovely in their own right, and I fear my poor photography doesn’t do them, justice. The styling is reminiscent of civil and military maps from the period. The colour palette for the maps are soft greens and browns for the terrain, something close to an Aegean blue for the rivers and streams, and black for the roads, trails, railway lines and towns, all against pastel cream base which brings out the depth of the other colours.

The maps, along with all the counter art, are the work of Charlie Kibbler. Research for the maps was prepared by Kibler and the late Rick Barber, working closely with the designer. There is a touching tribute from Mark Herman to his colleague and friend on the last page of the Playbook.

Off-Map Display.

A map extension is included for the Battle of Fredericksburg scenario. The rules regarding this are covered in 6.4 Entering Off-Map Units, on page 9 of the Rulebook. I’ll probably talk more about this in the review, so for now I’ll just say that is looks interesting and it must add something to the game, or it wouldn’t be here.

Player's Aid Card (front and back).

The Player’s Aid Cards (the game comes with a duplicate pair) are single panels, double-sided, and contain all the charts and tables necessary for play on the front side, including an abbreviated Sequence of Play, Battle Rating Summary, HQ Removal Check Table, and the Tactical Position Determination and Attack Results Tables. The reverse side offers the game’s Terrain Effects Chart. Terrain can impact on a unit’s formation (compelling it to shift (flip) from Maneuver to Battle formation, disrupt a units Zones of Control/Influence, or offer a bonus in defence. That’s as deep into the tall grass as I’m going to get here; I’ll pick over the niceties more in the forthcoming review.

Combined Turn Track and Moves/Attacks display.

A shared display keeps track of the game turns elapsed in a give scenario, and remaining moves or attacks in a turn. Rebel Fury does a bunch of game functions in a simple but (to me at least) novel way. I don’t want to get too bogged down in the minutiae here – I’ll save that for the review – but suffice it to say, movement and combat actions get passed back and forth, starting with the player holding the initiative, until one player passes. At that point, the non-passing player can also pass, ending the phase, or they can establish a number of remaining actions based on the status of their forces and a die roll (with a ceiling of nineteen).

Two counter sheets (with full unit sets for each battle).

Rebel Fury has been specifically designed as a low counter-density game; the unit and distance scales helps in this regard. The game comes with two counter-sheets. These are mostly 9/16” counters representing units and HQs, fortifications and fieldworks. Then there are a small number of smaller, 1/2" counters. Mostly these represent smaller detached units (regiment-sized) as detailed in the scenario. As mentioned earlier, there are complete sets of Federal and CSA troop counters for each scenario in the game. As mentioned on the back of the box, it would feasibly be possible to play three separate games with five friends at the same time (though you might want to photocopy the turn track sheet so you’re not getting in each other’s way). This is of course, sheer fantasy; most gamers have enough trouble finding two players available at the same time for a game of Churchill (GMT Games, 2015), but it’s a nice idea.

Unit and HQ counters, Front (Maneuver Formation).

Unit and HQ counters, Back (Battle Formation - not the unmounted cavalry).

The counters are quite attractive. The Union is represented in a muted blue, the Confederates in a beige. In fact, the colour palette for the whole production is forgivingly downplayed. There’s enough differentiation between the forces that there is no danger of confusion, but you’re not getting slapped in the face by an onslaught of bright colours, which I garners my thankful appreciation.

The basic unit is the Division, and these have two states; Maneuver Formation and Battle Formation (see the close-up photos). When in Maneuver formation, a unit can move up to four hexes (double that in an activation if they continue on roads or rails), but some terrains and enemy Zones of Influence will stop a unit in its tracks and require it to change to Battle formation, ending its movement for that turn. Some terrains will stop a unit and switch it to Battle Formation as well. While in Battle formation a unit can only move one hex per activation, but they’re ready for battle, so there’s that.

Yes, there are spurs, but they're tiny.

On the subject of the counters, these little guys come out so cleanly – without even resorting to a craft knife – that I’m considering the wisdom corner-clipping. Who am I kidding; I’ll probably end up clipping them anyway, but I’m going to play a game or two unclipped first, just for the nostalgia value, if nothing else.

All in all, Rebel Fury promises to be a playable brigade-level game of broad scope, and simple enough to teach through play. One aspect of particular appeal to me was mentioned in the online description (but not on the box – though I can understand not wanting to commit too ardently to this), that at least some of the scenarios will play out in an hour or so. Regardless, this is a game that appeals to me in so many levels, not the least that it should play out quickly, one everyone involved has their heads around the rules and stick to the Sequence of Play. As always, the a PDF rules are available online on the Rebel Fury product page of the GMT website, so I’d encourage you to have a look at those. 

A review will be forthcoming (as usual, after I've managed to get this to the table three or four times). In the meantime, thanks for reading this far, and good gaming.

Erratum

After posting, I realised I'd neglected to mention a crucial component of the game (and one less crucial). But what could be more war-gamey than adding errata after publication?

Rebel Fury comes with two ten-sided dice, one blue, one grey, as befitting an ACW game. A roll of 0 is treated as a zero result, not a ten. The dice pack also includes a special red six-sided die, printed with explosions on three faces, and a weary or stumbling soldier silhouette adorning the other three. This is "used exclusively in retreat situations in certain terrain types". 

The game also comes with baggies enough to accommodate each force in each battle separately, and divide the marker counters up in a useful way. I've always wondered how companies come to the number of bags appropriate for a game, and how they ensure the right number goes into each box. Do they weigh them on extremely delicate scales? Do they get the work-experience kid to sit down and count fifteen and only fifteen bags out 3,000 times? 

It should be pointed out that Rebel Fury comes in a two-inch box, deep enough to accommodate all the materials and a couple of counter trays, if you're more a counter tray person than a baggie person. What surprised me a little was the game comes without an insert. These are added to games to keep the components from moving around too much in the box during shipping, which may cause some bruising. This is probably more of an issue with games incorporating mounted maps. My copy came all the way to Australia and arrived in perfect condition, so I don't think it's an issue in this case.