A House Divided

Played For the People (GMT Games) for the first time today. It's one of the more complex "card-driven" game designs in that there are a number of special rules needed to keep the game more or less historical in nature. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing. Just that these special rules makes the game more complex and more rules "heavy" than most CDGs.

Charlie played the South and I the North. The first year of the war went well for the Union as all three neutral states were "persuaded" to remain part of the Union. The second year of the war didn't go as well for the North. After a successful raid that resulted in the destruction of Atlanta, the Union was forced onto the defensive as the quality of Southern generals made it difficult for the inferior Union generals to succeed in combat. A stalemate developed in the West and in the East General Lee and the mis-named "Army of the West" invaded the North and tried to take Washington D.C. Two battles were fought for Washington D.C. and both battles resulted in draws. The North retained control of the capital, but General Lee and the "Army of the West" remained active and posed to attack Washington D.C. a third time.

We ran out of time and we stopped playing at the end of 1862. Given the concentration of forces the South was able to put together in the East, I don't know that there is anything I could have done to avoid a battle for Washington D.C. Even if I had attempted to build a larger army in Gettysburg (the doorway to Washington D.C.), I think Lee would have rolled right over it anyway. In a future game, I think I would try and create a enclave/bridgehead somewhere in the Carolinas or Florida and build an Army there with the hope that such a threat, combined with offensive action in the west and a large "army in being" in Washington would divert the South's attention away from invading the North.

A good game. I'd like to play it again.