October 9th, 2011 | 
Author: Thanks to Bill Witthans, I am at last set up to post on this site. Thanks, Bill, and everyone who makes this website possible!
I want to tell everyone about the game I created, Command Combat: Civil War. Since this, and the next few years are the 150th anniversary of the war, I wanted to commemorate it with the war game I’ve always wanted to do. It’s based primarily on three principles:
General Tyler leads his men to battle, crossing Bull Run Creek.
Principle #1: Personalities of the generals. What got me interested in the American Civil War, and history in general, for that matter, was the personalities of the people involved, and how that affected their choices and leadership. I also find it interesting to watch war gamers and see how their own personalities are revealed in their game play. I wanted to find a way to meld those together; to give players their own choices on how they played the game, but at the same time to encourage them to make choices similar to what the real generals would do, or at least reward them for doing it. What I came up with was a system where not only do the generals get statistics based on their skills and limitations, but also special rules that reflect their style of battle and talents. So, for instance, “Stonewall” Jackson has a special ability where all units under his command get better morale. This special skill changes, however, throughout the expansions, so in the 1862 expansion, his special ability will be “foot cavalry,” giving all units under his command extra speed.
Principle #2: Limited command control. I’ve always found it odd that in war gaming, players can control any of their units anywhere on the board in any way they like. Though this makes sense when they have radios, it doesn’t make a lot of sense when generals are relying on messengers. Though many other rules have been developed for realism, this has always seemed to elude rules systems. So I created a system by which a corps general sends one of three colors to their division generals, red, white, or blue. Red is for attack, white is for maneuver, and blue is for defense. Each color has its own benefits and drawbacks. These orders travel at 15” per turn from the corps general, and when they reach the division generals, their entire divisions are subject to the drawbacks and advantages of the color coded orders. For instance, defense allows units to hold their ground a little better, but limits how close they can come to the enemy.
Principle #3: Simplicity and speed. Let’s face it, none of us have a lot of time anymore. There are so many games out there that we all say we’re going to play “some day” but we never do because we don’t have time. And even when we do finally get around to it, no one wants to put down their video games to come join us. So probably the most important aspect to a game is simplicity and speed. Some war gamers resist these qualities because historical accuracy and realism are often lost because of them. However, there are ways to streamline rules so they don’t take too long to play without losing realism and accuracy, or at least to give a flavor of those qualities. Command Combat allows players to play entire battles in just an average of four hours. Quick battles can be as fast as two hours, and full day battles played out to the last man take about six hours. The scale also allows players to pit corps against corps on an average sized 4’ by 6’ table.
The game premiered on the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Bull Run, and has played at Strategicon, Smackdown, Fort MacArthur Days, and the Model Kit Expo. We will be having regular games at Game Empire in Pasadena every second Saturday beginning November 12th. We will begin with historical scenarios, such as Wilson’s Creek and both Bull Runs, but will soon move to tournaments where players will build their own armies from the core rulebook and the expansion pack.
Everyone can download a sample PDF copy of the game by going to:
On the left side are two free scenarios to download. I’d be really interested to see players try it out and place up battle reports. If you have any questions about how the game plays, you can contact me at:
Command Combat: Civil War - 1861 (The Core Rulebook)
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Hey Bill, more practice posting…
To those besides Bill who actually check out my posts:
Yesterday I spent the day at Orangecon, the yearly big contest held by my IPMS club here in Southern California. I had a blast! It was one of the best days ever. I won five raffle prizes; one of which I sold, and I also took delivery (finally!) of my 1/72 scale German Dora Railgun! What a monster that beast is!
The cream of the day is the fact that I also placed Third in Rotary Wing Aircraft; All Types, All Scales with my Hobbycraft 1/72 scale Piasecki H-21 Flying Banana!
This is one of the models I have started and worked on at St. Crispin’s Hobby Days on Mondays and Saturdays. Some of you may have even seen it at any one of those days if you’ve ever been down to St. Crispin’s.
I consider any award I win at Orangecon to be second only to an award from the Nationals. Then again, it is my club’s contest; and it is the premier contest in Southern California. It is also the toughest one for me to place in and that means I earned it!
Now that all that is done; I’ll be trying to finish up my armored train before I start that monster Dora. I’m hoping by the end of the year I’ll be done with the train and then I can start the New Year with the Dora under construction.
That’s right, with these five newest models, I have increased my small scale armor collection to 579 completed models.
Here they are for your perusal:
This first one is Dragon’s 1/72 scale US Marine AAV7R recovery vehicle. I did it in 3-tone camo, and used some extra decals from another AAV kit to give it something extra. That makes this inaccurate, but hey; it’s mine and it looks good!
This next one is another 1/72 scale Dragon AAV. I made this one in Italian markings for my Italian Army:
Now on to some more trucks I built. I’ve been building all these trucks because I found a whole mess of them in my stash; at least 25 or so of various makes, models and countries. I decided it was time to get them built. So, here is the first one I got completed in this last week. This is my 1/72 scale IBG Bedford QLT Troop Transport:
These next two are from Revell of Germany. These are two 1/72 scale modern German General Purpose transport trucks. This first one is the MAN 7-ton GP truck:
This last one is the MAN 10-ton GP truck:
As you can see from the two pics, the crane does rise and lower. I also added the black thread to simulate cable too.
So, those are my latest models finished so far. I think now I’m going to go back and see what I started at the beginning of the year and haven’t finished yet and get them all done. It’s time to start clearing the bench for the coming New Year….
Meanwhile, thanks all for looking in, comments are always welcome.
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