Mr. Lincoln's War- Recreating Regimental Warfare in the A.C.W.

THIS PAGE LAST UPDATED: 1/30/01
INDEX
Introduction
Player_Comments
Errata
Designer_Notes
Where_To_Get_It
Scenarios
Antietam's Cornfield

The American Civil War. A war made up of armies of citizen soldiers, volunteers, militia, and a few trained regular army troops all fighting for their belief in either preserving the Union or struggling for the right of their States to make decisions. They are thrown together into battle with weapons of horrible brutality, ordered into combat by officers steeped in the tactics of fifty years previous.

These rules are meant to give the wargamer, re-enactor, and student of history a feel of what warfare and command in the 1861-65 period must have been like.
They may be played as part of a campaign, or as straight one on one engagements. They may also be played in a tournament format. The rules provide the framework. The results depend on you.

Like those in the past who studied "Hardee's Tactics" or "Casey's Tactics" then, now you are able to come and study these rules and learn about regimental maneuver and combat in the ACW and have fun. Your counter-parts did not-
Stephen Phenow, Terry Gore

Since MLW has been published, I have received many favorable (and some not too favorable) E-mail about the rules.
Here are a few:

From Graham Cookson in England: "It was great when your rules came along as I bought them without telling the others in my club, rebased my ACW figures which were in tool boxes at the back of the garage (where I thought they would never see the light of day again) and sprung a game on them. The response was great, everybody is now buying figures and rebasing their old ones for MLW. I want to understand the rules fully as they have filled me with so much enthusiasm to get back into a period I never thought I get to grips with."

From Jay Haygood, Atlanta GA: "I wish to thank you for the ruleset. Being an ACW reenactor myself for many years, I feel that MLW fits the bill for regimental actions the way I see it on the battlefield. Fire and Fury has always been my brigade level solution, but Johnny Reb's I,II,III never quite got there. Good Job!"

From Paul Bernardino, USA: Steve, Bought the rules, and played it twice. Overall give the rules a 8 on 1-10 (10 being great). Any chance for an Mex-Am War variant?

Orders Changing Orders through Morale test.
That mandatory 1/2 move means that a unit will move right over that stone wall or through that fence and not stop. That is kind of strange. So when a unit gets to the cover, and the brigade commander wants the unit to stop, that unit's morale is checked. If the result is good, the Brigadier's courier got the order through. Unit's order chit is replaced to "Hold."
Now in order to get them started again the Brigadier must give them a new order chit.

If the unit fails the Morale check, the boys have "their dander up" and continue to advance.

Now let's say the Brigadier wants the unit to advance to the fence line, and STOP!! Just announce this fact the when orders are revealed.

"Wait!" I hear you cry, "That means my no good so&so enemy knows my intentions!"

Well yes. And it gives the enemy an advantage. That's why I suggest either a gamemaster be present or go to the testing option to hold a unit.

Units that fail morale
Any unit that fails morale follows the chart's instructions, and after finishing movement has their order change to HOLD orders, unless otherwise indicated. (This was left off the QRT. Thanks to Phil Roberts for pointing this out.)

I have always been irked that a realistic and comprehensive set of tactical ACW rules, does not exist. While there are many published rules sets today, there was always something lacking. I believe that a rule set should teach the player about the period - realistic tactics should be rewarded with success while unrealistic tactics should cause problems.

My own set of rules was beginning to take shape in a series of notes when Terry L. Gore, distinguished author and historian, advertised for play testers for his set of ACW rules: "Mr. Lincoln's War". I became involved in the play testing, and we combined our two systems into this revised version of Mr. Lincoln's War.

We each went into this project with a set of unique needs. Terry wanted a simple game, that would be suitable for playing in tournaments. I saw no use for a tournament ACW game, believing that it would have little to do with history. What I wanted was a teaching aid for The Drum Barracks Civil War Museum, to instruct civilians about regimental maneuvers. When one executes a MLW maneuver in miniature, one can better understand what those cryptic ACW battle reports refer to! MLW uses the division as the highest level of command. Brigades are at the middle level, while the lowly regiment becomes the maneuver unit. There are no arbitrary costs for changing a unit's formation. The 5 minute turn allows the player to watch his and the enemy's maneuvers unfold.

Stands of infantry figures (any number) represent companies of 80 men. Artillery batteries are in sections of two guns (one model per section). Generals are important, not only for giving orders but to help inspire the men, to ignore adversity, and lead them to glory! To simplify the issuing of orders, order chits are placed per unit like other popular rules. But the difference is that a dice roll for initiative is also used.

Is this system redundant? Not really. In the ACW divisional combat reports, one reads about one side moving, then the other side moving to counter that move. But both sides usually had a master plan that they would attempt to follow. The feat was to "get the jump" on the enemy and disrupt his plan while carrying out yours. Meanwhile your enemy would be trying to derail your plan, and get his back on track. So the rules use placing orders coupled with a move counter-move procedure to represent this.

Second, the game lasts 20 turns (representing 1 hour in the ACW). This short playtime means that this system can be used for tournament play. Just think, now the Iron Brigade can take on the Stonewall Brigade or the Orphan Brigade, Syke's U.S. regulars can fight against the Texans, or Wilder's Lighting Brigade can stand against Cleburne's boys. The possibilities are endless.

Why only the 20 turns? Well, once a regiment got "stuck in," (British for "fighting") its operational life expectancy was about 20 minutes. By this time the unit had shot away most of its ammo, casualties had reduced its strength, and the men were tired, and in no mood to listen to their Commanding Officer.
Divisions usually lasted about an hour in combat.

Another good thing about "Mr. Lincoln's War", is that it works with any basing system, provided they are the same for both sides, with any size figures. (However for 25mm, we suggest increasing all measurements by 1/2", i.e. 8" adds 4" to make it 12.")

Since bases and sections are removed by "hits", any number of figures may be mounted on base. To show hits, gravel from an aquarium shop can be used. To show disorder, a cotton ball can be used; Two cotton balls to show a distressed state. Therefore there is minimum book keeping and order writing.

The key here, is ease of play, while trying to stay true to history.
Both Terry and I feel that "Mr. Lincoln's War" does this well.

If you are looking for a "hands on" set of rules, "Mr Lincoln's War" will fill that need (to use a quote from the period) "handsomely."

Stephen F. Phenow, Director,
Drum Barracks Battle Group,
Drum Barracks Civil War Museum
Any questions? E-mail me at the address below.

At HMGS' Historican, summer of '99, Terry Gore staged the battle for the cornfield and the woods north of Sharpsburg, Sept 17, 1862.

This ob is prepared in the following way:
Infantry and Cavalry
1. Unit Name, 2. Strength, 3.# of Stands, 4.Morale Weapon Quality

Artillery
1. Unit Name, 2. Number of guns, 3.# of Sections (1 stand per section,) 4.Morale

Generals. 1.Name 2 Command Class.

My Favorite Links

Other games I've designed.
SAGA Publication
Historical Miniature Pages
Gognards Wargaming discussion Group. (Boardgames & Miniatures)
Mr. Lincoln's War system discussion list
HMGS-PSW (My Chapter)