BRAGGING RIGHTS

NO BETTER PLACE TO DIE by DAVE POWELL

from THE GAMERS

One 22' x34" map, 260 counters, one series rule book, one battle rule book, charts and tables, boxed. The Gamers; 1-217-896-2145. $28.00

Reviewed by CARL GRUBER

No Better Place to Die, Dave Powell's shot at the Battle of Stone's River, and The Gamer's 8th opus in their "Civil War Brigade" series, is a one-map simulation of the hard-fought Bragg vs Rosecrans News Year in Tennessee festivities. For those unfamiliar with the CWB series, these are brigade-level simulations which rely heavily on the generation, receipt and execution of written orders (usually by corps). Naturally, this places heavy reliance on player honesty in interpreting and executing their orders. If you're up against a loophole lawyer, or rule abuser, find a different game. Otherwise, the CWB gives a great perspective on how hard it was to make some 40,000 men do dumb and dangerous things.

Best put, the CWB's are command games wherein you are much less concerned with weapon ranges or unit formations than you are with anticipating what the other guy might do an hour from now, and how to get someone in your command structure to act or react to changing conditions. So much hangs on your instincts as the commanding general and on the ability of your corps commanders to act on your orders, you end up with a very accurate picture of the Civil War commander’s psychological environment.

While Die is The Gamer's third one-mapper in their CWB series, the full battle can still take a long time to play. Still, compared to the space and time investment required for such as Thunder at the Crossroads and Bloody Roads South, these smaller CWB games are welcome additions to the line. BROG has already covered several of the games in the series, and, if there’s one thing we’ve learned, the CWB methodology is something you either buy whole cloth or toss out with last week’s milk.

Die contains 5 scenarios. The first, Hardee's opening attack on McCook's corps is only 5 turns long and highlights the initial rebel surprise attack on the Union right. As a small scenario, it serves as both a good introduction to the system as well as an opportunity to see if you can do Hardee one better. The second scenario, the unsupported and pointless attack Bragg ordered Breckenridge to make against Crittenden's dug-in troops and artillery, might also serve as another introductory scenario if it wasn’t anything more than a useful argument against letting schizoid personalities command armies.

My own favorite is the "December 31st: First Day" scenario, which, much like the first day at Shiloh, is when the Confederates will win or lose this battle. The two remaining scenarios are "December 30th: the Lost Opportunity" which allows Bragg a chance to strike at the Union army before it can concentrate and the last, the full campaign from December 30th to January 2nd which allows the players to make all of their own decisions right from the start. As tempting as these last two scenarios might sound to players who want to "roll their own battle", let it serve as fair warning that combining Braxton Bragg’s manic depressive personality with Leonidas Polk's low command value makes it hard to implement any useful orders fast enough for them to catch the Yankees off-guard. As said above, the CSA's best chance to win is on December 31. Still, it's always worth a try and both of these last two scenarios give the command system a full work-out.

A Brief Diversion While We Make Use of a Handy Soap Box. In the past, some criticism has been leveled at the CWB for incorporating a straggler result into the Fire CRT. Such criticism might have been caused by the very word "straggler", which. in this case, is an unfortunate misnomer. What straggler losses from fire actually represent are walking wounded, poltroons heading for the high grass, reduced effectiveness due to command confusion caused by noise and smoke and various other forms of combat friction and chaos. None of these straggler losses seem unrealistic in the primitive command environment of the black- powder era and they are all temporary. Once the affected unit is removed from the line, its cohesion slowly returns.

Other individuals have complained that the CRT is too bloody in the permanent losses it inflicts. Here, too, I disagree. In my own experience (limited, to be sure, to historical reading and GBACW games), a brigade can withstand, perhaps, 1-2 hours of intense combat before it has to be withdrawn. (Ed. This is the exact same theory embraced by the designer., Dave Powell.) I'd bet my best bone saw that the designer deliberately made the CRT bloody to force players to think twice about where and how they attack, to keep reserves, and to punish indiscriminate and pointless attacks… that is, to handle their

forces with some respect and skill. Making players think twice before jumping into a fight seems to be a hall-mark of all the Gamer's series, from CWB through TCS and OCS.

One thing that is missing from the game is the lack of weather. Much of the battle was fought in a cold winter rain. While I'm not sure how much that would make itself felt at the

brigade level, it does add flavor for those of us used to fighting this battle with wet feet and runny noses.

Ultimately, for fans of the CWB series, No Better Place to Die comes as one of the more interesting entries, even if, after playing it, you still only get to scratch your head and ask yourself, “What, in God’s name, was Bragg looking to do here?)

CAPSULE COMMENTS:

Graphic Presentation: Clear and crisp. Some of the informational markers are getting a tad on the loud side though. (Ed. Wait’ll you see April Harvest!!)

Playability: Not hard to learn for anyone familiar with the period. Getting used to the command system may take some time. The quirky command system allows for much bluffing, second guessing and moments of sheer panic. Solitaire problematical.

Replayability: Not a battle that invites much of this sort of thing..

Creativity: Same as rest of series.

Wristage: Extensive

Historicity: Commanders seem to act about the way they did.

Comparisons: Dead of Winter is the only other Murfreesboro game I'm familiar with, and that’s on a regimental level and uses a different command system. In both games, the battle's Kursk with muskets.

Overall: Will be enjoyed by any fan of CWB and serves as a good introduction to newcomers.