This is the second in a series of articles devoted to the GBACW Series Rules. GMT rates GBACW’s complexity a “7” for good reasons — though there are undoubtedly whiz kids who read the rules and are ready to play, some of us poor mortals require a little more before we sit down at the table. These articles are addressed to the latter group in hopes of easing the journey. They are not, however, a substitute for reading the rules.

Introduction

Historical literature often contrasts the heavily wooded battlefields of the American Civil War with the more manicured landscapes of European battles. GBACW reflects this fundamental aspect of the battles the series depicts. Maneuvering in wooded or broken terrain puts a premium on roads and other thoroughfares. Older versions of the series provided a single option for speeding movement along thoroughfares: Column Movement. The GMT version offers two options. Besides March Orders, which resembles the old Column Movement, units under Advance Orders may use thoroughfares, albeit often at a slower rate than units under March Orders.

Abbreviations used in the text

• DRM = Die Roll Modifier
• MP = Movement Points
• SP = Strength Points
• SR = Series Rules
• TEC = Terrain Effects Chart

Basic Concepts

Thoroughfares. This term doesn’t actually appear in the series rules, and is here used as a shorthand for terrain features that speed movement. The two basic types are Roads and Trails, but the GMT version of GBACW has spawned quite a variety in its 20-plus years.

• Pikes are generally treated the same as Roads, with certain exceptions, such as the Mud rule in Death Valley‘s “New Market”.
• Railroads, either finished or unfinished, may benefit movement, but there are exceptions.
• Paths (Gringo!) and Farm Lanes (the upcoming Into the Woods) are generally treated the same as Trails. However, some games in the series treat Trails differently than SR 9.44 does. The TEC for the game in question, if different, always trumps the series rule.
• Unimproved Roads, Dirt Roads, and a “National Highway” show up in one game or another, and are either treated the same as Roads or Trails, or the TEC in question specifies the difference.

March Order stacking limits. Units or stacks may benefit from thoroughfare movement rates only when adhering to these limits.

• Units under March Orders must comply with these limits.
• Units under Advance Orders must comply with them, if they wish to benefit from thoroughfare movement rates.
• Unlike older versions of GBACW, March Order stacking limits permit stacking, but specify SP limits for those stacks.
• The 2019 Series Rules abolish the limit on the number of units that may stack. The various limits are defined in terms of SP, and of course continue to allow non-artillery stacking only for units of the same brigade and of the same service arm.

This has consequences that may take series veterans by surprise. While it is still the case that March Order Stacking prohibits different unit types (infantry, cavalry, artillery) from stacking,

—  Any number of batteries may stack, as long as the total number of guns does not exceed 12.

—  Any number of infantry or cavalry units from the same brigade may stack, as long as they do not exceed seven/four SP, respectively.

Extended Columns

It’s conceivable, then, that an entire brigade, if small enough, may stack and merrily scoot along a thoroughfare. But the fact remains that most units in GBACW are not quite as whittled down as Jubal Early’s ragtag Confederates in Death Valley. In fact, there are large units across the system, from the 26th North Carolina in Three Days of Gettysburg to Santa Anna’s 6th Line in Gringo!. We’ll see plenty more of them in Into the Woods, which features all those green units from the Midwest and the Deep South that met at Shiloh.

In the older versions of GBACW, units using Column Movement could not stack, but could be of any size. The GMT version’s Extended Column rules have always sought to more closely approximate reality for large units. 2019 Series Rules 8.5, 8.52 and 8.53 treat Extended Column in more detail than preceding editions did, and seek to establish a greater degree of correspondence between Extended Column and Extended Line. Let’s take a look at these rules and their implications.

SR 8.5, Extended Columns

• Infantry units larger than 7 SP, and cavalry units larger than 4 SP, must form Extended Column if assigned March Orders. They must also do so in order to benefit from thoroughfare movement rates while under Advance Orders. The system provides Extended Column markers to indicate the presence of the unit in more than one hex. An infantry unit of 15 or more SP, or a cavalry unit of 8 SP or more, would require more than one marker, as it would be present in more than two hexes. (As of this writing, no unit in GBACW is large enough to require three Extended Column markers!)

• No unit in Extended Column may end movement stacked with another unit.
• Units that have just been placed under March Orders do not need an Extended Column marker until they start moving. Those using Road Movement while under Advance Orders similarly do not need a marker until they enter the first hex in which they intend to benefit from the Road Movement rate. They “move out” from their starting hex and are then trailed by the required number of markers. We can imagine the troops filing onto the thoroughfare from their originally more compact formation.

• Movement costs for a unit in Extended Column are now defined in a manner similar to those for units in Extended Line. The unit and marker(s) move “as if they were one”, with the marker(s) following behind the parent. The MP cost for the unit equals that for the part paying the most to enter the next hex. Thus, a unit in Extended Column moving through a woods hex without the benefit of a thoroughfare will pay 2 MP each time a part of it moves into that hex. This would severely slow a three-hex Extended unit, which would have been better advised to retract prior to entering the woods.

• A unit in Extended Column defends with all its SP if shocked, just as a unit in Extended Line would.
• A unit in Extended Column retreats Extended if possible, like units in Extended Line.

SR 8.52. Advance Orders. 

This section of the 2019 rules is new and seeks to clarify exactly how units operate when in Extended Column but under Advance Orders.

• Facing for such units is toward a hex vertex, as it is for all units under Advance Orders.
• “Retracting” an Extended Column costs MP, just as retracting an Extended Line. Note that in both cases it is not the marker that necessarily retracts. The “Parent Unit” may retract into the hex of the marker. Either way, the marker is removed after Retracting, and the parent unit remains.

• An Extended Column is cumbersome in certain ways, as were march columns during the Civil War. But no Civil War maneuver was slicker than Marching by the Flank. A unit in Extended Column may switch to Extended Line by means of a Facing Change, paying 1 MP if necessary.  The reverse is also true.

• When adjacent to an enemy combat unit, a unit in Extended Column follows the restrictions of SR 9.53.  Like a unit in Extended Line, it may Retract despite the enemy unit, but it may not then change facing or form Extended Line. Similarly, it may form Extended Line when adjacent to the enemy, rather than Retracting, but may not change facing by more than one vertex when so doing.
• A unit in Extended Column may fire! However, given the facing of the parent unit and its trailing markers, and the fact that it may not use Reaction Facing or Reaction Refusal [SR 9.61] while in Extended Column, such a unit remains relatively vulnerable and may not be able to bring all or even any of its fire potential to bear. This is as it should be.
• Finally, the rule defines how a unit in Extended Column goes about shocking an enemy unit. There’s an asymmetry in this when compared with Extended Line: the unit must retract or form Extended Line prior to Shock. This is due to the difference between the two formations.

SR 8.53. Extended Column and Attack Orders.

When its brigade changes orders, either at the start of a turn or due to a Brigade Orders Change, a unit in Extended Column may find itself under Attack Orders. This is an anomalous situation and treated accordingly. The unit must retract or form Extended Line when it activates. Neither action may occur prior to activation. If a brigade with one or more units in Extended Column is assigned Attack orders during the Division Orders phase (II.C), it may be some time before it activates. Until it does, its units in Extended Column are subject to the provisions of SR 8.52.

SR 8.22’s Road Movement Exception

GBACW has always allowed units using thoroughfares to move through stationary units. In the old version of the series this reached mature expression in Terrible Swift Sword, 2nd Edition, Rule 6.11.  SR 8.22’s Road Movement Exception reflects the enhanced flexibility of that TSS2 rule.

Before we discuss the Road Movement Exception in detail, however, we must discuss SR 8.22 itself. Unlike anything in the old series, this rule levies heavy penalties on a unit that moves through a friendly unit. In this respect the GMT series again more closely approximates reality, as ACW literature indicates that “passage of lines” (moving “through” another unit) was never easy.

But the old series had a point when it came to thoroughfares. When one unit is using the road, and the other the rest of the hex, there is no Passage of Lines.

Thus, the Road Movement Exception allows units under March or Advance Orders to move at the road rate through other units in those road hexes, unless the non-moving units are themselves under March Orders. In that case the moving units pay the cost of the other terrain in the hex.

Note that the 2019 version of the rule tightens the requirements a little. The moving unit must enter and exit the non-moving unit’s hex via connected pike or road hexes. It cannot use the Exception to sidle through the stationary unit, as that would indeed amount to Passage of Lines.

The Road Movement Exception allows units under Advance Orders to move through other units under Advance Orders and still benefit from road/pike movement rates, whether or not the stationary unit used or will use the road when activated. This is and always has been a system compromise for the sake of playability.

Conclusions

GBACW presents the player with various options for rapidly maneuvering his forces. The more rapidly they maneuver, the greater their vulnerability. The natural result is that players tend to use March Orders only when their units are safe from enemy interference. They use Advance Orders when there’s a chance the enemy could strike first.

While the GMT version of the system retains elements of the old SPI/TSR rules, it provides more nuance, and that enhanced nuance strives to conform to what we know of Civil War tactics. In particular, the 2019 rules include more detailed mechanisms for moving and fighting units under Advance Orders and in Extended Column. It is our hope that the new mechanisms are a fair representation of both the advantages and disadvantages such units would have experienced during battle.

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Determining AMs in Great Battles of the American Civil War (GBACW)