Description

“United States, 1864. The civil war that both sides had expected to end swiftly has dragged into its third year. The Union blockade of the South, the Anaconda Plan developed by General Winfield Scott and established in 1861, has finally started to take its toll on the Confederate military and its civilian population. Southern logisticians estimate that with current supplies, the South will be forced to surrender due to inability to maintain its military and severe economic hardships in five months.”

“Objective: Be the first side to drive their opponent to the breaking point through a careful combination of naval strategy and army operations - force the surrender of the Confederacy by exhausting their war stocks (zero weeks remaining), or inflict an unacceptable additional 100,000 casualties on the Union (700,000 total), forcing the North to sue for peace.”

“Players of the same side sit side by side on one side of a table (or the floor), facing their opponents. Each player along the line plays a regional military commander with one army regiment and one navy squadron assigned to his control. Players can assume the identities of historic Union and Confederate generals and admirals, or simply be referred to as Commander 1, Commander 2, etc. down the lines."

"This opposing line of players stretches from Virginia down the southern Atlantic and Gulf Coast to Texas and then up the Mississippi River Valley. Any map of the eastern United States can be used, or an outline of the coast created with masking tape, but is not required for play. Each commander has six cards; two navy, two army and two special cards.”

“In multi-player games, players can only communicate by passing messages verbally to other commanders seated immediately beside them . . . Washington and Richmond can attempt to pass a grand strategy to the rest of the team at the beginning of a turn, but the word must be passed ‘down the line.’”