A few years ago, we played a very interesting game designed by Stephen Kling of The Historical Game Company called Road to Independence: The American Revolution, 1775-1783. The game covers the entirety of the American Revolutionary War, including the various campaigns and skirmishes on the frontier, and uses custom battle dice. That game was the 2nd volume in that series and recently I heard that Stephen was working on the next volume set in the American Civil War called Road from Disunion: The American Civil War, 1861-1865. We reached out to the designer and he was more than willing to take the time to answer our questions on the game.

Grant: Stephen welcome back to our blog and thank you for being interested in sharing. What is your upcoming game The Road from Disunion about?

Stephen: The Road from Disunion: The American Civil War, 1861-1865 is an introductory level wargame covering the American Civil War using the system I designed and used for several previously published games, which were dice rolling games of conquest using special dice, including The French and Indian War published by The Historical Game Company and Road to Independence published by Blue Panther. The game is a strategic level look at the American Civil War and covers all of the major theaters of the war from its outbreak in 1861 to its conclusion and Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse in 1865.

The map contains 42 different locations, some of which count toward meeting victory conditions. Custom dice are rolled matching symbols on the dice with those required to conquer each location and its defenses. Event cards are also included that add in some of the historical elements to the conflict and vary play from game to game. This is a follow up game to Road to Independence and uses similar concepts and game mechanics.

Grant: Why was this a subject that drew your interest?

Stephen: I have always had an interest in the American Civil War particularly at a strategic level. It is a massive contest, and I wanted to see if I could design a fun, easy to play game covering the entire war from 1861-1865.

Grant: You are utilizing the same system you have used for 2 games in the past on the French & Indian War and the American Revolution. How did you change the system to take into account the American Civil War?

Stephen: The American Civil War posed some special challenges as I wanted to incorporate concepts like the naval war and what constituted a rebel victory. Special rules were developed for the naval aspects in the game utilizing ironclads for the Rebel player and naval combat for the Union player before an attack by naval move can occur if an Ironclad is located in the Port Location. There are some special rules reflecting the historical constraints as well. As discussed in the design notes, I took a cue from one of the experts who summarized the rebels’ ability to win the war as making it last long enough with enough casualties for the Union to seek peace. A number of these ideas for changes and some others discussed below came about through playtesting.

Grant: What was your design goal with the game?

Stephen: As with the other games in the system, my main goal was to create a light, fun game that could be played in one setting with sufficient political theming. Of course, factoring in rolling special custom dice was always a goal as well.

Grant: What elements do you feel are most important to model or include from the history of the American Civil War?

Stephen: I wanted to allow players to explore various strategic options. There are a number of different strategies the Union player can develop for victory. The Rebel player has the problem of primarily developing a defensive strategy while taking advantage of opportunities to take or retake Union controlled locations to make it more difficult for the Union player to win.

Grant: What major design challenges did you encounter and how did you overcome them?

Stephen: Simply re-skinning the system from the prior games just was not going to work for this design. I wanted to include the ironclads as their role is interesting and could have had a more pronounced effect on the war. Doing that in a way to not add a lot of complexity went through several variations. Integrating some of the aspects of the Eastern Theater and Western Theater ended up in the event cards and simplifying the far west ended up in a Western Territories Location with some benefits based on card play. Simply put, there was just a whole lot of history I wanted to pack into the game without adding a significant amount of complexity. The game also begged for some additional chrome which ended up in some advanced optional rules covering elite units, commerce raiders and Union ironclads.

Grant: What sources did you consult for the historical details? What one must-read source would you recommend?

Stephen: I have a “Further Reading” list in the rules which includes Battles and Leaders of the Civil War in 4 volumes and The Blue and the Gray in 2 volumes for good reading on the entire war. But two of the 8 books in the Further Reading section cover the naval aspects of the war. On that note, I was able to correspond with one of the experts, Professor Neil Chatelain, who gave me some good information on ironclads and in particular the Laird Ironclads building in Great Britain for the rebels and how those ironclads were intended to be used. Of course, it was such an interesting back story, they ended up as a possibility in the game with potential use following their intended use.

Grant: What is the scale of the design? Force structure of the units?

Stephen: The scale is strategic and somewhat abstract. There are no specific army sized units. The entire war is displayed on an 11” x 17” map. There are individual ironclad counters and some strategic defense counters which are essentially garrisons plus control markers. In the advanced rules, there are new “campaign counters” each named for a unit that was elite during the war that can be used for a placement on a Location card to satisfy or help satisfy a required roll, one per theater each turn with a few others depicting further aspects of the naval war and blockade runners. For example, playing one of the blockade runner campaign counters by the Rebel player can result in the loss of 1 attack for the Union player the following turn. The advanced rules not only include the permanent loss of such units if the attack is not successful but the permanent loss of strategic defense counters too if an attack is successful.

Grant: What is the makeup of the various unit counters?

Stephen: Attack counters, strategic defense counters (garrisons), control markers, ironclad counters and a slew of special campaign counters. There are some variant counters too representing armies and navies of England and France.

Grant: What advantages does each side have? How does this change over the course of the game?

Stephen: The Union player has some slightly better Event Cards and gets an additional die upon the occurrence of the Emancipation Proclamation but has the burden of conquering enough victory points and important locations by the end of the game. The Rebel player has enough good cards to muster a good defense and make opportunistic attacks aided by the ability to work on interior lines. The naval game is sort of a mini game within the game which can alter strategy. So, for example, does the Rebel player preselect naval benefit Event Cards and put more emphasis into protecting ports? Too little port protection can trigger a Union special rule whereby the Rebel player loses one attack each turn as long as the specified number of ports are under Union control.

Grant: What is the function of Location Cards?

Stephen: The Location Cards pair with individual areas on the game map but are used primarily for dice rolling and conquest. While the game map is smaller, we added information of the defenses on each Location Card on the corresponding area of the game map to ease analysis for attack considerations.

Grant: Can you show us a few examples and explain how they work?

Stephen: Each of the Location Cards has various icons and numbers in black which indicate the defenses that have to be rolled (conquered) during combat. See below for an in-depth description of how combat works. The Rebel flag in red in the upper left hand corner denotes an important Location for victory. As you can see the icons include things such as Artillery (field cannon), a Fortress (building), Cavalry (with a saber in the center of the image and a horse) and Infantry (with a hat and musket). These symbols coincide with the symbols found on the custom combat dice and the player attacking must roll these results on a certain number of dice to conquer or take the Location Card.

Once a Location is attacked and defeated, the physical Location Cards will be collected from the opponent and added to the tableau in front of the attacking player. Then, the player will add their Control Marker to the Location on the Game Board, unless it is one of their starting Locations, at which point no Control Marker is necessary as it is shown in the Location Box.

There are a total of 42 different Locations and each is assigned value shown in the bottom left hand corner for victory purposes and are named after key and important strategic cities during the American Civil War.

Grant: How does combat work?

Stephen: Land combat is a function of rolling special dice against each Location selected for attack each turn. The Location must have a connection to a friendly Location unless it is a naval attack against a port Location by the Union player. Naval combat is a bit different and simpler. Here is a graphic from the rules that shows an example of combat.

Grant: What is the makeup of the custom combat dice?

Stephen: There are 17 dice, 7 regular die for each player, an Emancipation Proclamation regular die, 1 Rebel Ironclad Availability die and 1 Union Naval Move die.

Grant: How do Ironclads work? Why were they important to include?

Stephen: Ironclads help protect Port Locations from attack by the Union player by naval move. There can be up to 2 ironclads per Port Location. They are all named for important ironclads, and if eliminated, cannot return to play. They enter play by roll of the Rebel Ironclad Availability die each turn and by Event Cards and are placed by the Rebel player at any available Port Location. They can be eliminated by Union die rolls but if they are not, the attack by the regular die cannot happen and the Union attack is a failure. So, they can make Union naval attacks more difficult. Things like the Union Naval Superiority Event and some Event Cards can soften things up for the Union player as the game progresses. I really wanted this aspect of the war included as it was important and is so interesting.

Grant: What is the makeup of the Event Cards? Can you share a few examples?

Stephen: These Event Cards do things such as affect attacks and combat in terms of bonuses or penalties and are usually based on historical events. Here are examples of 2 such Event Cards including 1 for the Rebel player and 1 for the Union player.

Grant: I see where players can preselect a few Event Cards. Why was this important to include?

Stephen: It really added to allowing more strategic decisions. Do you select Event Cards that provide benefits in one theater over another, do you select cards that give naval benefits or the possibility of foreign intervention or concentrate on land attacks, etc.

Grant: What is the role of the Emancipation Proclamation and Union Naval Superiority Events?

Stephen: The occurrence of the Emancipation Proclamation Event allows the Union player an additional regular die representing the addition of men of color to the Union army. The Union Naval Superiority Event guarantees a minimum number of naval moves irrespective of the outcome of the Naval Move die roll and a bonus when combating ironclads. These Events are not guaranteed to happen and only happen in the later part of the game if a successful die roll is made on the first and following turns when eligible. There is also a Union Naval Superiority Rule which allows the Union player to cause the Rebel player to lose one attack each turn as long as the Union player controls 6 of the 8 Rebel Port Locations.

Grant: What are Campaign Counters?

Stephen: This is something entirely new. These counters represent elite units, commerce raiders and Union ironclads. One can be chosen for each theater for each game turn. For land combat, they can only be used for 1 Location attack and can satisfy a required die roll (or part of a required roll if multiple infantry are needed) on the Location’s defense. The commerce raider counters can limit Union attacks, and the Union ironclads can aid in naval combat. These units can be lost in game play, so they have to be used judiciously. These counters are optional along with some other rules like Foreign Intervention Counters and are available in the advanced rules. I think they really add to game play and I am in the process of redoing the French and Indian War game in this system adding applicable elements of the underlying concept.

Grant: What area does the map cover? What are the different theaters and how did you decide to split them up in this way?

Stephen: The map covers pretty much the area of the entire American Civil War. As there were differences in the objectives and the way the war was fought, the map was divided into theaters which are mostly important for where certain Event Cards apply. The division was somewhat arbitrary but made to work the best with the Event Cards.

Grant: What do you feel the design excels at?

Stephen: While this game is a bit more complex than its predecessors, most of the additional pages cover the advanced rules and a more detailed section of design notes. I hope this game provides a fun, thematic experience of gaming the American Civil War. My play testers seem to like the ease of play and the dice rolling making it a wargame but one you can enjoy without a big investment of time and learning the rules. In particular, I hope it provides a lot of strategic options and decisions of the type arising in the war while being able to do it in a few hours. Lastly, I hope it encourages players to learn more about this history.

Grant: What other designs are you currently working on?

Stephen: As you guys know, I have an extensive line of battle/siege games. I just released 2 new ones on the Siege of Ayutthaya and the Siege of Santiago. The Siege of Plevna should be out by the end of the year and an upgrade or second edition of the French and Indian War using the Road from Disunion enhancements is also in the works. Also, my friend Ed Lengel just published a book entitled Atlas: France’s Wars for Empire and Resistance in North Africa, 1827–1934. I had previously published a game on the Battle of Isly from this period, but his book inspired me to bring my design on the Siege of Constantine to the front of the line which should also be out by year end. My game production has been a bit limited with the publication of my latest book, being the guest curator for the Louisiana State Cabildo Museum for the “Gálvez and Louisiana in the American Revolution” exhibition based on my latest book and being extensively interviewed for a documentary on Spain’s role in the American Revolution, as well as related book and exhibition presentations.

Thank you for the look inside this very cool game on the American Civil War. I can feel your passion for the game and its history and believe that this will shine through in the game play experience. Keep up the good work and we look forward to talking with you about your future upcoming game projects.

-Grant