War Between the States was originally published by SPI in 1977. The designer was Irad B. Hardy. Decision Games
published the 2nd edition in 2004. It is currently available for purchase at the Decision Games WBtS page.
Monster games were a novel development in the late 1970s. While games like Wacht Am Rhein
and War in Europe were quite spectacular and created alot of buzz in the industry, they did suffer,
due to their size, from playability. This led to a situation where monster games were often eagerly
purchased, but then often "shelved" by players who lacked the time and or stamina to work through such
a daunting gaming enterprise.
WBtS broke new ground by being a "Monster Game" that was very playable. This is due in part to the fine job
done by Hardy and the crew at SPI. They were able to devise a game system with clever mechanics, proper abstractions, and yet imparted a solid sense of
history and atmosphere, all wrapped up in 11 pages of rules.
Another factor that allows this "monster game" to be so playable is the command system.
Rarely is either player able to move all their units each turn. In the Civil War it was often difficult
for generals and political leaders to get troops moving and attacking. And this is reflected in the command
rules for WBtS. So while each player may have many units spread out all over the maps - usually only a subset
of them will actually move, or do anything, in a turn.
While the SPI WBtS did generate a fair amount of errata, it is clear that the game was well play tested.
And now, Decision Games has refined the system even further, and upgraded the components, with the biggest
improvement being in the map. While in 1977 the map for WBtS was considered quite good, it has not aged well.
Artist Joe Youst has really done an A+ job on the new maps, bringing them up to the current "state of the art".
This website is under construction. The pages that are currently unlinked will be linked as they are completed.
War Between the States is property and copyright of Decision Games.
This website is not
connected to Decision Games in any
way, it is purely a "fan" page. Any mistakes or confusion
or misinformation here is the fault of my own muddled mind.
This is not meant to be a comprehensive review, or replacement,
of the War Between the States rules. It is a look at major features of the
WBtS system. The actual rules are available as "living rules" on the Decision Games
website at
www.decisiongames.com
Please send comments and corrections about this website to Cisco Serret
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