We are excited to post up this variant for other ACW gamers.
3 thoughts on “A first post for our new Website & Blog”
Chamberlain Quartermaster
Welcome to our website! We hope that folks will enjoy the rules variant as much as we have. The rules have been used at several conventions successfully and have been very popular with all. For us it is great fun to watch the players act as generals and to see how much they enjoy this variant of the Blucher rules. Please don’t be shy with your feedback as we are more than willing to improve the rules if they need it.
Hello. I tried Chamberlain some years ago (the Antietam scenario) when you were still following the unit = Brigade structure from Blucher. I hae only just discovered this site and a very intrigued. Some of the changes look very good, although I am surprised to see the complete move away from the Blucher MO dice concept.
Anyway, just an initial impression, but I have one question:
Blucher rules do not allow a unit to shoot if any part of its front edge is in woods. I cannot see anything in the listed rule changes to counter this, yet units outside the woods are allowed to shoot into the woods (counted as obstructed fire). This seems a strange imbalance. I believe also that many rule writers overlook the effect of shadow in woods. A unit inside (just) may be obscured by shadow, not just actual trees, whilst being very able to clearly see a target outside in full sun. Of course, their position would be revealed the moment they fired – assuming the rules allow them to!!
I would be very interested to know whether you *do* allow units in the wood to fire out (I may have missed something!) or not. It particularly interests me from my great interest in Antietam – especially the Georgians amongst the trees above the Lower/Rohrbach (Burnside’s) Bridge.
Hi Nigel,
We think it is up to you which command design you want to use. The friction generated by our latest seems to give enough friction without side lining an entire command of a player.
We allow fire from the front line in the unit in the woods. All fire in the game is reciprocal. It was clear to us that there were several density of wood. So our variant allow for fire in the woods as well. Woods cause issues for many players so please, in your games be clear about firing effects in the woods.
WE now have light and heavy woods in our most recent version of the variant. This is discussed here on the site as a PDF down load
Originally in the Chamberlain variant that Ross MaGee and I put together we made the following changes: Page 20 – Terrain Effects:
Woods no are no longer considered difficult going (i.e. movement is not affected by
wooded areas). Page 47 – Obstruction:
Infantry may fire at units in woods and in the same way as artillery. The wording shall
be altered to read:
“Artillery and Infantry lines of fire may pass through obstructing terrain, but then it
only continues another 1BW from the point at which it touched that terrain. If it can
hit the target within that remaining 1BW, then it does so, but such fire is called
obstructed and penalized.”
Welcome to our website! We hope that folks will enjoy the rules variant as much as we have. The rules have been used at several conventions successfully and have been very popular with all. For us it is great fun to watch the players act as generals and to see how much they enjoy this variant of the Blucher rules. Please don’t be shy with your feedback as we are more than willing to improve the rules if they need it.
Hello. I tried Chamberlain some years ago (the Antietam scenario) when you were still following the unit = Brigade structure from Blucher. I hae only just discovered this site and a very intrigued. Some of the changes look very good, although I am surprised to see the complete move away from the Blucher MO dice concept.
Anyway, just an initial impression, but I have one question:
Blucher rules do not allow a unit to shoot if any part of its front edge is in woods. I cannot see anything in the listed rule changes to counter this, yet units outside the woods are allowed to shoot into the woods (counted as obstructed fire). This seems a strange imbalance. I believe also that many rule writers overlook the effect of shadow in woods. A unit inside (just) may be obscured by shadow, not just actual trees, whilst being very able to clearly see a target outside in full sun. Of course, their position would be revealed the moment they fired – assuming the rules allow them to!!
I would be very interested to know whether you *do* allow units in the wood to fire out (I may have missed something!) or not. It particularly interests me from my great interest in Antietam – especially the Georgians amongst the trees above the Lower/Rohrbach (Burnside’s) Bridge.
Hi Nigel,
We think it is up to you which command design you want to use. The friction generated by our latest seems to give enough friction without side lining an entire command of a player.
We allow fire from the front line in the unit in the woods. All fire in the game is reciprocal. It was clear to us that there were several density of wood. So our variant allow for fire in the woods as well. Woods cause issues for many players so please, in your games be clear about firing effects in the woods.
WE now have light and heavy woods in our most recent version of the variant. This is discussed here on the site as a PDF down load
Originally in the Chamberlain variant that Ross MaGee and I put together we made the following changes:
Page 20 – Terrain Effects:
Woods no are no longer considered difficult going (i.e. movement is not affected by
wooded areas).
Page 47 – Obstruction:
Infantry may fire at units in woods and in the same way as artillery. The wording shall
be altered to read:
“Artillery and Infantry lines of fire may pass through obstructing terrain, but then it
only continues another 1BW from the point at which it touched that terrain. If it can
hit the target within that remaining 1BW, then it does so, but such fire is called
obstructed and penalized.”