Chickamauga: The Last Victory, 20 September 1863
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Chickamauga: The Last Victory, 20 September 1863 is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1975 that simulates the Battle of Chickamauga during the American Civil War. The game was originally part of the four-game collection Blue & Gray: Four American Civil War Battles, and was also released as a stand-alone "folio" game.
In September 1863, the Union Army of the Cumberland under Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans had pushed the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Gen. Braxton Bragg out of Chattanooga. Bragg was determined to re-occupy Chattanooga, and on 19 September 1863, the two armies met southeast of the city, near the Chickamauga Creek.[1]
Description
Chickamauga is a two-player wargame where one player controls the Union forces and the other player controls the Confederate forces. With a small map and only 100 counters, the game has been characterized as "simple".[2]
Gameplay
The game system, adapted from SPI's 1972 game Napoleon at War, uses an alternating "I Go, You Go" series of turns, where one player moves and attacks, followed by the other player. Each turn represents 1–2 hours of game time, and the game lasts for ten turns. A new concept, "Attack Effectiveness", was introduced for the Blue & Gray battles: If an attacking unit receives an "Attacker Retreat" result during combat, then that unit cannot make any further attacks for the rest of that game day, although it may defend as normal.
Publication history
In 1975, SPI published Blue & Gray, its first quadrigame — four different battles using the same set of rules, packaged into one box. The four games were Antietam; Cemetery Hill; Shiloh; and Chickamauga. The latter was designed by Irad B. Hardy, Redmond A. Simonsen, and John Young. Chickamauga was also released as an individual game packaged in a double LP-sized cardstock folio as part of the Blue & Gray Folio Series, as well as in a "Designer's Collection" boxed set with a mounted map.[2] It proved very popular, and in a poll conducted by SPI to determine the most popular board wargames in North America, Chickamauga placed 15th out of 202 games.[3]
Given the popularity of Blue & Gray, SPI immediately produced a sequel containing four more battles, Blue & Gray II, which also proved to be a bestseller.[4]
Following TSR's takeover of SPI in 1981, TSR reissued Chickamauga as part of a new edition of Blue & Gray in 1984, with new box art and the TSR logo, but no other changes to the components or rules.
In 1995, Decision Games acquired the rights to Chickamauga and the other games of Blue & Gray, and reissued the entire set with a new box and new graphic design, and slightly revised rules.[2]