Dixie (card game)

Dixie is a two-player CCG in which each battle being fought — First Bull Run, Shiloh, or Gettysburg — uses a specific deck, each with cards representing every regiment, artillery battery, and general present at the battle. Cards have drawings depicting the approximate uniforms that each unit wore at the actual battle. Special cards depict key terrain features, generals, and scenario-related special events (such as rallies, ammunition, morale, etc.)^[2] Each regiment and artillery card has a Combat Value (CV) from 1 to 4.^[3]

During each game, one player plays with a Union deck, and the other uses a Confederate deck.^[4]

A tabletop is divided (invisibly) into Right, Center and Left sections. The Union player sits on one side of the table, facing the Confederate player. The players deal themselves a hand of 18 cards (Union player) or 15 cards (Confederate player).^[3] From their hand, players then deploy any terrain cards they have, placing them in the Right, Center and/or Left portions of the tabletop. (Terrain cards cannot be used any time after this.) From their hand, each player then deploys from 1 to 4 cards in the Right, Center and/or Left sections, keeping the remainder of their cards in their hand.^[3]

In traditional "I Go, You Go" fashion, the players alternate taking turns. Each player's turn has four phases:^[3]

1. Morale: Leaders can attempt to repair CV damage to regiment and artillery cards.
2. Combat: The active player moves one of the cards in one of the sections (Right, Center or Left) forward to engage the enemy card opposite it. The attacking player rolls a number of dice equal to the attacking card's CV. The results of each die are checked against the card's firepower. Each successful hit reduces the defending card's CV by 1. If the card's CV falls to zero, it is removed from the game.
3. Move: The active player plays a card from their hand onto the tabletop.
4. Reinforce: The active player replaces cards removed from their hand with fresh cards from their deck.

The first player to eliminate all enemy cards from two of the three sections is the winner.^[3]

At the 1992 Origins Awards, game designer and co-founder of Gamma Two Games/Columbia Games Tom Dalgliesh was recognized for his 1972 invention of the block wargame, which used three-dimensional blocks instead of cardboard counters to represent military units.

Two years later, Dalgliesh designed Dixie, a CCG with artwork by Eric Hotz that used rules very similar to his block wargames.^[3] The finished game was published by Columbia Games.^[5]

Three sets of cards, each based on one ACW battle, were published in 1994:

1. "First Bull Run": The complete set has 200 cards. Each booster pack contains a random assortment of 60 of those cards (30 Union, 30 Confederates).^[6]: 14
2. "Shiloh": The second, and largest set issued, with 400 cards.^[6]
3. "Gettysburg": This has 250 cards, but unlike the first two sets, the 60-card booster packs are asymmetrical, having 36 Union and 24 Confederate cards. Also, unlike the other two battles, "Gettysburg" features infantry brigades, not regiments, and artillery battalions.