Gaming Report A House Divided

     Last Friday night I played A House Divided again, this time with my friend Dan. I've discussed this game before, when I played it with my son. Lesson learned: never assume you know everything about playing a game. This was pretty well hubris on my part anyway, having played the game only once before.  Dan comprehended the movement rules much better than I did and used them to his advantage. As I think I explained before, the game lasts for 40 turns, from mid-1861 to mid-1865. Well our game was over in 14 months. He used the movement rules to their best advantage and swept through the South picking off my major cities with frightening speed while I made a few half-hearted attempts at invading the North. I did not adequately reinforce my cities, particularly Richmond, which fell to Union forces with embarrassing ease. 

    The Confederacy starts off with a numerical disadvantage, which quickly becomes more acute. There is a limit to the number of units either side can have on the board, relevant to the number of 'recruiting cities' each side holds. I probed into the North trying to cut down on Dan's recruitment total, but did not have the manpower to do both that and defend my own (outnumbered) cities. Moreover, when recruiting new units, the units must be of 'Militia' quality (the two higher qualities are 'Veteran' and 'Crack') and if you don't have any available Militia counters you can't bring in any new units. The Union had a bigger pool of Militia units and so the Union forces grew faster than my Confederate forces. This may make it sound like the Confederacy is greatly disadvantaged, but I'm (as I found out) not familiar enough yet to say if it is. What it does not do at all is excuse my poor game play. I didn't take the aforementioned facts into account in my strategy, and it cost me. As Dan's forces grew in number and quality I simply couldn't keep up. The units I wasted in my poorly-planned offense might have kept him from romping through Alabama and Louisiana for a while, but they weren't there.

     Still, despite the agony of defeat, it was a good game. I had a few moments of glory, and certainly I'll be a better player the next time I play. Plus, an evening's play with a good friend and good coffee can't be anything but a good thing. I look forward to the next game.

     Sorry, no pictures of this game were taken.