The March To The Sea: An American Civil War Matrix Game – Rules

Campaign Length:

• The campaign represents eight months of campaign action, and lasts from May 1864 to December 1864.

Move Length:

• Each move represents one month of campaign action.

The Matrix:

• The basic matrix includes the following action, result, and reason ‘prompts’:

AMBUSH
ANGER
ATTACK
BATTLE CRY
DECREASE MORALE
DEFEAT
DEFEND
DESERT
FATIGUED
FEAR
FORCED MARCH
HALT
INCREASE MORALE
INSPIRE
LARGE FORMATION
LOVE
MARCH
MOTIVATION
OPEN BATTLE
PREPARE
RALLY
RECRUIT
REST
RETREAT
ROUT
SHAME
SKIRMISH
SMALL FORMATION
SUPPLY LINES
SUPPORT
TACTICAL ADVANTAGE
TERRAIN EFFECT
VICTORY
WEATHER EFFECT

• Players may add other ‘prompts’ to the basic matrix. They are only limited by their own imagination.

Orders:

• No player may submit more than one set of orders per move.
• Each set of orders should include one Action, one Result, and three Reasons (e.g. ‘The Army of the Tennessee will MARCH (Action) from Chattanooga into Cassville, where they will ATTACK (Result) any Confederate forces. They can do this because (Reason 1) The Army of Ohio will be in SUPPORTing this move, (Reason 2) the Confederates will have to DEFEND this position to stop my advance on Atlanta, and (Reason 3) my men are INSPIREd by the recent victories achieved by Union forces.’)

Movement:

• All units may move from one area to another each move.
• Units may move any distance by railroad at no loss of combat effectiveness if:
• friendly units control both ends of the section of railroad being used and
• the enemy has no units in an area through which that section of railroad runs.
• Infantry and Cavalry units may FORCED MARCH from one area, across another area, and into a second area if so ordered, but at a cost of having a -1 penalty on their combat effectiveness.
• Cavalry units may FORCED MARCH from one area, across two areas, and into a third area if so ordered, but at a cost of having a -2 penalty on their combat effectiveness.
• Combat effectiveness penalties are cumulative, and can only be removed if a unit RESTs.
• Combat effectiveness penalties caused by FORCED MARCHing are removed at a rate of 1 per REST move.

Combat:

• All combats are resolved by the Umpire using a modified SCRUD (Simple Combat Resolution Using Dice) system.
• Combat effectiveness penalties caused by combat are cumulative, and can only be removed if a unit RESTs.
• Combat effectiveness penalties are removed at a rate of 1 per REST move.
• Destroyed Union units may be re-raised in Nashville as a result of a REST move.