About the game:
By Swords and Bayonets is a two-player, regimental level wargame and the ninth installment in the award-winning Great Battles of the American Civil War series. Its focus is on small(er)-scale battles of the ACW and will serve as an ideal introduction for players new to the series. By reducing the size of the contending forces, players can more easily learn the detailed, layered rules and subsystems of the GBACW series without fear of being overwhelmed by the size of the battles themselves.
Highlights:
- Four small-scale Civil War Battles, each on its own half-size, 22” x 17” map
- Forces on both sides limited to one division maximum
- Fewer than 50 combat units on the map per side for each battle
- GBACW Series Rules fully supported
- One battle (Rappahannock Scenario) has a one-turn introductory scenario
The four battles:
Big Bethel, June 10, 1861: Shortly after the onset of hostilities at Fort Sumter, the Union sought to quickly subdue the rebellion. Maj. General Benjamin Butler was dispatched to Fort Monroe, at the tip of the Virginia Peninsula with a force of mostly untested volunteers and an eye towards taking Yorktown.
Mill Springs, January 19, 1862: A battle that helped seal the fate of both Kentucky and Eastern Tennessee. Local scions Maj. General George B. Crittenden and Felix Zollicoffer sought to exert control of the strategic Cumberland Gap through the war’s first winter and to buttress a line of forces spanning both strategic states that were still tenuously held by the Union.
New Bern, NC, March 14, 1862: In a strategic bid to keep the pressure up in the south Atlantic rebel states and to keep reinforcements from Richmond (then the subject of a major operation on the Virginia Peninsula), Major General Ambrose Burnside is sent on an amphibious expedition of his own.
Rappahannock Station, November 7, 1863: In the aftermath of the pivotal battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, Robert E. Lee conducts a masterful retreat into Virginia, evading the pursuing forces of Union Major General George Meade.
