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Chancellorsville: Bloody May, 1863 Out from VPG and PKG

May 30, 2013

The second in the Bloody Civil War series from designer Paul Koenig has arrived from Victory Point Games. The title tackles the famed battle of Chancellorsville which saw the Confederates under Robert E. Lee run rings around Joseph Hooker’s Union army. Chancellorsville: Bloody May, 1863 is for two players and can be had for an MSRP of $42.00.

From VPG:

Following the debacle at Fredericksburg in December of 1862, President Lincoln replaced Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac with Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker. Hooker came up with one of the most audacious flanking maneuvers of the war. Leaving two corps at Fredericksburg to pin Lee, he would march the rest of his army north and west, cross the Rapidan River, and place himself at Chancellorsville. The move, if successful, would place the Army of Northern Virginia between two Union armies, ready to be crushed as if in a vise.

The opening move worked, but then Hooker sat still as if waiting (or daring) for Lee to attack him. Lee did indeed attack. But the move was so unconventional as to catch Hooker completely by surprise.

Lee divided his forces in the face of the enemy—a textbook no-no—not once, but twice! First, he left a group at Fredericksburg to delay any Union crossing in that area. Then, with his remaining forces, he left only two divisions in front of Hooker, while the remainder of his army under Jackson (28,000 strong) marched around the Union right and attacked them in the rear at sunset on May 2, 1863.

Chancellorsville: Bloody May, 1863 (“CBM”) is volume two of Paul Koenig’s Bloody Civil War Series. It is a two-player wargame simulating Jackson’s infamous flank attack that occurred west of the Chancellor House (Chancellorsville) on May 2, 1863. As the Confederate player, you must try to crush Hooker’s unsuspecting army. As the Union player, you must regroup from the initial shock of the blow, hold onto the Chancellor House, and counter-attack against Lee’s outnumbered forces.

CBM is an old-fashioned beer and pretzels game that is not burdened with cumbersome command & control or supply rules. It can be easily played to conclusion in about four hours.

Paul Koenig’s Bloody Civil War Series is based upon the intermediate system of Avalon Hill’s Gettysburg 1977. Shiloh: Bloody April, 1862, volume one in Paul Koenig’s Bloody Civil War Series, appeared in Strategy & Tactics #264.

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Jeff McAleer

Founder/Editor-in-chief of The Gaming Gang website and host of The Gaming Gang Dispatch and other TGG media, Jeff tackles any and all sorts of games but has a special fondness for strategy, conflict sims, and roleplaying games. Plus, he's certainly never at a loss for an opinion...