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Frank Chadwick’s A House Divided Designer Edition is Up on the GMT Games P500

Aug 14, 2024

Currently up for pre-order, on the GMT Games P500 list, is Frank Chadwick’s A House Divided Designer Edition. This quick playing game of the entire American Civil War can be completed in a single session. The game is for two players, ages 13+, plays in around two to four hours, and can be preordered for the P500 price of $52.00 with an expected MSRP of $75.00. I can say, having played the original GDW release dozens of times, I’m very excited to see this new edition.

About the game:

A House Divided Designer Edition is an enhanced and expanded version of Frank Chadwick’s classic American Civil War strategy game. This expanded and refined edition of the game includes all-new beautiful artwork by Wouter Schoutteten and Frank’s definitive ruleset incorporating over 40 years of input from thousands of players. Experienced players will find an expanded map, new militia recruitment rules, streamlined leader rules, and the addition of an Event Deck bringing new flavor and detail to Frank’s classic game.

A House Divided lets gamers play the entire American Civil War in a single session. Players take on the leadership of Union and Confederate forces as they recruit troops, promote Generals, and fight the key battles of the Civil War. A House Divided Designer Edition returns to the spirit of the original game by simplifying and refining a simple set of rules which create complex strategies; successful players will need to plan ahead from the start of the game, rewarding repeated play.

What’s changed?

Recruitment has been overhauled and updated, tying recruiting of militia to specific states, making capture of key cities a critical part of strategy.
To support this new Recruitment ruleset and the need to move militia to the battles, the map has been expanded to include more of the states.
A new Leader System with six different command abilities: Aggressive, Cautious, Defensive, Fast, Reckless, and Strategic. Some leaders have more than one ability, while others are specialists in one command ability.
An Event Deck tracks the passage of time and leader promotion, while adding impacts of disease, weather, arms smuggling, foreign recognition, starvation, riots, and more.
A modified Battle System which mitigates the impact of “killer armies” in a theater while making battles simpler to resolve.
And more!

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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...