By Kevin Clasing on BGG and CSW
I played my first game of Stonewall’s Sword this past weekend, and had to comment about an amusing aspect of the game.Our first turn must have taken more than an hour. We felt incredibly clunky doing everything, because most of the aspects of the game are different from war-games my regular opponent and I are used to. I don’t know how he felt, but I certainly would have ready to throw in the towel with another turn like that.And then the light clicked on. We probably played three turns in the time it took to do the first. Once you get what the system is doing, everything is perfectly logical and quickly falls into place. We both ended loving the game, and it was very close (2 VPS), but I was able to pull out a win, which just gave him incentive to demand a rematch.I’m just writing this for prospective players: don’t give up. Just give it a little time and you’ll be able to pick up the game in hardly any time at all.I am a definite purchase for Pea Ridge as well as other games in the same family.
The game manages to be easy to play (once you get it, as I said, it takes a turn or so), but still reflects the difficult decisions made by the commanders, and, most of all, the way things go wrong while attempting to command without falling into being a caricature. Lower commanders do the wrong thing (not in their opinion), orders get lost or delayed, the battle waxes and wanes across the field, men are heroes, men are cowards — I just love it!
