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A House Divided Designer Edition

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A House Divided Designer Edition

Item #: GMT-AHD

GMT Games

Max. Discount Price: 61,05 € *

67,83 € *

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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.

This streamlining is key to Frank’s Designer Edition, in his own words:

My intent from the start was to make a game which was mechanically simple, so players could concentrate on strategy, not get bogged down in fiddly mechanical detail, and I think that was the basis of the finished game’s popularity. I later authorized a second edition, although I was busy with other projects and didn’t contribute to the Second Edition design. The Second Edition was published by Game Designers Workshop and then versions of it were later published by Phalanx Games (third edition) and Mayfair Games (fourth edition). So why revisit the game now?

Without taking anything away from the excellent work done on the second and subsequent editions by many people, let me just say this: it’s not the way I would have done it. That does not mean they are wrong, and I’m sure many people will continue to play and enjoy those editions. But it does mean they are not as in keeping with my original aim for a mechanically streamlined game as they might have been.

What exactly has 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!