American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

Gentlemen of the Club,

General Pierre D. Said:

"A year ago or so, a committee headed by DS Walter developed a system that would require two criteria to gain rank, not only points. It was well thought out but was complicated and had a mixed reaction. Perhaps a simpler Point/Time system is needed.

If the issue is one that the majority of the members feel it needs to be addressed then it will require input from the members in order to determine what is to be done. Is another committee needed? What system can be accepted by a good majority of the members 60% plus? I think that it is up to the members to champion this issue. The Cabinet is available to facilitate the process.

I propose a poll here to determine if there is enough interest."

As such I am starting this Poll of the Memeber of the Club.
Current System:
<u>Points Only</u>..............<u>Points +(service)</u>
Capt 45 Points............Brig. Gen 300 points
Maj 60 Points.............Maj. Gen 450 points
Lt Col 75 Points..........Lt Gen 600 points
Col 150 Points............General 800 points
Automatic..................Cabnet Approval

I propose the system should take longer to reach the lower grades (doubling the points required has been suggested). Promotion to the general grades is not automatic, but the +(service)is not well defined. Please state your opions for the Cabnet on this issue (1) should something be done (Yes or No) and (2) suggestions on what should be done. The cabnet is looking for direction and consensis.

Thank you Gentlemen.

MG Joseph C. Mishurda



Joe Mishurda,
"Killer Angels"
XXV Corps, AoJ

While I'm content to leave it alone, I see your point on changing it. And the president I think said that there are almost as many ideas on this as there is members of the club.
What about leaving the points alone, but adding a Time-in-Service (in the club) requirement as well? That would preclude something like what I did when I was a newbie here - I jumped from 1st Lieutenant straight to LtCol and was never a captain or major. So if you require a minimum of a certain number of months in each grade then even if they have the points they won't get to jump like that.

MajGen, 2/VIII/AoS
"Beer! It's not just for breakfast anymore!"

I like Scotts idea on time in the club, Often players come out playing a ton and then dwindle away, Reward for staying power seems merited,

Field Lt. Tony Best

While it is true that many members move rapidly thru the ranks of Lt to Lt. Colonel, my view as a Corps Commander/Army Commander has been that there is a marked slow down in the move from Lt. Colonel to General.

In my opinion, that is as it should be. The points requirement from Lt. Colonel to General is sufficient to slow down things, allow time for club participation beyond games, and really shows who is willing to step up and lead.

Please understand, I am NOT critical of this, but the fact is that the fastest way to gain OBD points is in club service (i.e., Divisional/Corps Command). The more points in a game, the longer the game will take to play, which naturally slows things down. Any player who makes the jump from Lt. Colonel to General via short scenarios will be a very busy player indeed, which is – again – a good sign of participation.

We have seen in recent years a shift from Divisional Commanders, Corps Commanders and (in at least one case) an Army Commander who are of General Rank to Lt. Colonels and Colonels. Bravo Zulu to those who have stepped up and taken these posts, but at the same time, is there not the slightest concern that we have many Brigadier Generals eligible for promotion to Major General that are not willing to serve even as Divisional Commanders and thus fulfill the “club serviceâ€

For the most part this is a "don't care" topic for me, but while I can see the merits of some change I would vote "kept the current process".

It seems to me that in the past year or so, more attention has been paid to making General officer promotions dependent on club service and that is good.

Even a simple algorithm that includes the condition of time in grade until the next promotion means one more thing someone has to track and I'm for keeping club admin to a minimum.

For me, a person's rank is basically short hand for their level of "experience" and I generally assume below Colonel is less then a year and Colonels and above are some number of years. But even here you have to be careful, sometimes people play for years in a related club before trying a new period.

I think a more important topic is to see if there are some new ways to reward/recognize the people who keep the club functioning.



Lt Gen Bob Breen
Commanding XIX Corps, AoS
"Defenders of the Right"

I believe the steps up are a little fast, but early on that atleast for me was sortof important. Now, who cares about points--the person I trained under said it was that way for him--but I didn't understand--now I do. So I guess I see both sides, but I think it might be interesting to go up a little slower.
What I do find true is that at the level of, say Col. one's promotion should not be automatic. I think it would be better if points were not the main issue. Maybe one's Corp commander or Army Commander should be able to request it, but it should not happen as easily as it seems to (perhaps with a point, where it does in fact become somewhat automatic). From what I understand of the officer corps in the real army, that is about the point where officers are seperated--for those displaying upper end leadership (or political abilities), verse those who might not expect much more for promotion. Is this true? If adopted I have no problem getting back into that Col. uniform.
MG Michael Laabs
3/III A of M

The current system is fine in my opinion and it is simple. Only serious gamers will reach Brig. Gen. and it should takes time.
I have played 17 small or medium battles in 6 months and I'm presently Lt. Colonel. I think that it is fair.

I vote for the current system. [:)]

Lt. Col. Harold Lajoie 3/2/I/AoM, CSA.

<font color="beige">I think the current system does a good job of doing what it should do....promoting though the lower ranks rather quickly thereby keeping the new member's interest and enthusiasm then slows down as you progress up though the higher ranks, with club service required for promotion to major general and above.</font id="beige">

<font color="blue"><b>Brig.Gen. R.A.Weir</b></font id="blue">
<font color="yellow">-- CALVERT LINE --</font id="yellow">

<b>First--III--AoA CSA</b>

Gentlemen,

Just to give you some backround with numbers:

100 turns played gives about 30 Points for Major Victory, 25 for A draw and 20 for a Major defeat. Thus with 15 points for a promotion to the next grade, you could lose one battle at 100 turns and still get promoted, while a major victory will give you a double promotion. This is why I thought doubling the points for promotion from 15 to 30 would be more on scale with points awarded for a battle. I believe the raise in rank would still be fairly rapid even with 30 points for the next grade. As far as the General gades are concerned the bottle neck is in the service requirement (see the top gun list). I would sugggest simply shifting them up to accommodate the the longer time in grade at the lower ranks. I would also like to see the service requirement more clearly defined. Food for thought

MG Joseph C. Mishurda

Joe Mishurda,
"Killer Angels"
XXV Corps, AoJ

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by jmishurda</i>
<br />Gentlemen,

... I would also like to see the service requirement more clearly defined.

MG Joseph C. Mishurda
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

General Mishurda,

The Cabinet is currently working on clarifying the rules. (Actually, the work is still in sub-committee, but we expect to present a draft to the full Cabinet in the near future. Hopefully, by year-end the reworked rules will be available for all officers to review.)

One of the biggest goals of the project is to clarify many of the existing rules. For instance, even as a Cabinet member, I forgot that Cabinet approval is required for promotion to Brigadier General, whereas higher command responsibility (division-level or higher, that is) is only required for ranks <i>above</i> BGen. This is spelled out in the current rules, but maybe could be stated more clearly.

We may end up just muddying the waters, but at least we're going to take a stab at it. [:)]


Your humble servant,
Gen 'Dee Dubya' Mallory

David W. Mallory
ACW - General, Chief of the Armies, Confederate States of America & Cabinet Member
CCC - Sergeant, Georgia Volunteers, Southern Regional Deaprtment, Colonial American Army

General Mishurda,

I know this is off-topic, but your signature just reminded me of this 'Late Breaking News' I received a few months ago:

<i>At New York's Kennedy airport today, an individual, later discovered to be a schoolteacher, was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, protractor, set square, slide rule and calculator.

At a morning press conference, Attorney General John Ashcroft said he believes the man is a member of the notorious al-gebra movement. He is being charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction.

Al-gebra is a fearsome cult, Ashcroft said. They desire average solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in search of absolute value. They use secret code names like 'x' and 'y' and refer to themselves as 'unknowns', but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country.

As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, "there are three sides to every triangle."

When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush said, "If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers to count on."</i>

This is all way over my head. After all, there are only three kinds of people in this world: Those who can count and those who can't.


Your humble servant,
Gen 'Dee Dubya' Mallory

David W. Mallory
ACW - General, Chief of the Armies, Confederate States of America & Cabinet Member
CCC - Sergeant, Georgia Volunteers, Southern Regional Deaprtment, Colonial American Army