American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

Col. Lynn makes a very good point.

Personally what I would like to see would be the ability of regiments to form a picket line, for detection / scouting purposes only. Something like an area say six hexes wide, one hex deep, where all enemy units are detected and pay a penalty of one MP per hex. No "units" in these hexes, just this ability of detecting and delaying the enemy. No combat power whatsoever. The extent of the covered area could depend on the size of the regiment, like say 100 men per hex covered. Very similar to the present abstract representation of skirmishers, only with the ability to cover a far wider stretch of ground.

Behind this picket line, additional regiments could be stationed centrally to move forward to meet an enemy incursion, once detected by the pickets. In this way, even a detached brigade could effectively screen a rather long front and oppose some local incursions. We would not need to place entire divisions on the flanks just to guard against a surprise that may never come.

The "skirmishers" in the game are more in the nature of pickets anyway: they are for patrolling the forward area of the regiment (rather than being light combat units with a high nuisance value as in the Nappy games). Only, as has been pointed out, they cover way too little ground to do this effectively; we still need masses of formed regiments in the woods to provide this picket line.

Gen. Walter, USA
AoS / War College