American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

John, the club is fortunate to have you as one of its members, and I for one am most appreciative of the comments, insights and background to the Overland Campaign that you have taken the time to provide elsewhere within this forum. I think that there will be a great deal of gaming going on with this title over the next two to three years, and that the lessons discovered and taken, besides providing a great deal of interest and enjoyment, may very well serve as much of an accurate portrayal of the historical events as is possible within the limitations of the game engine. For now, I want to assure you that the club should be and is very excited, interested and satisfied to have this latest, very well developed addition to the game "arsenal." As the game's lead designer you are to be saluted for managing such a project to a published end. I personally found your game notes to be most informative, as well as those offered by Ken Jones. And I see that the ACWGC was well represented among the game's playtestors in Don Vandergriff, Rusty Hodgkiss, Mark Nelms, Ernie Sands, Pat Thompson, Chet Guiles and Bob Weir, all coordinated by Rich Hamilton.

Well done, John! Very well done!

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General Jos. C. Meyer, ACWGC
Union Army Chief of Staff
Commander, Army of the Shenandoah
Commander, Army of the Tennessee
(2011-2014 UA CoA/GinC)

I second that! {SALUTE}

Deano

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Lt. General David Martin
First Brigade, First Division, First Corps, Army of the Potomac

Aw shucks, folks. I'm speechless!
When I got into computer gaming I quickly became disinterested in any game that did not have a full editor--oob, map, the whole nine yards. Regardless of due diligence, all packaged scenarios, maps and oobs contain flaws, which cannot be corrected by the gamer, and I don't have to tell you fellows that that is very frustrating. In designing Overland, we tried to give players as many options as possible, mindful of what we would like to see if we were the players.
My first computer game was in 1986. Carriers at War, for a Commodore 64! It was fully editable, and I spent way more time building navies and scenarios and maps than I did playing the game. Next was Decisive Battles of the Civil War, also by SSG of Australia. Max maps were 27 x 27 hexes and max units were 127, I think. Fully editable. Next was Age of Rifles, which would be the best there is if not for max maps of only 50 x 50 hexes, only 300 units on a side, and a casualty system that is even more bloody than HPS/JTS. After I playtested Chickamauga, Rich Hamilton hired me to help finish up the Mexican War game, which had been hanging fire for quite some time. I designed all of Zachary Taylor's battles, which required a steep learning curve because all I knew about that war was that Grant was there as a peach-fuzz 2nd Lt. I was then honored to be given the Overland job, in partnership with Ken Jones, and the rest is history. We are now looking for other worlds to conquer.
I guess I was not quite as speechless as I thought. Sorry about that.
And by the way, we are still looking for rebs to MP the monster scenario
JD Ferry
2lt 2/20th Corps

Yes Sir! <salute>

To you and all the other contributing members of the club I raise a glass in your honor.
It is such selfless work ethic that truelly makes the world go round.

Huzzah!
<salute>

Respectfully

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Brig. Gen. L.T. Korotko
1/1/VI/AotS
The Bucktails

I do not yet own Overland...but all I have spoken to said it is a fine game. Hats off to John Ferry and all those who dedicate their time to the games and club so as to provide the rest of us with a Happy Gaming experience.

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MG Brett Kolcun
1st Brigade
Boots and Saddles Division, XX
AOC

Gentlemen:

Your positive comments on our efforts are most appreciated. We also enjoy the critical ones but I can assure you that we've heard them all before--from ourselves. We had a great team testing the game, including some very knowledgeable fellows. We know that Overland represents the best of many compromises and JT & Co. believed in the project enough to add a few new features. I enjoyed working on it and now I am enjoying playing it.

So far, my Yankees won the first day of the Wilderness fighting (I advise the Reb commanders to wait for Longstreet) and now I am playing a variant of North Anna -- lets call it the battle between the rivers -- as the Yanks are advancing from the west and the Rebels have blown the bridges on the Telegraph Road.

I have also launched Hancock's pre-dawn assault on the Mule Shoe (A1) and the first hour has played out about as historically as a designer could hope for. It promises to be a long day of close combat.

Everyone enjoy...

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BG Ken 'Muddy' Jones
1st Brigade/3rd Division/XV Corps/Army of Tennessee
USA

As one of those playtesters I can verify that there was a lot of "discussion" about aspects of the game. I think John and Ken ended up with a pretty good product.

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General Mark Nelms

3/2/XX/AoC "Blackhawk Brigade"

Union Military Academy Instructor

Mark--
I just made note of the amount of traffic we had on the Overland Design Forum--and also picked up on a glitch that you recently reported: Design Forum shows 399 threads, and 2,965 messages during the time we worked on the title.
J D Ferry
2LT, 2/20th Corps

Thank you for all your hard work gentlemen! I am having fun with the game.

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Gen. Derald Riggs
Army of the Cumberland
Union Army

John,

Thank you so much for your fine contribution in the Overland Campaign release. It is awesome! <salute>

I had to laugh at your mention of the Commodore 64. I had the Vic 20 that proceeded that and I fully remember the SSG releases as they were what truly got me involved in this hobby!

I very much like your players perspective in the new release and I FULLY agree with you on the importance of having a full editor that allows us to go on and do additional creative things that will be enjoyed by everyone in the gaming community!

Again... an outstanding job! THANK YOU!!!

Clear the way for the Irish! My problem is that the kudos are all coming from Yankees! I need a reb that I can hit up for our MP game!
Thanks very much for all the comments
J D Ferry
2lt 2/20th Corps