Game: This Hallowed Ground
Publisher: Xeno Games
Price: USD 59.99
Theme: American Civil War
Scale: area movement (with plastic pieces)
Rating: C
With This Hallowed Ground, Xeno Games has put together the Axis & Allies of the American Civil War. The game comes with nicely done plastic pieces of American Civil War soldiers, with each miniature pose representing a different type of unit. The game also comes with plastic poker chips that are used to represent larger formations of those same plastic figures. It is too bad that the navies are depicted with cardboard counters instead of nice plastic figures also.
There is a yearly production provided in the game, as well as naval rules covering blockading; blockade runners; riverine gunboats; ironclads; and Confederate raiders. Other subtleties of play are rail movement; capturing of production, fortresses, and their garrisons; and cavalry raiders.
Leaders are represented through the use of cards (this is probably the weakest part of the game) and arrive randomly. Some of the leaders on the cards are obscure, and some important leaders were not represented in the deck; for instance, van Dorn and A.P. Hill were included, but Albert and Joseph Johnston were not. Leaders can make or break combat due to the modifiers that they give to dice rolls on either attack or defense (the most being a +2). Another weak part of the game is the lack of historical feel for the game; levies, for example, are too balanced to be realistic (or historical).
The map is on heavy paper and looks nice; the plastic pieces are top-notch, and can even be painted if you were so inclined. If you are looking for another Axis & Allies with an American Civil War flavor (?), then This Hallowed Ground is your beer-and-pretzels game!