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Good day gamers,

After Action Report… (AAR)

I just finished Not War, But Murder war board game with my friend Anthony. I was playing the Confederates and I was in total defense mode, but I was able to eek out a win!

Not War, But Murder is an area control game representing the Cold Harbor campaign during June, 1864. The movement is point to point and has some new unique mechanics that are interesting. Here are some things I found interesting in no particular order:

• General Robert E. Lee was sick during the time of Cold Harbor, so there is a mechanic to see if he is even available to help the defense of Richmond during the game. In my game, Lee was sick most of the game. I needed him, but see next point…
• There is an ‘Advantage’ mechanic, where if you have the advantage, you can do some really cool things. However, if you use your advantage, then your opponent gets the advantage. The Union starts with the advantage and Anthony used it right away. I realized that if I now used the advantage, it would go back to Anthony and I would lose the game just based on the board state. So, I held the advantage the entire rest of the game and didn’t use it. Crazy. I needed it bad, but I couldn’t give it up, because then I would lose.
• I probably should have pulled back towards Richmond earlier in the game, but I didn’t and it did work out for me, but I gave up, too easily in my opinion, the great defensive terrain around Richmond. It was a nailbiter.
• Two other things helped my victory:
  • On two combat rolls, where we roll 2d6, I rolled an ’11’ and a ’12’. Wow. This was luck.
  • On two ‘sunset’ rolls, where the turn would end, and there is a time limit, Anthony rolled two ‘3’s, which was really bad. He has to attack and take Richmond within a few days. So, in game turns, on two whole days, he only got a chance to move one or two Corps groups out of six plus. So, this was truly lucky for me and annoying for him.

Interesting game. Now that I know how to play, I’d like to play again. It is very chess like, which I think was the game designers intention.

I give Not War, But Murder 7 Days Lee is STILL SICK!

We played on Vassalengine.org. HERE is the site for that.

HERE is the Board Game Geek link for the game.

HERE is the Wikipedia link to the campaign of Cold Harbor.

Send me questions, Dave@GameMasterGames.com

See you soon,

• Game Master Dave