The Battle of Atlanta in 1864 was a pivotal event. The war in Virginia was seemingly stalemated, and the Union Army had advanced considerably but had not captured any major objectives short of Atlanta. In many ways the Atlanta campaign was more difficult than that in Virginia since there was no possibility of logistical support from the sea; Sherman's lifeline was a railroad line that transversed hundreds of miles of potentially hostile territory. Even though the Union army was superior in number to the defending Confederates, the Confederacy enjoyed a cavalry superiority and, before Atlanta, the fortifications of the city. The capture of Atlanta took a couple of months of battles, but the Union success helped cement Lincoln's reelection, perhaps the most decisive single event of the war. So, the Battle of Atlanta seems to cry out for serious attention as a military simulation subject.
I began this project about 1990 using the then-new "Civil War Brigade" system from "The Gamers". The game began as a representation of just the Battle of Atlanta proper (July 22 1864). However, The Gamers wanted something larger, a two part, four map project that also included the battles of Peachtree Creek and Ezra Church (and maybe much more). So, the game was expanded to that scale and submitted. But it never was published. Ultimately the desire was to expand the scale further to include the battles south of Atlanta with a compressed scale. But by then it seemed apparent that the game wouldn't be published anyway. Ultimately The Gamers became part of "Multiman Publishers" (MMP) and the CWB series was terminated. Many of the series games are still avaialble.
The files below reflect the state of the game as I was able to develop it, but with some recent updates made with the help of others. The map art was the best I could do at the time to represent the terrain with a style similar to the first two CWB titles, on Antietam and Gettysburg. The marker art likewise tries to emulate that style. Both were originally printed in color at 72 dpi on fanfold paper (to be taped together) or colored cardstock paper. So, the artwork is crude by modern standards. The photo at the bottom of this page shows the game as set up for the Battle of Atlanta using these components. Informational markers such as artillery breakout indicators, unit strength markers, morale state indicators, line extend markers and substitute leaders are not included; they can be borrowed from other CWB games. (Note that woods cost is 2 m.p. for infantry, as given in the 1st edition series rules.)
The unit and leaders characteristics, especially the morale ratings, are under discussion. Revisions have been suggested by the community of enthusuiasts at ConSimWorld. I have been monitoring that and have made modifications in response to what seems to be the emerging consensus. These revised unit rosters are a result of that discussion. (Revised values are shoen in red.) Also, revised Atlanta (only) game rules are listed, with fixes compatible with the revised rosters. Revised markers are expected to be posted sometime soon. (Thanks to all the good folks who have been and are helping with these revisions, including Keith Beason, Manuel Aguilar, Pat McCormick, Christine Schultz, and Thomas Prowell.)
The player needs to have the CWB "Series" rules in addition to the particular game rules. The series rules can be found online, I believe, or with other games of the series. This game was developed with the earlier versions of the series rules.
Thanks to Keith Beason, who playtested this game considerably back when it had hopes of being published, and who also helped in preparing it for release on Consimworld (CWB page).
A nicely presented play-through of the July 22 scenario by Manuel Aguilar has been documented on ConSimWorld on the CWB System page, starting at ConsimWorld/CWB/post 13976. If you want to see what a play-through looks like (and see some discussion about it), take a look!
Pictured below: The set-up for the one day "Battle of Atlanta" July 22 scenario (original markers).
