Altar of Freedom Rule Review

 

Altar of Freedom is a table top game designed to play grand tactical games of the American Civil War.  The game is popular today because its author is famous for Little Wars TV.  This review in the end is my own opinion.  Personally I love this game but I want to be as objective as possible in reviewing it.

My Reviews are going to be graded like classes in College; A,B,C,D,E.  At the end we will get a GPA which will determine if this game makes distinguished honor roll, honor roll, passes or fails.  A good game should at least pass with a C average.

The categories I will be grading are 1) Presentation/Product/Package, 2) Game Rules/Mechanics,             3) Historical/fantasy Cannon Accuracy, 4) Cost/time, 5) Good Time and Memories

1) Presentation/Product/Package. This looks at the quality of rule book, supplemental materials, website, miniatures and other products to support the game.  The Rule set is a spiral bound book, (not my favorite Little Wars TV). Most of the rules in the book fit on less than 20 pages and the QRS is incredible.  So the game is easy to pick up and learn.  The book comes with scenarios and design notes which are great.  Little Wars TV also has supplemental scenario books and free Civil War Scenarios to help keep the game going.  There are no miniatures but the website does have free paper buildings to print for your table top.

Over all there is a lot of great stuff here.  The lack of 6mm products to support the game is not a detriment to its grade.  

B+

2) Game Rules/Mechanics.  Altar of Freedom is not a you go/I Go system.  It is a blind bidding system using command points to try outsmart your opponent with resource management.  Its goal is to try to employ limited resources that you have to try to accomplish your battle plans.  I like the idea a lot but where these mechanics go wrong is the Turn Clock.  You can use your points to control the game clock.  So if you are playing the defenders in each battle (Most of the time the rebels) you put most of your points into the clock and run it out.  It is too gamey and then the resource management really is defenders standing still and running out the turns to win.

The other unique aspect is General Traits.  These are unique to the Civil War Generals personalities and quirks which make the Civil War great.  It is a nice mechanic to take a generic "Black Powder" game and make it new.

B-

3) Historical Accuracy.  The Scenarios are spot on with great orders of battle, general personalities and the gameplay does simulate The end of Napoleonic tactics well.  The game works wonderfully from 1861-1864ish.  Where the game begins to loose that edge is if you want to repeat the siege of Petersburg or Vicksburg.

A-

4) Cost/Time.  If you were to go to bacchus miniatures you could probably buy both sets of armies, base and paint them for $100 or less.  When I started I did not know about bacchus so I choose to use Warlord Games Epic Battles Scale Miniatures.  To play a small battle like 1st Bull Run, you only needed 2 brigade boxes each side but for larger battles like Sharpsburg you need many more.  Still it is among the more affordable of grand battle games with each base being a brigade.

Time, these are not fast paced games, 2nd Bull Run and Sharpsburg each took our group 5 hours to complete in their entirety.  Make sure you have enough time set aside to play the game.

C+

5) Good Times and Memories. Honestly this is still one of my favorite games.  I have had so many great memories like my last post about 2nd Bull Run.  I truly look forward to playing this game again and I have often thought about trying to adapt it to the Napoleonic Period.

A

GPA is 3.18

Though Altar of Freedom does not make the Honor Roll it still grades really Well!  Passes with flying colors and should be a game you have on your shelf.