This review was originally written in late 1996 and published in The BattleCry, the newsletter of the Northeastern Indiana Gaming Association (NIGA).

    Well, the long awaited revision to Johnny Reb has finally hit the game store shelves. Now all the problems, omissions, and errors with the Johnny Reb rules have been fixed, the system has been streamlined, and all that is required is to put the figures on the game board and play ... at least that is what the Introduction to Johnny Reb III by John Hill claims. Unfortunately, it ain't so!

    The biggest problem with discussing this revision is in deciding where to start in describing all of the problems in the game; so we will start with the big changes. The turn time is now 20 minutes instead of 15, ground scale is 50 yards per inch instead of 40, and one figure represents 30 men instead of 20. What do these seemingly minor number changes mean to the game? Well, they mean that Johnny Reb III isn't the same game as the previous two versions of Johnny Reb. The numbers also begin to indicate something that becomes quite clear as one reads the rules; that instead of the old joke about "Johnny Morale Check" it will now be "Johnny Stars & Bars."

    Possibly the silliest change in the rules is the figure basing. Infantry regiments will now consist of 4 not 5 stands and the maximum size of a unit is limited to 20 figures. Cavalry is limited to 3 figures per stand. On top of this, artillery will now consist of only a single stand, but will have multiple crew figures, each of which will represent one section of two guns. Further, every stand has changed in size. This insures that no one will be exempt from having to rebase troops to meet the new version's requirements. The only reasonable reason yet offered for this complete destruction of the previous basing method is that the new version requires only 80% of the space of the second edition. If this is why the changes were made, it is a ridiculous savings compared to the model work which would be required. Ok ... that is enough about pages 1, 2, and 3.

    But, what about the actual rules themselves? A game was played to try to answer that question. Sorry to say, the new rules are no better than the unit and base size changes.

    The Introduction argues that "the vast array of tables and charts was replaced with a system that required only one single sheet". Right! A single sheet does contain a set of charts. However, the table and charts provided do not meet the needs of play. Commonly used tables were not on the page, so the game could not be played without constant reference to the rules book.

    The Introduction also states that "the game mechanics were streamlined." Well, they weren't so much streamlined, as totally replaced, with equally convoluted rules. To compute a fire attack in the second edition, the number of figures was modified by multipliers and row shifts to get a line on a table to roll against. In the third edition, a computation is required to determine the number of dice to be used and a large (and very poorly constructed) table is consulted see how the dice roll will be modified before another table is checked to find the losses. How this is streamlining escaped all of the test players.

    Beyond specifics such as firing, the rules in general were notably disorganized and incomplete. The typical discussion regarding a rule and how to interpret it went something like; "The new rules don't say how this works, but in the old system the way to handle this would have been ..." The rules are simply not complete (although the same could have been said for the second edition too). As with the second edition, John Hill seems to have written the rules for use by people who already know how to play the game and who have a good understanding of the American Civil War. A novice player, without experienced help, would be completely lost in these rules. Too harsh an evaluation? Well an example of a typical problem came when attempting to determine how far an officer could be from a unit and still give the unit help with a morale check. The answer, which everyone knew from the second edition rules, was one inch. But where was this stated in the new rules? After ten minutes of fruitless search it was determined that, although the ability of an officer to help a unit in morale checks was mentioned repeatedly, the distance was not stated anywhere in the Morale rules. The known answer was confirmed later by accident, when the distance was found in the rules ... mentioned in passing as part of an example in another, and unrelated, section of the rules.

    A final example of the highly questionable work which went into the rewriting of the rules is Hidden Movement (page 62). Other than changing the introduction paragraph, the rules are the same. Unfortunately, the numbered chits discussed in the rules are not provided as part of the game, as they were in the second edition.

    As a final note of complaint, the rules book contains 65 pages of rules and index. It also contains 22 pages of advertisements. The space wasted on quotes and humor was marginally acceptable, but the advertising was too much, especially considering it was part of the cost of the book.

    Despite all of the problems in the new rules, there are some new and interesting ideas in the third edition rules. The good rule additions include new formations, separate sharpshooter stands, reserve companies, squares, reduced artillery impact, horse losses in artillery, coordinated charges, and the ability to respond to multiple charges. Some of these are long overdue corrections, and some are fine new ideas; but unfortunately, the new concepts do not out weigh the far too numerous fundamental problems with the third edition rules.

    In summary, Johnny Reb III is simply not worth the purchase price (which is marked $24 on the cover but the rules actually retail for $20). For all their problems, the second edition rules (which are still available in some places, and which are offered with Johnny Reb III) are quite superior. A group of avid Johnny Reb players might be well advised to buy one copy of the third edition rules and to incorporate those changes and additions into their own play which they find useful, but don't waste money on separate copies of the new rules.