Boardgames - MMP - Battle Above the Clouds

The two latest games for the GCACW series arrived yesterday so I figured I would just continue along with the theme this week. I'm reaching back to the past again to Vol 8 in the series the "Battle Above the Clouds", the first foray into the western theater. This volume covers both the Chickamauga and Chattanooga campaigns in the west. Like the rest of the series the production qualities of the game are excellent. 

I do get a little concerned about how often these games are getting published. Grant Takes Command (Vol 7) was published in 2001 and it was 8 years before we saw Vol 8. Then SJW II was published in 2013 so the publishing time dropped to 4 years and now in 2018 we finally see not one volume but the next two volumes released so a 5 year period in between publication dates. I'm not sure whether I should expect the next volume to be published in 2 1/2 years or 10 years!

So here is Vol 8 Battle Above the Clouds, the campaigns for Chickamauga and Chatanooga

Box top

Box Bottom

Rule Books, note that this one has version 1.1 of the standard rules, which were at 1.2 for Stonewall Jackson's Way II.
Another interesting feature is that the full size artwork is stretched across both covers, so side by side you can see the entire piece of cover art. This was done in SJW II as well.

Game Charts

I had to pull theater display out to show off. 

Two more magnificent maps

A close up of Chattanooga on the map

Counter sheets, again the main one is in front the other ones are primarily informational counters

A counter close up.

A Care Package from Multi-Man Publishing

I haven't bought a new board wargame since I acquired a copy of Ogre from Steve Jackson Games. Part of my Christmas Present to myself was to complete my collection of Great Campaigns of the American Civil War. This first six volumes (games) in this series were published by Avalon Hill, the last three have been published by Multi-Man Publishing under license. When the first game in the series, Stonewall Jackson's Way, was released back in '92 it really set a new standard for maps. I would buy these games just for the maps. The original six were all set to the same scale so you could overlap them and put together almost the entire eastern theater. I will have to pull out my copy of Grant Takes Command and see if the maps still link up, I'm sure they do.

Boardgames have become incredibly expensive! These games ran $83 each, I think the originals only cost between $20 and $30, the only consolation is that I don't have to paint any miniatures to play them. Volume VIII is Battle Above the Clouds and covers both the Chickamauga and Chattanooga campaigns. I haven't opened the boxes yet or I'll become very distracted, maybe on the weekend.

Volume IX is a little different. It is both a revision of the original Stonewall Jackson's Way as well as covering the entire 1st Bull Run campaign. Its been a long time since I have sat down to play a wargame and I'm looking forward to pulling the whole collection out and playing them again.

Just what I was hoping for a box of air bags. They are a lot better than foam peanuts though!

An invoice, I had managed to forget how much these cost me