Birth of a Legend: Lee and the Seven Days

The Seven Days Campaign, fought from June 26th to July 2nd, 1862, represented the Union’s finest chance to put an early end to the great rebellion, and the Confederacy’s best shot at “bagging” an entire Union Army.

Virtually unknown when appointed to command the month before, Gen. Robert E. Lee promptly renamed his force, "The Army of Northern Virginia" - defining a future theater of operations the present defenders of the swampy ground east of Richmond could scarcely imagine. Both aggressive and imaginative by nature, Lee summoned virtually every spare unit the South could muster for that rarest of Southern advantages, numerical superiority.

His planned counterattack, a massive turning operation designed to roll back the divided Yankee forces and seize their main supply base, would ultimately fail to come about due to Confederate inexperience in operations and command failures. Yet Lee so dashed and demoralized the Union leadership at all levels that the Army of the Potomac could do little more than fight a desperate defensive retreat, eventually evacuating the peninsula "prison camp" it had been forced into. Here indeed was where "The Legend" began....

Birth of a Legend by Michael Rinella, is his second 19th Century area-map game, applying his award-winning Not War But Murder impulse game system to the American Civil War. The game will include one 22” by 34” inch area map, 176 large counters, and 16 pages of rules and charts that include extensive examples of play, designer notes, and variant rules, all to ensure many enjoyable game sessions on this campaign that played a decisive role in American and military history.

Birth of a Legend and issue #32 of ATO:

Map - One full color 22"x34" mapsheet
Counters - 176 full color 5/8" die-cut pieces
Rules length - 14 pages
Charts and tables - 2 pages
Complexity - Medium
Solitaire suitability - Low
Playing time - Up to 4 hours

Design - Michael Rinella
Development - Paul Rohrbaugh
Graphics - Mark Mahaffey