Inferno in the Bluegrass

Inferno in the Bluegrass brings The Gamer's Line of Battle (LoB) series into the Western Theater. The Battle of Perryville, the largest battle fought in Kentucky during the American Civil War, was the culminating engagement of the Heartland Campaign of 1862. This was the South’s attempt to invade the border state and garner support for its cause while simultaneously forcing Union armies in the west on the defensive. By October, the Army of the Ohio was on the move, poised to throw back the invaders. Bragg, confident that an initial Federal advance would focus elsewhere, was completely unaware that Don Carlos Buell was converging on his army in the small town of Perryville. As the sun rose on October 8th, 1862, neither army could have known that the coming engagement would ultimately determine the fate of Kentucky in the war.

The sheer scale of violence at Perryville factored heavily into the design, over 7,600 casualties were tallied - resulting in one of the larger casualties per hour rates of the war. Independent Command rule replicates Confederate commanders blurring the lines of command by fragmenting divisions into small, independent commands, creating confusion and limiting effectiveness. The Attack Commencement Chart limits the ability of the Confederate player to organize one massive assault. The Union, conversely, is hamstrung from the outset. The Union Alertness Table represents the phenomenon of an “acoustic shadow”, which caused Buell to be blissfully unaware of the overall tactical situation hours after the initial fighting had started. The map shows the parched land in meticulous detail, corroborated by the designer walking the battlefield to get a great feel of the ground.

This is Nick Roser's first published design. His commitment and expertise on the battle shines through the design. Nick's ancestor, Johann Christian Kurtz, fought in the battle, so his personal connection to Inferno in the Bluegrass is in his blood.

Components:

• two 22" x 34" mapsheets
• two countersheets (560 counters) - one unit, one marker, 1/2"
• one LOB v3.0 Series rulebook (64 pages, glossy, color)
• two LOB v3.0 Charts and Tables (each 11" x 17" folded on hard stock)
• one Inferno In the Bluegrass game specific rulebook (32 pages, glossy, color)
• two player aid cards (Terrain Key, TEC) - 8.5" x 11" each, hard stock
• two 6-sided dice