Victory Games

Review - Mosby’s Raiders by Eric Lee Smith

Review - Mosby’s Raiders by Eric Lee Smith

There are too many solitaire games where you play as the Confederacy. By my count there are at least seven. In contrast, I have found only one dedicated solitaire game where you play the Union. I find this imbalance a little distressing, and since I’m doing a project on the Lost Cause in American Civil War games, I think it behooves me to play some of them. I have previously reviewed Ben Madison’s Jeff Davis, and this week I’m going back in time forty years to what must be the first game in this suspect genre: Mosby’s Raiders by Eric Lee Smith. It would be a bit of an understatement to say that this game has something of a legacy. Eric Lee Smith was a co-designer on Ambush!, one of the original solitaire wargames, and also designed The Civil War 1861-65, potentially the most influential strategic game on the American Civil War. The confluence of an influential solo and ACW designer making a solitaire ACW game is certainly worthy of attention. What I found in Mosby’s Raiders was an interesting game portraying some less interesting history.