Fort Sumter Review
Review by David Lent
Fort Sumter The Secession Crisis 1860-1861 is a 3 turn game followed by a final crisis where the Unionists and Secessionists are trying to be the most successful at galvanizing their forces for war. It feels like it might have been influenced by Iron Curtain, but it has better rules, components and far more theme.
GMT Games did a fantastic job on the components. The rulebook is made of resume quality paper, the map is mounted with spaces that can be read from either side and the cubes and tokens are made of wood. Best of all, the INSIDE of the box is decorated. This is a wargame where it is 100% obvious that the publisher spared no expense in making the product as high of quality as possible.
Fort Sumter’s map has some areas that need explanation. Sets of three color/icon map spaces are called a crisis dimension. You receive one victory point per turn for controlling a full crisis dimension. Spaces with a white border are pivotal spaces and allow you to move or remove 2 tokens within that crisis dimension once per turn. The crisis track is where the political capital tokens reside for each player initially. It has four zones called starting, escalation, tension and final crises. Three of these zones cause “bonus” actions to occur depending on what zone it was. An escalation breach gives the player 2 bonus tokens. The first player to breach the tension zone gets 3 bonuses tokens and his opponent may place the peace commissioner. The second player to breach it just gets 3 tokens. When the final crisis zone is breached for the first time, that player gets 4 bonuses tokens and loses 1 victory point. The second player to breach it gets 2 tokens, but doesn’t lose any victory points.
The game is setup by placing the scoring cylinders on the “0” space of the victory point track and dealing each player 4 strategy and 2 objective cards. Next, each player sets up all of his political capital tokens on both the standard and bonus spaces on his crisis track. The Union will be the first player, but later in the game whoever has the most victory points becomes the first player.
The sequence of play for each turn is:
1) Deal 4 strategy and 2 objective cards to each player
2) Each player choses one objective card and shuffles the other into the deck
3) Each player takes turns playing strategy cards for their value or event until 3 of their strategy cards has been played
4) Each player sets aside their 4th strategy card for the final crisis at the end of the game
5) Each player who controls a pivotal space may move 2 friendly tokens or remove 2 enemy tokens within that crisis dimension
6) Each player gets 1 point for each crisis dimension he controls
7) The objective cards are revealed and a player gets 1 victory point if he controls that objective. Also, he may play that card’s event if he controls the objective.
8) Check for Final Crisis or end of third round
Strategy cards in this game have a number with a color behind it in the top left corner. Blue signifies Union and Grey signifies Secessionist. Either player may play the card for its value, but only the player of the card’s color may play the event. Playing a card for its value, allows you to place that number of tokens onto spaces on the board. The event on most cards is usually more beneficial than playing a card for it’s value. Tokens are placed onto the board first from the player’s token pool. If the token pool is empty, the player takes the tokens from the crisis track. Any token removed from the board goes back to its owner’s token pool.
The Final Crisis occurs either at the end of any round where both final crisis zones are breached or at the end of the third turn. Both players put their final crisis cards in any order they wish and put the stack facedown. They then each reveal their top card. Only the bottom of the card, which says the final crisis location type, is relevant. If the types match each player either removes one of his tokens from a space in that location type or removes 2 tokens from spaces not in that location type. If the location types don’t match each player starting with the first player may put 2 tokens from his token pool or any other space into up to two spaces of that location type.
At the end of the Final Crisis, the players score again. Players get 1 victory point for each crisis dimension they control and an additional point if they have 3 or more tokens in their token pool than their opponent. If anyone controls Fort Sumter, he gets an additional victory point. In the event of a tie, the player who controls Fort Sumter wins. Otherwise, the player who controls the most spaces wins. In the extremely unlikely scenario that it’s still a tie, then the Union wins.
I found that Fort Sumter is one of the best-balanced games I’ve ever played. Most games are won or lost by a victory point difference of 0 or 1 point. I played several games that were won by Fort Sumter’s controller breaking a tie. Since the games are usually very close, it’s very important to choose wisely when playing your cards. Sometimes, playing a card of your opponent’s color can be the best choice if it’s of value 3. Other times, it’s best to play a card of your own color to use the powerful event text. In addition, it’s good to plan your turn’s strategy around your hidden objective card. I’ve found that it’s best not to make it obvious what objective you have chosen by not immediately giving it a bunch of tokens. If you do this, your opponent is going to figure out it’s your objective and try to take control of it away from you. There are also some interesting strategies like giving a pivotal space three tokens instead of giving every space in a crisis dimension one token. This allows you to move 2 of your tokens around as need during the pivotal space phase to seize the crisis dimension. If you placed one on each earlier, then your enemy would immediately put some of his tokens down to break your control of the dimension. Last, you have to be careful not to breach the tension and Final Crisis zone before your opponent. If you do, your opponent will gain control of the peace commissioner for breaching the tension zone and you will lost 1 victory point if you breach the Final Crisis zone before your opponent.
In summary, this is a really balanced game with plenty of strategy that plays in about a half hour. Everyone I played this game with really liked it and I highly recommend it.
Buy your own copy here.
Watch a play through of Fort Sumter below: