Blue & Gray: Four American Civil War Battles

[5] In the December 1975 edition of Airfix Magazine, Bruce Quarrie thought that Blue and Gray provided buyers with "four games for practically the price of one.

He concluded "Blue and Gray is recommended both for newcomers to simulation gaming and for the old hands as an entertaining bit of light relief from the complexities of modern boardgaming.

";[7]: 129  Chickamauga gave the players "lots of options" with "a great deal of manoeuvre and roadblocking";[7]: 141  Cemetery Hill was "a rather bland Gettysburg";[7]: 140  and Shiloh was "fought in very rough terrain, which is rather limiting.

He concluded by giving Blue & Gray an Overall Evaluation of "Good", saying, "These are solid but unspectacular games suitable for a casual afternoon of beer and pretzels.

Although Musson acknowledged there was some downside to the very simple rules, he thought they opened the door to new players: "Its simplicity makes it low on realism but high on playability — a game can be completed easily in an evening or less.

"[1] In Issue 98 of Strategy & Tactics, Steve Winter commented, "While the games are fun to play, action sometimes proceeds along lines very different from the historical events."

"[10] In a retrospective review in Simalcrum #20, Steve Newberg, Peter Bartlett and Luc Olivier commented "As the first of the quad games, Blue & Gray set the mold.

The fact that Blue & Gray was based on the Borodino/ NAW system pretty much explains why, though these games are often rather fun, they are not very good simulations of American Civil War battles.