CHANCELLORSVILLE and GETTYSBURG are two games which are really not quite all there these days. CHANCELLORSVILLE has been cancelled by Avalon Hill and is only available as a "collector's game", and the original GETTYBURG has been considerably modified through the changing of the frontages of the units. This article IS about the original versions of both games, and it is very likely that you have never seen both of these games.

This article is really more about combat factors than about these two particular games, however. Consequently, with a little explanation of what the games were like, you should be able to follow the article and understand it fully.

CHANCELLORSVILLE was a hex-style game, normal Avalon Hill type with the STALINGRAD - D- DAY CRT, no automatic victory, but with fortifications that could be variable placed at the beginning of the game. The mapboard was ot the Wilderness-Fredericksburg area of Virginia, with the Rapidan and Rappahannock Rivers seperating the upper third (Federal side) of the mapboard from the lower two-thirds (Confederate side). The Confederates have six infantry divisions averaging 9 points a division, one 4-point cavalry division, and twelve 2-point or 3-point artillery battalions. The divisions car also break down into 1- or 2- point brigades. Thus, the Confederate army can concentrate into a powerful small mass or spread out.

The Federal army must cross the rivers (via special ford squares, or by crossing around Fredericksburg on pontoon units or assault boat units) and defeat the Confederates to win. The Federal army is much larger but not so concentrated: twenty-one infantry divisions averaging only 5 combat factors, ten artillery units averaging 5 points each, and 12 points of cavalry in five units. The Confederates have the advantage of fortifications and of the mapboard; which is mostly woods. The oversized Federal army cannot really deploy, all hemmed in by the woods squares.

GETTYSBURG was a free-style game unlike any other board game in existence. It played like free- style minatures games. Effectively, there were no "squares" or "hexes" on the board; the units just moved around on the board, moving up halt an inch or so, turning around a few degrees. The units were rectangular, not square, and they had a front, a back, and flanks; it made a big difference in a battle which side the attack was coming from.

You can think of it like a minatures naval game, where one side of the ship is the "front" of the unit and the other side the "back" (the ends of the ship are the "Flanks") the unit can move any amount of inches. or hunredths of inches (up to its movement distance - given in inches) in any direction, and can rotate as it wants. Units can and must attack anything within a inch of the front of the unit. The units are described in the article.

Combat Factors