Once the game was over, the big pay off for the players was the gathering at my house a couple of weeks later. We all got together on a Saturday afternoon. Many of the players met for the first time. There was plenty to eat and drink. As the players arrived, they could survey my "master map" which I'd stood upright on an easel. As the game progressed, I had put dots on a clear acetate map overlay to show exactly where the casualties had fallen, and they told a grim story. When everyone had assembled, we sat down and I gave them the full "history" of the battle. I was careful to document it with turn-by-turn comments during the play of the game. As a visual aid, I prepared acetate map overlays for every hour of the battle. This showed the movements and positions of every division on the field and indicated where fighting had taken place.

The players could look at the map and the overlays, listen to my telling of the battle, and finally understand what had happened. Remember, this was the first any of them knew of the "big picture," especially since the battlefield was so heavily wooded and no one had seen much of the fighting. It was a riotous afternoon with lots of surprises, finger-pointing, laughter, head-shaking, and occasional blushes of pride.

Not least, there were lessons learned. I think the players are better at being Civil War generals than they were a year ago.

They learned first hand about the psychology of uncertainty and how to deal with it. The rampant timidity of the first few hours gave way more and more to a willingness to take the initiative.

They learned that good communication is a key to victory. There was a deepening of appreciation of the road net. Everyone was able to see the fateful consequences of the Union command's neglect of Granger. The Confederates saw the poor coordination that resulted from their closed-mouth tendencies.

They learned not to concede the initiative to the enemy. This was a main reason for the Confederate success. Lack of initiative doomed the Union army.

They learned to get and hold the high ground. This is not a natural instinct for board gamers. There's no point in it if you can see everything anyway. The players in my game discovered the advantages of the view from Snodgrass Hill almost by accident, but it was very valuable to the direction of the Union effort on the second day.

The importance of identifying and keeping track of the enemy in their front was clear. This became especially important on the second day, when exhausted formations were ripe for targeting.

They learned that attacks should be narrow-fronted and many lines deep: spread-out attacks only one echelon deep were consistently stopped short of their goal. This was a problem with the Confederate attacks on both days of the battle.

I hope gamers will try (or re-discover) refereed play of games in the Civil War Brigade Series. Besides being some of the most fun you'll ever have playing a game, it's the best way to recreate the feeling of Civil War command.

Meanwhile, we'll be playing Thunder at the Crossroads in the fall. Anybody want to take on my guys?

More Refereed Play

Prologue
The Game
Epilogue