Hey ho for the open road, after the bloody battle of Antietam in Bloodiest Day Peter Perla has taken his ACW Courtney Allen system to Gettysberg. Its a big rolling game with lots of opportunity to move and fight before it settles down to slug-City on Cemetery Ridge. At this point I think the system begins to derail and needs to reconstitute itself.

Indeed the accessibility and openness of the game increase the difficulty of play-testing the thing to extinction. I believe we will see a second edition of this game's rules based on the extensive gaming going on at the moment. But don't let that stop you buying a copy now and joining the fray.

The game plays quickly and very smoothly. Players are confronted with problems and a range of alternatives to solve them. The pressure of the Impulse Turn End is noticeable, but the two sides more evenly ranked than at Antietam. (Where the USA prayed for more impulses and the CSA for a "1"). The Impulse mechanism is the subject of copious errata but (as I understand it) most turns the Union starts on Impulse One, and the Impulse number changes with each Impulse so the Confederates get the even number impulses (is 0 an even number you cry?) and the Union boys get the odd. On the first Impulse of scenarios the Confederate gets the first "0" impulse. Probably still wrong but hey ho.

The Confederates, as befits the Attacker, feel a bit "dozy". The difference in defending and attacking in these militia-heavy armies is very correctly simulated. Confederate Corps commanders can only activate where Lee is present and activated and moves to activate each of them. A busy morning ahead for Marse Robert. At Antietam it was the Union attackers who missed opportunities. Here early in the morning Union units can sneak out and occupy territory before the Confederates wake up.

Accurate?

Accurate? No, in fact the system should almost be both sides are completely dozy with the Rebs avoiding attacks and the Union hugging the Victory Point Areas. As this is the battle where one seldom had more than one Confederate Corps in full cry after the first day it is in part correct. One stage of tweaking required.

The combat system has an odd feel. Attackers get to count their lead unit and one for each support, plus one extra for every three units from the same division. A good Confederate Division should be north of +15 at this stage and will pretty much outstack the Area. So to win your Confederate is going to have to win with this one stack since no other can join the merry throng. The defender counts only his lead unit and his guns plus the terrain. Even on Big Round Top that is about ten-ish. The difference is losses suffered by the defenders, but as a Fresh unit costs 4 casualty points to kill the benefit before dice changes to the attacker is merely sufficient to kill two units, even worse if the defender has four units he just spends them.

This is a key difference. A Spent unit reverts to Fresh at the end of the Turn but a dead unit is pretty much gone. The attacker has therefore got to overwhelm and kill or he is wasting his time. The Union must keep enough troops in each area he defends to simply absorb Casualty Points as Spends because he can never be beaten that way (remember a fullly stacked Confederate Area will prevent a follow-up attack). This ability to elect to spend rather than die can result in invulnerable areas. A good US Corps should be able to hold an area forever, clearly a good reason not to do any attacking. Get there first and sit tight is the Union motto.

However, if such gutless proceedings are not your style the Union Corps seem able to be pretty feisty rushing to and fro across the battlefield with wild abandon. Indeed the activity level seems high, but then these are two hour turns and I really need to story-board it. Our initial reaction was that what worked for Antietam did not work here and needed to be altered slightly to give the Gettysberg feel, but reading accounts of the battle may indicate otherwise. With longer scenarios both sides definitely seemed to be telescoping time.

Given the invulnerability of a Union Corps to anything short of massed cannonades followed by lucky charges (and that will consume a lot of Rebel units) we discovered an odd effect. On the first day the Confederates swept round the Union positions heading for the Victory Points Areas. In reality they would have sought to use their flanking to bundle the US line back, but I cannot see any flank or rear concept here (even if you pin the enemy). This means large defenders (I Corps on the first day, III Corps on the second) are left in position and the main line assaulted. ACW tactics has become Operation Barbarossa.

Quick, simple, but with some questionable areas. Next iteration Mr Perla please!