Gettysburg
This classic battle from the Civil War has been gamed many times before. Gettysburg is now under development in an all new Pub Battles format.
It feels very daunting to me to take on a project like Gettysburg. I’ve actually been avoiding it. It is a big title. This is the big leagues for wargaming. There is lots of competition for Gettysburg games. No other battle has been looked at so carefully and scrutinized by designers, companies and wargamers.
Why yet another Gettysburg game? How many more do we need? What can we possibly offer that hasn’t been done before? There are already several excellent games on this battle. What can we do better than them? Is there anything new, fresh and worthwhile that can be done?
We’ve thought long and hard about this. First of all, why make anything new? Well, why not? Is there ever a definitive anything? After Ford came out with the Model T, why make any other cars? It’s already been done.
There are always new products: New editions, improvements, variations, perspectives. The Model T was great for the day but look at all the cool options we have today!
What can Pub Battles offer that is new? Well first we have the obvious: graphics. Just a beautiful Pub Battles style canvas map and blocks would make the game worthwhile. -even IF the game was a complete bomb. (An early version of this is already in a museum display!)
The Pub Battles has proven itself to be very versatile and accurate at modeling ‘extreme’ battles. Our premise has always been that if you can model the impossible, (Little Bighorn, Chancellorsville, Brandywine) then you have a solid foundation for any battle.
I’ve been most worried about the entry and development of the battle on the first day. As a meeting engagement, timing is huge. In most Gettysburg games, the arrival of every piece can be critical. Won’t the chaos of Pub Battles trash this delicate balance and ruin the game?
Our play testers have been arguing that this is exactly what will make this the BEST Gettysburg game ever. Many Gettysburg games settle into a boring and set opening. The same moves. The same arrival. The same attacks. The same result. The random move order in Pub Battles will break all of these molds. Every game will be different. Every move will be critical.
Are my worries unfounded? Are the play testers correct? Time will tell but we are now entering into development on this classic game: Pub Battles Gettysburg.
-Note the map graphic is an unfinished, rough draft. We’ll post more pix as we get further along.
Ok – another Gettysburg game, sure, we can always use more ways to figure out why the the CSA didn’t win the battle and the war!
You know, I just heard on a history documentary last week that Robert E. Lee had a heart attack after the first day. Is that true? I hadn’t heard that before.
Well, after Ewell LOST the battle for the army at the end of July 1, I am not surprised!!!
Some historians and medical experts suspect that Robert E. Lee had a mild heart attack during the Gettysburg Campaign prior to the start of the battle.
Is this game going to cover all three days? Looking forward to this one
Yes!!
In fact, it is going to cover the East Cavalry Field as well. We can’t find a good map that covers all of this area, so we are custom making one from scratch. It should be big, like the Marengo map.
Sounds even better!
No news in a while, how is it going?
I’m in. Let’s get this going!
Are you working off the 1876 Army Engineer’s map, per chance?
I think so. As a base map. That’s not big enough. We are extending the map east, bigger than most Gettysburg game maps. So it will include the East Cavalry field also.
It’s kinda cool that the Civil War Trust animation of Gettysburg looks like Pub Battles, but with blocks as brigades. I suppose if a Pub Battles game were animated it would look like that.
Hello, how is the work on Gettysburg coming along? Do you have an expected production date? Need any play testers?
Pretty much done now. Just trying to crank Waterloo out the door. Then we can start on Gettysburg games right away. 🙂
The number of counters included in the game plays a role in pricing. Both Lee and Meade had additional formations they could have brought to the battle by rearranging their defenses in VA, MD and PA. Perhaps additional counters (Cooke, for example) could be included as a price up option. Otherwise, the CSA has to destroy 1.5 corps on the first day to have a chance of winning. A commander can bring up extra troops at a VP cost. Also, varying movement allowances would be helpful. A unit with Hancock in the lead might move at 6 hexes instead of a normal 4. Or a lack of orders or urgency might generate only a 2 or 3 move with troops under an inferior commander. Artlliery fire at long range was usually ineffective but might slow an advancing unit (for the next turn) or force an immediate retreat. Would enjoy play testing for you. Have been playing these infernal games since 1960. Have owned and played hundreds.
Got Waterloo today
Can’t wait for this
Russ uk
Marshall, As you know I’ve been supporting Pub Battles since the play test days of Brandywine and have purchased every one since then. I know Gettysburg is a bit of a departure in its format but there’s nothing wrong with breaking new ground when you’ve got a proven track record like you do with the earlier games. I sincerely look forward to Gettysbutg going on sale soon.please let us know when we can start preorders for it. Good luck as always.
Any updates on the status of Gettysburg going to print?
We did the final photo shoot today. If we get the video done tomorrow, it should go up Sat night. 🙂
JUST GOT IT, stickered and got updated rules offline and setup at Game store I go to.
Had a couple come over and liked its looks, I played several turns of first turn battle and boned up on rules hadny played for a few months and this was a game of manuever for terrain and getting firstest with the mostest in places.
GET THIS GAME, YOULL BE GLAD, HAS SCENARIOS FOR ALL THREE DAYS AND COMPLE CAMPAIGN ON A BIGGER MAP AREA THAN MOST GETTYSBURG GAMES, Try swinging past Yanks, try going around to Culp and Wolf hill area.
Why is your website saying Gettysburg is not released and you don’t offer it? It can be pur based elsewhere.
This is a Blog post before release. It is available now on our product page:
https://www.commandpostgames.com/product/gettysburg/
What do you need to buy to play Gertysburg? Are the measuring sticks or dice of your site needed? And prob a dumb question but a message over on another site makes me ask do the series rules and specitic game rules come with it? It really looks intriguing and I generally do not go fro block type games this will be my first!
Good question. We have changed are format around a few times. It currently ships with series rules, scenario rules, regular dice and a measuring ‘card’. -everything you need to play.
The wooden sticks and PB dice are add-ons. They are nice extras but you don’t need them to play.
Also is it in stock?
Yes!
Gettysburg Pub Battles Extended Review
This is the second review I have posted. Since my first one, I have played multiple games, both solitaire and with other players. Each game is more interesting than the last, which is true of very few manual war games, in my experience.
First, the map. This remains one of the best maps of the Gettysburg battlefield ever published. It is as close as you can get to seeing the battlefield through the eyes of Robert E. Lee or George Gordon Meade.
The key to appreciating this game is always playing at least two full days. If you only play the first day, then the Confederates have no incentive to try and preserve their forces, since they aren’t going to have to fight the majority of the Union Army. At the same time, they can never win a major victory, because there simply aren’t enough Union troops on the map. The best they can do is a minor victory, which will be the end result of almost every game. The Union, for their part, can’t even do that well on the first day. The Confederate numerical superiority is simply too overwhelming.
Playing both the first and second day changes the game dramatically. For the Confederate player, the first day becomes all about preserving forces and avoiding losses, while pushing back the Union line. Position matters, because in this game, high ground is everything. A line of artillery on Cemetery Ridge or on the Peach Orchard ridge, supported by infantry, is an immensely strong position, and will be very difficult to take. It will almost certainly cost the South substantial losses.
So what does this mean for the Army of Northern Virginia? Success on the first day is measured by how successful you are in compromising the Union positions on the high ground south of Gettysburg, without wrecking half your army. Be patient, only attack when you have an advantage, and do NOT reinforce failure. You probably can’t take the high ground south of Gettysburg, but if you can push a line of infantry close enough, you can force the Union forces on the second day to either abandon that high ground or to attack your line themselves. That is what you want. Longstreet was right all along: make the Yankees come to you. But be patient. You have enough time to put together two or three major attacks on the first day, rallying spent forces in between. The Union line will buckle eventually, especially with the arrival of Early’s Division on the Union right.
So what is the key to Union play for the first day? Get your cavalry as far forward as fast as you can, to force Heth to deploy before he reaches Herr Ridge. You have to play a VERY conservative game on the first day. Don’t take chances, always be aware of how much daylight is left, and do NOT get into a slugfest with the Confederates. You will lose. Your artillery is not going to be up until the second day; you have to preserve the high ground long enough for your guns to occupy it. If you are going to attack, do it to drive back Confederate infantry that is threatening to compromise your control of Cemetery Ridge or the Peach Orchard. You can survive the loss of Cemetery Hill; you can’t survive the loss of the high ground south of it.
The second day is going to be a slugfest. The Confederate player has got to start inflicting some serious casualties on the Union to have any chance of winning. The best time to do this is in the morning, before the bigger Union corps start arriving with all of the Artillery Reserve. You still have to manage your losses, and once again, be patient. If an attack doesn’t go well, pull back, rally your forces, and try again. You have time. Pay attention to positioning your scarce artillery units – one of the ways to carry a heavily defended portion of the Union line is to bombard to drive off the Union artillery unit or spend the front line infantry block, then attack with two fresh blocks. You can only do a couple of these attacks at any one time – make them count. If you can weaken the left flank of the Union line in the morning, especially if you can drive him off the high ground around the Peach Orchard, Longstreet’s Corps will be able to seriously threaten to unhinge the Union line in the early afternoon. Keep careful track of how many units you are killing and how many you are losing – it’s a race, best case you will start to approach the magic number of nine union blocks destroyed, while you are still at six or seven (as an aside here, I do not play with the rule that restores half the destroyed units each night; I don’t think it is realistic or historically accurate, and it makes it almost impossible for either side to eke out a victory on the second day).
For the Union, play for time, but defend the core of your position – Cemetery Ridge – at all costs. If you have to throw everything you have into counterattacks to retake the ridge, do it. Get your artillery up there, dig in, and don’t retreat no matter what. You can afford to lose Cemetery Hill, the Peach Orchard, even Little Round Top, but you have to hang on in the center. If things break right, you can launch a general counterattack in the late afternoon after the South has spent most of its remaining forces trying to take the ridge.
So, if the Union is still standing at the end of the second day, its probably all over for the South. By this time all of the Federal forces are in place, and the Sixth Corps can fill in half the Union line. Pickett may help a little, but options for Lee are going to be meager to say the least.
All in all, it is a great game, that with two careful players will come down to the wire, waiting to see which army will break first.
Will there be any scenarios done for Kriegspiel?
Yes!
There will be a ton of pieces. Huge map also. It will take awhile to sort through the OB and create all the stickers.
We have done this and completed a Waterloo KS set. We just haven’t had time to get it up on our store yet.
Any updates on the Kriegsspiel style Gettysburg game? Will this be brigades?
Nope. Krigsspiel scale: ‘half battalions’ -which is mostly equivalent to regiments in the American Civil War.
There will be a ton of pieces for this. Any volunteers to put together a detailed OB? A guy did this for us for Waterloo. If you come up with the OB, we just need to work up the graphics for the stickers. The map is already to go.
What is in it for you? We’ll send you a free copy of the map and pieces with stickers when done. -Also credit for doing the work!
Email us if you are interested!
Email sent re: order of battle
There are quite a few OOBs out there already. From Wiki and from other regimental games. Why not use those?
Have sent a detailed OB for a Gettysburg Kriegsspiel version. I hope you publish soon, as I am looking forward very much to seeing the final product.
I also developed and shared with Marshall a brigade level Pub Battles Gettysburg game, including labels for the units and a rules supplement for playing at the brigade level. I included a turn record/order of appearance sheet detailing the order of appearance for both Confederate and Union over the three days of the battle, using hourly turns. If you want to build the game yourself, it requires expanding the map to 33.5X33.5 inches (roughly 1:12,000 scale), which can be done by any general printing service. You will need two Pub Battles Ancient games for the one inch infantry and cavalry brigade blocks, and one each set of Kriegsspiel Red and Kriegspiel White block set for the artillery units (12 to 16 guns per half inch block) and for some additional headquarters blocks. I’ve played the game several times on this scale, and it is a great game.
Marshall,
I’m working with an ARNG Officer Candidate School (OCS) class that is conducting a staff ride to Gettysburg in June. We may have a few hrs to conduct a kriegspiel staffex and refight either the 2nd or 3rd of July. We’ll have about 14 Officer Candidates which should allow each OC to play a army or corp commander.
I’d like to do double blind game with me and possibly a few others acting a referees/white cell.
I’m looking for some best practice and resource ideas from Command Post Games or the community. Any thoughts?
V/R
Larry
Yes, there are several groups in the military that are using Pub Battles to train military officers in the classroom. Where are you guys located?
I would make sure to use the limited communications and written orders. We have good discussion leader questions for Kriegsspiel games. I can adapt them to Gettysburg to send you. Those are handy to have. You can use them for discussion or assignments to write about later too.
I can put you in touch with another instructor that uses Pub Battles to teach with. He might have some good tips based on his experience.
Yes, commanders will use written orders (5×7 cards) with limited time. I welcome any discussion leader questions you have, and/or contacts with other instructors for tips. I’m writing FRAGORD shells for both sides now.
Each OC will have an assigned army or corps command-we’ll CPX/simplified kriegsspiel 3 july 1863. Focus is developing commanders intent & conducting mission command. We’ll use your umpireless concept, but with myself and a few OC/Ts to umpire/adjudicate as necessary.
I’ll get some pictures and post em on command post games facebook site. We’ll capture AAR too.
Thx much!
V/R
Larry
Don’t go crazy! What use is great game? If you can’t get people to play? Don’t lose the beer and pretzel appeal of the game.