Game Session Report: Gettysburg

The date 22 December 07.

The game: Gettysburg by Avalon Hill, 125th Anniversary edition.

So Pico called me up and asked me if I wanted to get in a game. As I am a no lifer I gladly said yes.
I had bought Gettysburg for 25 bucks from the same seller who I got Car Wars Deluxe from. (The version with 2nd edition Revised Compendium in it.)

As it only has 2 large pages of rules (Probably 4-5 pages of normal rules book sized text.) and a big booklet that's mostly historical information, scenario setup, examples, and a couple optional rules, it was perfect for a quick pick up and play. I had previously read the rules a couple weeks beforehand, but with the amount I read and watch, I had forgotten much of it. (The same thing happens with Squad Leader, a game whose rules I seem to read every 6-10 months.)

So when I got over Pico's I quickly reread out loud most of the rules, pulled the counters for the 1st Day scenario, rolled to see who was Confederate and who was Union (I would get the latter.) and we gave it a go.

Overall, its a VERY light wargame, even simpler than Ogre/GEV. Largely you just add together all the attacker values and add a D10 roll, and do the same for the defender. Depending on the difference and who is the attacker will tell you what results you apply. Nothing, push back, push back with flipped over counter, push back with 2 flipped over counters.

As the game uses a rather small but handsome 2 part mounted map on a 2 hours per turn, 700 meters per hex scale (as opposed to many Gettysburg wargames which are 100 dollar plus "monster" affairs...) this is really fine overall at the level played. Honestly it would make a good combat system for a grand scale Civil War game with a wider array of counters and additional maps.

Victory conditions are based on damage to enemy units, and objective hexes held on the map.

For our first battle Pico rolled VERY well and I did very poorly. The few good rolls I had were countered by his rolls, or just the sheer quality of Confederate troops on the map. It seems as if Day 1 Union strategy is mostly to run away and wait for reinforcements. Given the amount of units that show up in later turns and on later days, this would turn things around for the Union which is VERY hard pressed at the start.

Overall I enjoyed the game and look forward to playing it again sometime.

Given that Pico is a big fan of the Civil War and its a decent "Grab n Go" game while not being mindless drivel, we will almost certainly do battle again!