Crossroads of a Nation
By William Sariego
September 2006

To paraphrase the man who can lay claim to being our greatest president, “The world will little note what I write here, but will never forget what they did here.” The Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 was a penultimate event of not just the Civil War, but of our nation's history itself.

Coupled with another Federal victory in Mississippi at Vicksburg, the dawn of July 4th, 1863 — Independence Day — would at last see a clear road paved for Union success. At a crossroads in a sleepy Pennsylvania town, the fate of a nation and a people were decided by force of arms.

As a personal note, the battle is deeply etched in my own consciousness. I grew up in Alabama, the fabled Heart of Dixie and seat of the first Confederate capital in Montgomery. During the early 1970s as a child I was constantly hit with catch-phrases of Southern nationalism, and whites as a rule were hardly hesitant to display open racism. I remember bumper stickers and posters — a grizzled old Confederate veteran defiantly waving the flag and saying “Lee surrendered, I didn't!” Or the classic euphemism, “The South shall rise again.” Nowadays the racism is a bit more subtle, and “Heritage, not hate” is the mantra of choice. And as a young boy I bought the propaganda, hook, line and sinker.

Sometime during the mid-eighties, when I was around 24, I had traded the Stars & Bars of my youth for the Hammer & Sickle of a college radical. This certainly caused me to see the American Civil War in a far different light. The war started as an example of class struggle, a contest between a burgeoning bourgeois economy in the North and oligarchic feudalism in the South. It later became a war for the liberation of an oppressed people and its goal no less than the elimination of a heinous evil that made a mockery of the Declaration of Independence.

Yet despite rejecting the “Old South” mentality, I never lost my fascination with the heroic lads in gray who from a military standpoint bravely fought for their cause against increasingly overwhelming odds. Just as one need not be a Nazi to appreciate Erwin Rommel, one need not be a Klansman to appreciate Robert Edward Lee. This fascination has lead me to travel battlefields extensively in five states (Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee) and a few scattered others, notably Antietam. One battlefield I have yet to visit, however, is Gettysburg.

The Game

It is a battle that has been repeatedly simulated in our hobby, sometimes with multiple games from the same company. Some have been huge, designed with an eye to realism (A Terrible Swift Sword). Others are small and designed for playability (Cemetery Hill). Avalon Hill tried to do it all in one package with Gettysburg ’77, with three distinct games in one box, using different counters and rules. Only a few have really gotten it right in my opinion, though I'm sure each has dedicated fans out there. I tend toward playability, and for my own personal pleasure the version in Across Five Aprils by Victory Games was the best of the old lot.

Was there room for yet another game on Gettysburg? The answer was yes, and in 2002 veteran designer Dave Powell teamed up with Avalanche Press to bring you a fantastic new offering in this crowded field. Dave Powell's Gettysburg 1863 is a magnificent treatment of this key battle.

The map uses area movement and its appearance gives a nice, period feel to the battlefield. The counters are magnificent, mixing 100 1- 1/3 inch long counters to represent infantry units with 168 2/3 counters for cavalry, artillery and leaders.

It uses Avalanche’s simple 6-to-hit system. The old phobia of too much dice-rolling being too much a luck factor has long since been disproved. With our combat system there is no more artificial searching for the extra factor to raise an odds level. In fact the more dice you roll the more luck averages out, with “hot” hands being replaced by “cold” ones. It certainly beats a 2:1 gamble on Tobruk on the last turn to determine a winner (Avalon Hill's Afrika Korps); now that was “luck” in a wargame!

Combat units have multiple steps to reflect their losses over the course of the battle. Part of larger system of games, the rules themselves are easy to grasp for an experienced player, and not so difficult for a novice, either.

Gettysburg 1863 has already been the subject of an excellent leadership variant from a previous Daily Content update. I highly recommend fans of the game giving some of those options a try. Who can resist the temptation of using Stonewall Jackson at Gettysburg?

Like most games on the subject — and this is a reflection of history — the Confederate player is up against the odds in the battle. Winning on day one is almost required, or at least crippling the Union more than historically occured, so that Billy Yank can be mopped up on day two. Any longer than that, and Johnny Reb is in deep trouble.

The Variant

Here are a few variant rules to aid the Confederate player.

1. Porter Alexander

Col. Alexander was still a young officer at Gettysburg. Before the war ended he would rise to general’s rank and be recognized as the most brilliant Confederate artillery commander of the war. At Gettysburg he helped direct the grand battery that bombarded the Union lines before Pickett's famous charge.

Add Alexander as an artillery officer who functions per rule 5.4. He arrives on the 0800 turn, July 2nd in Area B. For the Third Day scenario deploy him in Area 123 at start.

2. Pickett's Division

You doubtless have noted Pickett's Division is represented by only one long counter and the rest of the Confederate divisions by two. This is because during the campaign two of his brigades, those of Corse and Jenkins, had been detached for other duties.

Add 2/1st (Pickett-2) to the Confederate order of battle. The new unit arrives with the rest of Pickett's Division on July 2nd, 1500. For the Third day Scenario deploy in Area 205 at start.

3. Lee's Health

Lee was an elderly man beginning to suffer from declining health. Gettysburg would not see him at his best. Unlike many games on the subject, which give him superman status even in this battle, Gettysburg 1863 accurately reflects this issue. Lee has a better Tactical Rating than Meade, but the same Command Radius and less Initiative. The before-mentioned leadership article on our website presupposes an emotionally and physically stronger Lee, with the aid of his right-hand man, the dynamic Stonewall Jackson.

This variant doesn't bump Lee up quite as much, but does make his initiative equal to Meade. Substitute this counter for the Lee counter in the game if you want to show Bobby Lee in better form.

Postscript

Gettysburg 1863 does not need my philosophizing or variations. It stands as a tribute to the design genius of Dave Powell. It belongs on your shelf among the other Gettysburg games, and a place on the playing table in front of them all. Enjoy.

You can download the new counters here.

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