Three Days of Gettysburg traces its lineage back to Richard Berg's "Terrible Swift Sword" (1976). Take command of the Union Army of the Potomac or the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, the largest battle of the American Civil War.
Players command their armies via the chain of command from corps down through divisions and brigades to the individual units - regiments of infantry and batteries of artillery. The series relies on interactive chit-pull mechanics to simulate the often-chaotic nature of the 19th Century battlefield at the regimental level.
Three Days of Gettysburg Deluxe Edition will include ten-plus scenarios. They range from small skirmisher contests on half-sized maps to the ultimate Gettysburg experience on four full full-sized maps depicting the entire battle, including the East Cavalry Battlefield! Other scenarios will depict the first day’s fight for the hills surrounding Gettysburg; the second day’s assault on Sickle’s salient; the third day’s cavalry fight on Cress Ridge; Buford’s defense against Heth as his division approaches Gettysburg using the new skirmisher rules; the July 2nd evening assault on Cemetery Hill; the fight north of town on July 1st, and several others. The game includes smaller scenario maps; experienced players will be able to play many of the scenarios in one sitting. The 3DoG Deluxe edition will include many exclusive rules to represent the special situations at Gettysburg. However, many rules are optional, allowing players to decide what level of complexity they want.
New components include cavalry counters of four strength points or less that allow the player’s tactics to resemble historical cavalry tactics at Gettysburg better. Confederate dismounted cavalry counters allow for the dismounted and mounted fight on the East Cavalry Battlefield. Many artillery units have corrected weapon types, and some batteries can be broken into sections for the smaller scenarios (think of Calef’s battery on the first day!). Additionally, artillery overshoot rules elegantly show the Confederate defective fuse issues.
There are two types of skirmisher units, detachments from infantry and dismounted cavalry and breakdown skirmish units of specialized units. Players will find skirmishers well suited for their historical missions and challenging to move (or remove) unless faced with formed units. The Bliss Farm can be the problem it was in the actual battle.
New rules allow artillery to take losses in lieu of a Disorder result. Now, Alonzo Cushing can make his heroic final stand at the Angle! New rules for when units Collapse allow elite units like the Iron Brigade and the 26th North Carolina to continue to fight as they did historically, even after severe losses. Revised rules better represent how units recover manpower losses; no longer are the better Cohesion units more likely to recover, and players will find it beneficial not to run regiments into the ground. With a new battle-book rule, refused units with plenty of manpower are no longer the weak links in your firing line.
New town rules help show the difficulties formed units faced moving through the streets and limit the firepower of units in town when firing. Shock in town hexes will be less deadly, and Gettysburg will not be the defensive bastion of previous editions. However, skirmishers can duplicate the problems they caused the enemy when sniping from the houses of Gettysburg.
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