A Tale of Two Battles of Gettysburg

By Mitch Reed

Photos taken from the Command Post Games and Lost Battalion Games websites. 

Gettysburg is perhaps the iconic battle in American history and has spawned dozens of games in many different formats which enable gamers to re-fight the pivotal Civil War battle.

One of the first games I ever owned was the 1977 Avalon-Hill Gettysburg, a game in which I enjoyed playing for years. The market is full of games that recreate the battle, from small quick to play games to multi-map monster games with thousands of counters.

So, whatever scale you desire to play the battle in you will have no problem finding the title that best suits your interest. While many of the classic games came out decades ago, companies are still producing new games with new mechanics to bring the battle to life on your table.

The two games I want to tell you about is and Both of these titles is what I would call a “tween games”, while they are basically board-war games, they do not use the standard cardboard counters so these titles will appeal to both board and miniature gamers.

Rally Round the Flag-Corps Command

I remember seeing this at an HMGS event a few years ago when the game was still in the design phase. If you saw it, you probably stopped to check the game out because it was so huge and the map was beautiful.

That map was for the Brigade Command version of the game and was an immense 64” x 64” and used plastic stands that represented the troops, guns, and leaders who were present in July 1863.

While that game is a monster, Lost Battalion also came out with Division and Corps level versions of the game if a monster game was not to your liking. The game visually appealed to me and despite it being at so many conventions it was not for sale since the company had to get the game out to its many Kickstarter backers before they could sell a copy to the public.

So once again at Fall-In I saw the game and the timing was right, the Corps Command version of the game was for sale. I plunked down my cash I added the game to my collection.

The first thing I did was assemble the pieces for the game. This was not a fun task; the pieces are so small and matching up the tiny numbers on the stands and the pieces took a few sessions and a lot of squinting.

Much like the great artwork on the map, the individual pieces that go on the bases are well done artistically and each stand uses soldiers in different uniforms and poses which really looks nice. The map uses interlocking sheets which means you have to lay Plexiglas over the map in order to keep it from shifting.

So, after all this work I tried to play this game. Usually, with wargames, I play it solo before I get an opponent in order to know the rules well enough to teach someone else how to play. The mechanics are different than any other wargame I have played before.

The game places importance on holding territory and uses the roads and pikes in the region to divide the map into sectors that you fight to control. You move the Corps commanders along the roads and when you get to a sector you wish to fight in you use a separate battle board to conduct combat. The game also used a card mechanic with cards that are unique to each side.

I really wanted to get into this game and like it, however, I wondered when playtesting if I was missing something. The rules seemed simple enough and only are 24 pages for the Corps Command game, but, I just wasn’t picking up the nuances of the game mechanics.

I went over to forums at Boardgamegeek.com to find some help in how the game works. I realized that I was not the only one confused and I read about talk of a 2.0 version of the rules which have not yet come out. I also plan to get a demo if the LBG folks are at the next event I attend. The game has too much eye candy and the developers put to many years of work for me to give up on this game just yet.

I am sure that a tutorial or a new version of the rules will clarify the issues I had in playing the game. Once I can get through a game, I will write a real detailed review of this title.

Shall I Advance?

I love going “old school” at times and have a respect for the roots of the hobby. While looking around on Kickstarter I came across this title. It really piqued my interest.

The game is played on an old-style map and uses colored wooden blocks with stickers like the old Kriegspiel type games that the first wargamers started our hobby with. Shall I Advance is part of the Pub Battles series that Command Post games produces which lets you quickly play a game in an evening.

The map looks like a map from the period and the game plays with the blocks moving around using small chains that determine movement and range, which, oddly, works despite my initial apprehension.

Combat is simple and straight forward and reminds me of how combat in Napoleon at War (a miniatures game) works. Units here are divisions and after taking three hits in combat a unit becomes eliminated. It can come back during night turns.

The rule book and the accompanying game book are only a few pages and gives you a good idea in how to play the game.

My recommendation is to not overthink the rules, this is not Terrible Swift Sword. I would also play the game with friends who are not hardcore gamers, since you really have to communicate the position of units on the map with your opponent and relay what you are doing with your units as you move them around the map.

The rules also cover topics such as baggage trains, hidden reserve units an uses a chit-pull activation system to manage each turn.

While the website could be better laid out and could fix up the history of wargaming front page, you can navigate to some examples of play that can really help you out. This game is simple, quick and fun and it will appeal to gamers who do not desire a tremendous level of detail and verbose set of rules.

I plan to play this game as much as possible in the future and I think the look and feel of this game makes it a perfect pick to get the non-hobby wargamers I work with into the hobby.

Gaming Gettysburg
I think its amazing how this battle fought over a 150-years ago still drives game companies to develop interesting ways to game the battle.

The two games mentioned above take two separate paths to give you the Gettysburg experience. Rally Round the Flag uses a brand-new mechanic that I have not seen elsewhere. I applaud them for trying to develop a new way to game Gettysburg.

Once they fix the bugs (or get the mechanics through my thick head) this could become a classic game. While Rally was innovative, Shall I Advance takes us back to the roots of our hobby with simple look at the battle that can be of interest to hardcore gamers or players brand new to the hobby.

“Tween Games”
I have long wondered why board-wargamers and miniature gamers were two distant cousins in a small family.

While many of us play both, a near equal number of gamers swear by only one of the two.

What I see in both of the above games is a mix of the two worlds that I really hope is a trend. Taking the visual esthetics of miniatures into the detailed oriented world of board wargaming is a win for those of us who love both and I look forward in seeing what other “tween” games developers come out with in the future.