Scenario design continues on the deluxe edition of this Richard Berg classic. Most recently, this designer has homed in on the pivotal role of Robert Rodes’ division and his fragmented attack on the Union flank anchored on northern Seminary/Oak Hill Ridge.

For those unacquainted with the intricacies of this action, Rodes, a relatively new division leader, faces a rare military opportunity – a flank attack on a stretched and thin Union line. However, Rodes’ leadership is tested as he deals with his less competent brigadiers, including Colonel Edward O’Neal and the infamous Brigadier General Alfred Iverson. Rodes’ other Brigadiers, BG Stephen Ramseur and BG Junius Daniels, perform better, but not exceptionally. Rodes’ best-performing brigade of George Doles, while teaming with Early’s division, significantly contributes to the defeat of the brave but unlucky Union XI Corps on the eastern part of the field. Rodes, unfortunately, misses Dole’s leadership on Oak Hill Ridge.

The assault kicks off with O’Neal’s brigade spearheading the charge on the tip of the Union line. However, O’Neal fails to lead his brigade or reconnoiter, and his deployment tactics falter, resulting in only three of his five regiments entering the fight. They are quickly stopped, with no troops getting close to the Union lines. It was an inauspicious and faltering start. O’Neal spends a good part of the next hours trying to get his brigade organized.

Our scenario commences with this attack, compelling O’Neal to move adjacent to, Fire at, and Shock the Union forces. Only three of his five regiments are in position to do so. While O’Neal may perform better than in the actual battle, our testing has shown that it is generally an ineffective effort and keeps O’Neal occupied for a significant period.

Alfred Iverson’s brigade is the next to step into the fight. In one of the more famous (or infamous) attacks of the entire war, he sends his brigade forward without Skirmishers and without himself – allegedly hiding behind a barn. As his courageous soldiers approach Seminary Ridge, a hidden Union force rises from their concealed position and virtually eradicates three of his four attacking regiments. 

The scenario incorporates special rules that help the players reproduce the troubles of Iverson’s brigade without straight-jacketing play:

1. 3DoG Deluxe’s battle book includes optional rules portraying various leaders’ abilities or limitations. Using his rule, Iverson cannot stack with his attacking troops, causing all attacks for that brigade to have -1 DRM (Die Roll Modifier) on the Shock results table.
2. The scenario has rules to simulate the surprise fire that decimated Iverson’s brigade, with a +2 DRM for initial Union fire in possible ambush conditions.
3. There is no positive DRM for Iverson’s regiments in a Charge.
4. The brigade is limited to one less Activation than the rest of the division. (In the context of this game, ‘Activation’ refers to the number of times a unit can perform an action in a turn. This means that Iverson’s brigade will have one less opportunity to act compared to the other brigades.)

While it is difficult to simulate an attack that is this extreme an outlier of possible outcomes, the Confederate player will find it challenging to get Iverson’s brigade to attack in a coordinated and effective fashion with the rest of Rodes’ division without significant losses.

However, the Union player faces his own distinctive set of challenges, as well. One of the defending forces is Brigadier General Lysander Cutler’s brigade (First Division, First Corps), which was severely tested in its morning fight. They are not only Fatigued but have also suffered significant losses. Moreover, they, along with most of the other defending Union forces, will grapple with the task of keeping their forces supplied with ammunition.

In the scenario, many Union units are required to roll for Ammo Resupply after the initial turn (much like Into the Woods), with resupply becoming more difficult as the units go to No Ammo.

Furthermore, the Union player must pay attention to his southern flank in his efforts to defend the ridge. BG Roy Stone and his untested brigade (the “new” Pennsylvania Bucktails) must hold the northern reaches of Herbst Woods near the McPherson Farm, safeguarding both the Iron Brigade’s flank (off the map) and delaying any advance from Rebel units in the west. The early game is crucial, with significant victory points at stake if the Confederates capture this vital area.

On a positive note, a small contingent of XI Corps troops and artillery (including Hubert Dilger’s battery) will defend the eastern flank of the Union forces and are a thorn in the side of the Southern player. Unfortunately for the Union player, as the scenario moves forward, these forces are called to the desperate defense of the XI Corps north of Gettysburg.  Specifically, these units have an increasing chance of being withdrawn from play, based on a die roll or automatic removal.

Later in the historical battle, Rodes took firm command of his forces, appointing Stephen Ramseur to lead not only his brigade but also Iverson’s and O’Neal’s remnants and orchestrated a coordinated attack that drove the Union forces, depleted of ammunition, off the ridge.

In our scenario, Rodes’ Efficiency pool improves in the later turns, just as Union forces are at their nadir with the loss of the XI Corps support. Union forces should be driven off the ridge and to the southeast, as in the actual battle. The question for the Southern player is, “Will it be enough for a win”?

---

One of the design objectives for 3DoG Deluxe was to provide as much historical detail and, in Richard Berg’s words, “chrome” as the actual battle histories can supply. However, the GBACW design team has seen significant divergences in players’ tolerance for additional rules.

So, many rules are optional and are there to add flavor and fun and will be covered in detail in later designer updates. However, some battle book rules are not optional and can be applied to the system as a whole, depending on player preferences.

One issue that can significantly impact gameplay in any wargame utilizing hexagons is the alignment with the hex grid. It was such a big deal that back in the early 70s, SPI’s gaming magazine Moves published one of their most popular articles explaining how to best align your units for defense when going with or against the hex grid. 

Certainly, tactical games with units portraying linear formations increase these issues even more. Unless aligning with a straight line of hexes, units with frontal, flank, and rear-facing will always show a flank hexside to the enemy. While game design has demonstrated many ways to mitigate this effect (a decrease of rear and flank hexes being one), the modern GBACW system allows a unit with an open flank to refuse that flank and create a three-sided front. However, in the current system rules, the maximum strength point firing frontage of 7 MP is kept, allowing a maximum of 4 SP out the frontal hexsides and 3 SP out the flank, ignoring the fact that there is 50% more firing frontage and causing a hexgrid-created weakness in any defending line. 

In 3DoG Deluxe, with sufficient strength points, the total SPs that can fire out of a refused unit’s frontal three hexsides is increased to 11 SPs, with 7 SPs firing from the usual frontal hexsides and a maximum of 4 SPs out of the refused front. While there is still some weakness in the single frontal flank hex, it is more in keeping with the real-world limitations of a smaller firing frontage. 

In the example above, the two Union units have a total strength of 15 SP. With the new rule, the units could fire a total of 4 SP out of the flank hexside (2225/2325), while firing full strength through the frontal hexsides.

Other battle book rules, while not optional, are meant to allow players to recreate specific historical outcomes or stories. As an example, infantry units with Cohesion levels of 8 or 9 no longer Collapse when losing more than half of their initial strength. These units only Collapse after losing more than two-thirds of their starting numbers. Now, the 26^th North Carolina and the 24^th Michigan can simulate their deadly dance on McPherson Ridge as they fight to near extinction. Furthermore, this change gives the better brigades greater resiliency for continuous attacks over an extended period. Hood’s and McLaws’ divisions can attempt their famous assault and stand a chance against the greater numbers of Union troops they faced on July 2nd.

But with an appropriate touch of yin and yang, these elite regiments also have their weakness – Straggler Recovery. The recovery of SPs for these units is more difficult than the average Cohesion units – it is assumed that losses are far more likely to be casualties than just run-offs and shirkers. A Collapsed elite regiment is not likely to recover in our battle time frame.

To assure that the better units do not recover quicker than the lower quality formations, Straggler Recovery is not based on Cohesion level, but on a set die roll for standard and another, more difficult one, for elite units. Furthermore, Collapsed units have a negative modifier when attempting to recover strength.   

---

Anyone familiar with the history of Three Days of Gettysburg knows that its map has been an ongoing design for nearly thirty years (GMT published the original 3DoG in 1995!). The original map designed by Rick Barber was reminiscent of the old topographic maps of 1960s elementary schools, with vibrant greens for the lowlands and bold yellow and browns for the higher elevations. Plagued by numerous legibility issues and pre-computer graphics, a new artist redrew the 2000 edition of the game. Unfortunately, this attempt was not successful in solving the map’s problems. Luckily for the players, GMT took the high road (as is their custom) and hired graphic artist Mark Simonitch to create the beautiful 2004 map that solved the map issues of questionable terrain. At the time, it set the standard for both GBACW and how good a wargame map could look.

Unfortunately for the purists, the various map “clean-ups” had simplified the slopes and hills, making movement either too easy or too hard, depending on the terrain. Those who had tramped the ground and were familiar with the battlefield were disappointed.

When we first approached the redesign, Rick Barber was hired to redo the map topography, keeping the same scale, but redrawing the contours to the 25 feet standard used by Greg Laubach in his Death Valley games. This redesign was meant to show the abrupt changes in elevation in much more detail. Unfortunately, we lost Rick just as the project started.

While I had successfully drawn a battlefield map from scratch (Into the Woods’ map of Shiloh), the workload of creating a map of this iconic battlefield in GBACW was more than the timeframe would allow.  In addition, the Simonitch map was arguably still the best-looking map of Gettysburg in our hobby.

Fortunately, working with Mark, a compromise was found that retained the art but added the terrain details I wanted to show. In addition to the existing hexside slopes (with new movement effects), we integrated sloping terrain into the in-hex terrain descriptions. This change forces units in rugged terrain (e.g., Culp’s Hill) to face more realistic obstacles.

The 25^th Virginia regiment will pay 4 MP to move into either frontal hex.

Now, when moving uphill on the east side of Culp’s Hill, an infantry unit will typically pay 2 MP for Woods, +1 MP for Sloping terrain, and +1 MP for the Steep Slope hexside: for a total of 4 MP. Players familiar with the GBACW system will recognize that this creates a situation where a unit moving uphill and adjacent to an enemy unit is unable to Fire or Shock in that Activation and will have to wait for a subsequent Activation to assault the enemy units. Additionally, with a new optional rule suggested by Bill Byrne, the non-Phasing player can use Opportunity Fire on the advancing troops as they move adjacent.

As a quick note, it was re-enactor and GBACW enthusiast Thomas Fernbacker, whose knowledge of the terrain challenges faced by the brave Southern troops led me to rethink how Culp’s Hill terrain should be handled. Many thanks, Thomas!

---

So far, the design of Three Days of Gettysburg Deluxe has been a blast. We hope that players will find the new game as much fun to play as it has been to create. Future design updates will focus on other scenarios and additional new rules.

Thanks go to my friend and developer, Joe Caparula, for his review of my work and guidance of our playtest team. I also want to express my gratitude to all the players who have supported us and patiently waited for this redesign. Your enthusiasm and feedback have been invaluable in making this game better. Thank you!

---