Making Dave's Gettysburg dream come true

I did a good deed last week.

Back in the previous millennium, for a few years I had a great bunch of regular gaming buddies who met at my mate Dave O.'s house. Then I moved away and we lost touch. Earlier this year, I caught up with Dave and visited him for the first time in decades. We had a fine time and made a dent in his whisky cabinet. I also learned about his passion for the American Civil War. This had grown from the few regiments of unpainted plastics I remembered us gaming with back in the day. It extended to him being a serious reenactor for many years (for both sides), in the course of which he got to meet President Clinton. He now has a beautiful collection of 6mm ACW armies, his war room is decorated with ACW prints and paintings, and he is hugely knowledgeable about the war. We watched the Gettysburg movie and Dave confided in me that his dream was to wargame the whole of Gettysburg, something he'd never done.

Well, I thought: how could we do that, I wonder? Is there a ruleset that makes such a thing feasible? How could two of us possibly fight all three days on a 6'x4' table on a Saturday evening and still find time for a whisky-fuelled chinwag and a takeaway? Aha! I thought: yes, there is a way. (Regular readers of this blog will have guessed the answer.)

Hence I conspired to arrange another trip up his way, checked with Dave as to when he had a free weekend, we set a date, the day arrived and so did I. We set the table up for the classic BBB scenario that has been enjoyed by so many over the years. Dave was new to BBB so a short intro was required, but the rules are easy to pick up so he was quickly into the swing.

The famous landscape. Gettysburg upper right, showing what an important junction it was with roads fanning out in nine directions, not to mention a railroad. Seminary Ridge above it. The gates on Cemetery Hill centre of pic, with Cemetery Ridge to its left, the woods on Culp's Hill to its right, Benner's Hill by the right edge. Top left is the Peach Orchard, below it the Wheatfield, and the Round Tops just out of shot to the left of that.

All the terrain is Dave's. The discreetly gridded battlemat helped a lot with the set-up. The MDF road and stream sections are handy. Buildings by Timecast, I believe.

Here are brief summaries of each day's action, followed by a few annotated photos for each. Then some Reflections at the end.

On Day 1, everything went right for Dave's Confederates. Ewell's boys not only swarmed into Gettysburg, sending the Iron Brigade reeling back onto Culp's Hill - they then stormed onto Cemetery Hill as well. To compound my woes, Buford got enveloped and wiped out by Heth and Pender.

Turn 1. Confederate assault against Wadworth and Doubleday is a smashing success and they exploit into Gettysburg itself. Out of shot top of pic is Heth's division. Initially this headed across towards Cemetery Ridge. That made me divert troops to the ridge, which meant they weren't defending Cemetery Hill when the Rebs came swarming through.

6mm figures from Dave's collection. Not sure what make. The big unit bases worked fine and in some ways better than the multiple small 1" bases recommended in the rulebook. The dice are strength counters and we used different colours to identify troop quality. Formation is the other thing to keep track of. The default formation was Line. The two Confederate units in the foreground in this pic are both In Depth, indicated by the bits of MDF behind them. We used bigger pieces to indicate Column of March. The white puffs are Disrupted markers. (Ignore the unit labels, they're left over from one of Dave's previous games with a different ruleset.)

Turn 2. My Union boys have been expelled from Gettysburg and withdrawn to defend Cemetery Hill (left foreground). Top left, the seminary has advanced off its ridge to make way for Heth's division (with the green die) to wheel onto Buford's flank. Buford's movement dice failed me three times, he just stood there and died.

Day 3 - the Confederates have taken Cemetery Hill! Which will prove very inconvenient.

Of course, the Union gets lots of reinforcements overnight for Day 2. Unfortunately, having Rebs on Cemetery Hill messed up my redeployment. Instead of stiffening my defensive line on a nice fishhook, I found myself trying to establish a gun line inside the fishhook so I could clear the enemy off Cemetery Hill. Meanwhile, Bobby Lee had set up a mighty gun line of his own commanding Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill from the north. I detached a division to try to roll that up, but when the Rebs took Culp's Hill as well, I had to call it back to try and retake that. 

Among the Confederate reinforcements for Day 2 are two of Longstreet's divisions. Dave chose to commit these against my left, where I had three divisions: one on Little Round Top (bottom left) overlooking the rocks of Devil's Den; one in the Peach Orchard (top centre); and one more supporting it (right centre).

The scenario stipulates that there is one variable Objective. It may be either the Peach Orchard, Gettysburg itself, or Benner's Hill. That gets determined at the start of Day 2, after both sides have set up their reinforcements. In this game it turned out to be the town of Gettysburg. (Not that it mattered which - at game end Dave held all three!)

More Confederate reinforcements had arrived around Gettysburg, enabling Dave to start trying to push me off Culp's Hill (upper right), where my best unit (Wadsworth's and Doubleday's divs, including the Iron Brigade) is now Spent (blue puff). Meanwhile, I have lots of troops but not enough space to deploy them effectively.

View from my right flank. That potent Confederate gun line top right has been battering the Iron Brigade. I've detached one of Sykes's division to go and bother it (left foreground).

Close-up of Dave's lovely brushwork.

View from behind the Confederate gun line. The Rebs have now wiped out the Iron Brigade and taken Culp's Hill, so Sykes has had to wheel back to deal with that. (Or maybe I should have let him press on?)

Some good news for the Union: Longstreet's repeated assaults on the Peach Orchard have achieved nothing beyond costing him thousands of casualties. (Both those strength dice started at 6; each of those four lost points represents 1,500 men.)

Day 2 had ended with the Confederates controlling both those vital hills, as well as Gettysburg. That would be enough for victory, so I had to counterattack. In my favour, they had suffered heavy losses in their attacks, and I was holding off Longstreet at the Peach Orchard.

The bad news for Day 3 was that, having lost Buford on Day 1, the dice decreed I also lost the off-table cavalry battle in East Field. That meant JEB Stuart's Confederate cavalry showed up on my right flank, instead of Kilpatrick's US cavalry on my left. Oh dear.

Consequently, while I did expel tired rebels from Cemetery Hill and Culp's as well, the cavalry helped a final Confederate attack to hurl us off again. At the other end of the pitch, Longstreet had finally cracked the Peach Orchard and was bumping up against Little Round Top.

Turn 9 (start of Day 3). How could I kick the Rebs off those two hills? You can see a gap in the middle where I want to set up a gun line, while my infantry is poised to attack Cemetery Hill from the left and Culp's Hill from the right. It's a plan of sorts, and both hills will indeed be retaken.

One spanner in the works is JEB Stuart's cavalry arriving behind Sykes. That fight will end with my division Spent and falling back behind its friends. The victorious cavalry will then cover the flank of Culp's Hill.

And now my left is starting to give way as well. Longstreet has been reinforced by Pickett, and Pickett's Charge has taken the Peach Orchard. One of Longstreet's divisions stalls at the foot of Little Round Top, but another has turned to menace my guns on Cemetery Ridge.

On the penultimate Turn 10, I retook Cemetery Hill. On my final Turn 11, I retook Culp's as well. That left Dave holding only one Objective (Gettysburg), which would have made it a draw.

However, on the last Confederate turn of the game, Dave's final assault kicked me off Cemetery Hill again. Victory for the Confederacy! And a classic BBB finish with the result swinging to and fro right to the end.

The battle was over and no doubt Meade's tenure in command as well. The rebels held the field; the Union army had to withdraw towards Washington and regroup (again).

Reflections

The Big Picture. Playing all three days in a single session and at this scale really lets you see the action in context. That first day was pivotal - it really shaped the rest of the battle. Playing it more conventionally as is so often done - as a bigger, longer game, or fighting it in sections, worrying about individual regiments - would create the "wood for the trees" problem and would make it much harder to see the big picture. Several times, after playing this scenario, I've had players tell me "now I get it - now I understand the battle!".

Big Plans. Dave had a definite plan. Of course, he then had to adapt it once it collided with my actions and the dice. Still, at the high level - where he committed his reserves, where he directed his attacks, and what that meant for the force-time-space equation - it worked and earned him his victory. On my side, by contrast, I was always on the back foot. My actions were mainly reactive, desperately responding to whatever Dave did, rather than having a positive plan of my own.

Cramping Deployment. That Confederate success on Day 1 really was important, as I didn't have space to use my numerical advantage effectively. I struggled to find space to set up a gun line; when I did, I then managed to mask it with my infantry. Some of this was my own ineptitude but it was also due to the situation Dave's success had created.

Unit Bases. The big single bases for units worked very nicely. People do occasionally ask about this, so in future I can point them to this report.

More Good Deeds to Come. It was a splendid day (including the post-battle phase that went on until about 3am). We were two happy wargamers. Dave loved the game. He wants to play Gettysburg again! But maybe we can try a different ACW battle next time. And there will definitely be a next time.