"Pickett's Charge at Colours Today" Topic

For those of you heading to Newbury today, you can see a preview of the soon to be published Pickett's Charge rules, run by the game's designer and all round good egg, Dave Brown. 

Created for ACW battles from a Division a side up to multiple Corps, Pickett's Charge will be the first set of rules published by our new sister company Reisswitz Press.  We will have lots of information on Lard Island News over the coming weeks as we count down to publication.  We will let you have a date for release as soon as possible.  In the meantime, here's a pretty picture of the cover.

Can't wait for these rules. Good luck today chaps. Due to circumstances, I can't be with you.

Ooh, if this is Lard Approved, I may hold off and do my Antietam with these instead of TCHAE.

Many people that stopped by the table at the Colours show today to take a look at the game. A number took on commands and spent a while playing.

Thanks to everyone who took part. All player feedback seems to be extremely positive !

Didn't play but watched for long enough to pick up a feel for how things work and had a good read through a prepublication copy.

Looks to be a major advancement over Guns At Gettysburg with a very neat command system and strong period flavour.

Will be looking to by a set for our 28mm Divisional level games.

What is the basic unit? Regiment or brigade?

Regiments are the smallest on table unit but orders and operation are by Brigades, within a Division, as per the period.

Will be looking to by a set for our 28mm Divisional level games.

Make that BUY a set! Doh!

More info here:

link

link

Looking forward to the release :)

Trajanus;

What seems to be the chances of a regiment/brigade being hesitant? Is it based on the quality of the troops?

OK, going out on a limb here – one read through does not an expert make – I don't recall troop quality being a factor.

There are the usual troop ratings for the Regiments in the Brigade that one might expect to see in most games but the "Hesitant" bit is just a command function and as such its not included.

Chance wise, its on a D6 roll and I think you pass (don't be come "Hesitant") on 3 and above.

Apart from the penalties incurred (restrictions on moving and shooting in the turn) its another command decision element in the game.

As you only get a limited number of "Staff Officers" (think command points) per turn and they have a number of functions in keeping your sides advantage in the game you are forced to make choices. They also can only be used for one function per turn, per Brigade.

Attaching one to the Brigade will get you a re roll at the command stage so it give a chance to prevent being "Hesitant".

The game allows for commanders above Brigade to have ratings that effect matters but as I recall all Brigadiers are equal except when you screw the dice roll at the start of a turn.

"Hesitant" is temporary and as the game is centred around forming and maintaining Line of Battle only those Brigades currently On Line need to roll for it. Any placed in Reserve don't have to roll until they have been committed.

So re rolls notwithstanding going "Hesitant" is 4:2 against happening, unless there any modifiers I didn't spot!

I think! ;o)

McLaddie,

Chances of brigades being Hesitant are based on the brigadier.

In the basic game all brigadiers are the same (are classed as "average" effectively) – hence may become Hesitant as described by Traj above. There are no modifiers other than a Command Brigade Attachment to improve their chances

The Optional Rules included modifiers for both Excellent and Poor Brigadiers, for players who wish to use the additional rules.

Previous drafts of the rules did account for troop quality as well, but I decided to exclude these in the end as the command mechanisms became really quite involved especially when using brigades of mixed regimental quality!

Hope that helps.

DB

Hey! I got it right, wonders will never cease!

Nice to hear about the option for Brigade commander quality.

I agree on the Regimental quality point BTW. Where would you draw the line?

Three out of four are graded "X" then the Brigade is "X"' fine. Then two are "X", one is "Y" and two are "Z" – nightmare!

Have to say I'm not real fan of quality at Regimental level truth be told. Although players like it and expect it.

1st Texas lose 82% casualties at Antietam, don't really do anything of note right round to the Gettysburg campaign after that. What's a realistic rating for the survivors, those returning to the colours and all the new guys buy the 1st July?

Actually, after posting it occurred to me that its good to use the Optional Rule, as that way you can vary matters and have good Regiments led by good commanders or good Regiments led by not so good commanders.

So you could have Ayer's Regulars or the Pennsylvania Reserves on the one hand, or the Irish Brigade on the other!

T and DB:

Thanks. I appreciate the explanation. It sounds interesting, particular the maintaining a battleline.

DB: the 4:2 odds of going 'Hesitant'. Was that based on any thing specific historically, a function of game flow or something else?

McL,

Less of the former and far more of the later.

As you can probably guess we came up with all sorts of mechanisms, etc, to define what and how a brigade could be Hesitant. But ultimately game flow, simplicity and that very subjective "does it feel right" effect won in the end.

It is also exactly the same as the Staff Officer availability roll, thus a simple and consistent rule that works, players instinctively get and remember and feels "right" for the period.

DB

DB:

Thanks for the explanation.

McL