Corzin: we start the game by giving each Confederate player two rounds of artillery bombardment on the Union position on Cemetery Ridge. Union artillery does not get to respond, yet.
Then the actual game starts with each turn having a set sequence of play: Confederates move first, Union then fires, Confederates fire, melees are resolved, then Union moves, finally morale test taken.
Confederate artillery is done for the rest of the game because they are out of ammo and/or they would be hitting their own men.
The Confederates move 24" per turn from the back table and on until they reach the Emmitsburg Road, then movement reduces to 18" plus one D6 movement. It takes two turns to cross the road (first move into the road and stop, then second move out of the road at half movement rate).
Union forces are firing artillery each turn and Confederates take moderate casualties until they get into musket range, then the casualties start mounting up. I'd say that both sides are very engaged throughout the turns preceding the final move onto the table that has Cemetery Ridge.
On the Cemetery Ridge table the action is hot and furious as the Rebs make their final assault and they are now able to return musket/rifle fire at the Union troops on the ridge. Then melees start to happen, etc.
I really don't think that any of my players were bored as I endeavored to keep all of them busy with something to do on every turn of the game.
I had some victory conditions based on "victory points" earned when Confederates breach one of the walls in a sector or the Union soldiers prevent a breach in the same sector.
I used Cigar Box mats which are 5ft wide so I divided the game table into four zones that were 5ft wide. Thus in each zone where Confederates breached the wall they got one VP and the Union got one VP in each sector where the Confederates did not breach the wall. This meant that four VPs were available in total, which could have resulted in a draw for both sides. The Confederates won 3 of the 4 games. Two of their wins were based on using the VP system. In the final game, I did not use the victory points system and just had the two sides play it out and let the dice gods decide the victor.
The last game was a lot of fun because one of the Union generals had a bit of Daniel Sickles in him and he decided to advance up to the post and rail fence of the Emmitsburg Road. I think that he just wanted to get into it with the Confederates ASAP, but he reasoned that he had artillery and they didn't and he actually might have had a point. The other Union brigades stayed put on the ridge, although mid way into the game, another Union player advanced to the road for a turn or two and then reconsidered the wisdom of his move and returned to the stone wall atop Cemetery Ridge .
Mr. Sickles' one brigade wasn't enough to stop the Confederates in his sector as he was outnumbered two brigades to one, but as I watched the game i began to think "hey this could actually work" and for a time it did but weight of numbers did Sickles in. I think that had an adjacent Union brigade accompanied Mr. Sickles down from the hill and up to the Emmitsburg Road that they could have stopped the Reb advance at the fences. Meanwhile, on the Confederate far right flank, Kemper's brigade smashed through the Union line opposite him and was turning the flank of the Union army at the conclusion of the game. It was a fun to watch some of the players go off script and see what would happen.
adds artillery to his soft-plastic Union forces.
