ACW scenario: First Day of Gettysburg - Tales from a Wargame Shed

ACW scenario: First Day of Gettysburg

31/10/2015

I have uploaded a scenario for Heth's attack on McPherson's Ridge on 1 July 1863, using Sam Mustapha's Longstreet rules. See the scenario here. This is one of several scenarios we have played over the past year, for which I had no respectable maps. I'm still not totally happy with the map attached to this scenario, but I hope it is enough to transfer to the tabletop. I have been struggling to master the Sketchbook App and hope to produce more attractive maps with experience.
1 July 1863 provides some really interesting encounters that we broke into manageable scenarios to fit Longstreet's brigade level focus. Heth's assault provides a balanced game and of course provides a chance to deploy your Iron Brigade figures. The challenge is for the Union to form a defensive line on the ridge before Heth can get his troops up there. In our replay, the Union managed to hold the line and exhaust Confederate fighting power, but only just. We fought with Kallistra 10/12mm figures and Timecast buildings.
The next map I'm working on is to accompany the fight for Blocher's Knoll, which took place later the same day to the North of Gettysburg.

Looking East towards McPherson's ridge and farm from the Confederate lines.

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General rules

The Map

The map has the following features:

Named towns (large dot)
Named villages (small dot)
Numbered farms (spotted dot)
Forest hexes. Each patch of forest is lettered for identification purposes.
Main roads (dark brown)
Minor roads (tan)
Rivers (blue)
Railway line (black)
Open hexes. Although ‘open’, these still represent farmland with fields and hedges, streams and ditches.

Hex rows are labelled with letters. Individual hexes are identified by counting away from the left of the row containing the letter (including part hexes). Thus, La Redoute is in hex E7; Saint Michel de Livet is in hex J3.

Assets

Each player has various assets, including fighting men and women, vehicles, technical resources and bases. As the campaign is under way at present I am not listing all of these on the website yet. But examples include

German infantry section with Opel lorry
Osttruppe section
Active Maquis cell
Sleeping Maquis cell
Arms cache
Safe house
Etc.

Issuing orders

Every turn, each player receives a briefing on events in the previous turn, along with one or more tasks for the turn ahead.

A turn is not a fixed period of time but an episode in which something happens. Each turn, the players will receive a briefing on the situation and should then issue orders to their assets to allow them to deal with the current challenge. Play is similar to a Dungeons and Dragons approach: they will not be constrained by mechanical rules although these exist in the umpire’s set. The umpire will try to carry out the players’ instructions and will report the outcome at the end of the turn.

That said, the players are given some guidelines:

Lorries can reach anywhere on the map using the road net. Their passengers can then disembark and move on foot. I will presume that lorry-borne units will return to base at the end of the turn unless a player orders them to stay in another village or town. The gas powered lorries risk breaking down but otherwise are the same as the Opel lorries.
The Steyr heavy car and kübelwagen can reach anywhere on the map, not just on the road net.
Troops on foot may walk up to 4 open hexes, either from their base or from the point where a vehicle has transported them. I will presume they will return to base at the end of the turn unless a player orders them to stay in another hex (troops on foot can bivouac in non-urban hexes).
The tank can travel up to 12 hexes in a turn and will end the turn where it has been sent (ie it won’t return to base at turn’s end). It derives no benefit from roads.
Players may issue contingency orders, for example to lie in ambush or to look out for a signal and then take another action..