Campaign Gettysburg




Introduction

Campaign Gettysburg is a game of the Confederate summer offensive of 1863. It was consciously designed as such, far more so than an attempt to rehash the battle of Gettysburg itself, a subject which has been done, and done again. The battle itself has not been forgotten - there are many historical scenarios of the battle, and of the other fights in the campaign.

The second concept that is central to the thesis of this game is that the players should be freed from the bounds of the traditional battlefield oriented map. A frustration with the limitations and channeling of play involved with regular battlefield maps of the past led to this game being designed around large maps.

Six large maps are included. Between them they cover almost all the area from the Rappahannock to within a days march of Washington, and east from the gaps (including the Bull Run battlefield) to beyond Centreville; a large area of the Valley centered on Winchester; a big chunk of southern Maryland and northern Virginia, including an area from south of Martinsburg to north of Hagerstown, including the Antietam battlefield; more of Maryland from just east of South Mountain to Manchester, north past the Pennsylvania line, and south for several miles below Westminster; and the Gettysburg area, from south of Emmitsburg and Taneytown, to well north of Gettysburg proper.

The campaign will always start with a battle at Brandy Station. The players are given a chance to explore the effect that decimating their cavalry has on the subsequent actions in the campaign. Cavalry employed in their traditional roles of scouting and screening are a great asset in this game - as they were in real life. Right off the bat the player needs to make choices as to how he is going to use his forces. This is a campaign - sometimes taking seven engagements to resolve. The need to use cavalry in its normal roll flowed from the use of the large maps in the game. Victory points for cavalry were substantially increased in an attempt to further encourage employing cavalry in its traditional role.

The scenarios were constructed in modular fashion with a base set of on map units over which were laid variants in release times, arrival times/locations/likelihoods, etc. Almost 20,000 scenarios were constructed, with one sample of each being presented to pick from on the Selection List. In excess of 1500 were provided for the computer to randomly select from during the campaign game. There's, of course, nothing to prevent one from copying all the scenarios from the Campaign folder to the main folder, making all the scenarios available to select from. The full 20,000 scenarios will be available on this site.

All scenarios were constructed 3 times - once for each of the 3 types of orders of battle included in the game: partial breakdown - the one used for the supplied scenarios - which involved artillery broken down by section, and one 100 man detachment for each cavalry regiment; full breakdown in which artillery is represented by section, cavalry by 100 man increments, and infantry by 250 man increments; and, no breakdown in which artillery is represented by battery, and there are no cavalry detachments. This process was used to create nearly 60,000 scenarios. Space limited what was shipped. In addition to the full 20,000 variations, this site will also feature a conversion program that will enable the user to make a full breakdown, or no breakdown scenario from any of the scenarios included in the game or available here.

While the campaign should be capable of nearly infinite replay without playing the same set of scenarios twice, the designer has always enjoyed playing hypothetical scenarios in which both sides are blind. This site will also feature a random scenario generator as an enhancement for the game itself. It is hoped that the combination of the above add-ons with the wealth of scenarios in the game itself will result in a game that is enjoyable to play for a long, long time.

20 Historical and 294 "what if" stand alone Scenarios are included:

· Battle of Brandy Station
· Battle of Winchester
· Battle at Gettysburg
· Battle of Aldie/Middleburg
· Battle of Falling Waters

See the Scenario Designers Notes for a complete listing and description of each of the stand alone scenarios.



Campaign

Campaign Gettysburg allows you to not only play all of the individual scenarios mentioned above, but allows you to play the game as a campaign which pulls from 1596 differnt scenarios to recreate the resulting situations. Yes, you read that right, One thousand five hundred and ninety six campaign scenarios! The campaign kicks off on June 1st and can be played all the way through July 14th, depending on the results of the various battles that take place.

As mentioned earlier The Battle of Brandy Station starts each campaign. From that starting point the campaign can take an historical flow up the Valley and into Maryland and Pennsylvania, or it can move overland on Washington. Of course there is even a chance that the north will mount an offensive of its own.

The likelihood of either side being able to vary, and the extent that each side can vary from the historical flow is tied in to the victory level achieved in the scenario played. In other words, the better one does in an engagement, the broader the options that side has after the engagement.

For example, the campaign tree allows the south, if it does well during an earlier engagement, to reverse field from the Valley, and backtrack for an attempt on Washington via a crossing of the Bull Run mountains. Similarly, a major Confederate win around Gettysburg results in a Union army with higher fatigue values when the next fight occurs along the Pipe Creek line.

The large maps should - they certainly have during play testing - result in fights occurring in areas other than those in the real campaign. Players are presented with a wide range of tactical situations during the course of the campaign, from wide open meeting engagements to assaults on prepared positions. In a game that has more maneuvering in it than most, an attempt has been made to have some action taking place from the beginning of the game on.



Included Maps

Campaign Gettysburg includes 16 base maps, with the larget being:
  1. Gettysburg - 325 x 364
  2. Falling Waters - 326 x 364
  3. Pipe Creek - 438 x 244
  4. Rappahannock - 331 x 365
  5. The Gaps to Manassas - 397 x 294
  6. Winchester - 185 x 205



Create your own Battles:

A powerful scenario and campaign editor is included that provides you with infinite possibilities. Search your imagination and create "what if" battles that will impress even the most difficult of critics. You can do any of the following:

· Add/Remove units
· Add/Remove many different kinds of defense works
· Add/Remove bridges
· Add/Remove objectives
· Add/Remove trenches, breastworks, supply sources
· Create new or change the way the A/I moves
· Change unit strengths, facings, fatigue, formations
· Create your own Campaign(s) from scratch
· And much, much more



Game features:

· Hundreds of individual scenarios
· Beautifully created 3D maps and units
· 4 zoom levels, including 2D overhead
· A jump map for easy viewing of the entire battlefield
· Historically crafted Order of Battles, with hundreds of regimental units
· Promote leaders that are killed, wounded, or captured
· A campaign game that leads you to a "lead" filled conclusion
· Great music to calm the savage warrior
· Various types of fortifications
· All different types of period weapons
· Line of sight that limits visibility
· Fog Of War
· Play either side with different levels of involvement (full or partial control)
· Numerous optional rule settings (i.e. Weak ZOC, Auto Defensive Fire, Rout Limiting, etc...)
· An advantage slide bar that strengthens the chances of one side or the other.
· And numerous others



Game engine enhancements:

· Added A/I Battle Termination option for campaigns against the computer.
· Added FOW for Bridge Strength.
· Increased Cavalry Charge Melee bonus to 25% from 10%.
· Added ability to add Trenches to a scenario.
· Added Ask Before Advancing option.
· Reinstated Column Movement where no unit is selected.
· On-map combat results.



Play options:

Campaign features

Related Links

An interview with Doug Strickler - http://www.brettschulte.net/dougstrickler.htm

Wargamer.com Interview with Doug - http://www.wargamer.com/articles/campaign_gettysburg_interview/

Doug's Scenario Design notes - http://www.hist-sdc.com/getty/design.html

HPS Gettysburg product page - http://www.hpssims.com/Pages/products/RifMusk/Gettysburg/gettysburg.html

Random Scenario generator for use with Campaign Gettysburg - http://www.hist-sdc.com/generate.html

Additional scenarios for use with Campaign Gettysburg - http://www.hist-sdc.com/scndacw.html#CPG

Where to go to order the game

HPS - http://www.hpssims.com
HPS is the publisher of Campaign Corinth, Ozark, Franklin & Gettysburg.


This page updated on 08/13/04.


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