Longstreet Attacks: The Second Day at Gettysburg

Longstreet Attacks: The Second Day at Gettysburg is a two-player Tactical level board-wargame simulating the fighting on July 2nd, 1863 during the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg and focuses on the southern portion of the battlefield. These engagements involved General Longstreet’s attack against Sickles’ positions, with troops from Hood’s and McLaws’ Divisions, assisted as well by Anderson’s Division of A.P. Hill’s Corps.

The game is specifically designed to be a playable regimental-scale game that players can complete in a long evening. It allows the players the immersive experience of tactical combat without the heavy rules overhead normally found in such games, while also delivering a comprehensive experience of limited intelligence and unexpected events. The game features the Blind Swords chit-pull system which emphasizes the three “FOW’s” of military conflict: fog-of-war, friction-of-war and fortunes-of-war. With each chit pull, players will be challenged to make tough decisions based on their assessment of the situation at that moment. Unlike traditional chit-pull systems, the Blind Swords system ensures that no combat units can be counted on, or conversely, counted out. This yields an environment of tense action and constant surprises – an environment that will challenge each player.

UNITS

All regiments and batteries of the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac that took part in these actions are represented in the Order of Battle. Each unit has a Strength Point number, with each point equaling 50 men or 1 artillery piece, and a Cohesion Rating, representing the unit’s morale, training and experience.

SYSTEM HIGHLIGHTS

Combat and Cohesion System: The combat system is “firepower” based and utilizes the unit’s size and Cohesion Rating to determine its effectiveness. The combat system is driven by a unique four-D6 dice mechanic. All four differently-colored dice are rolled simultaneously. The black and white dice generate an initial result ranging from 11 to 66. The other two dice (red and blue) simultaneously give the players the tangible effect of the initial result and represent physical casualties suffered by the unit (the red die) and the morale effect of the enemy’s fire (the blue die).