Bonus Game: Lee at Gettysburg–the Battle for Cemetery Ridge
Lee at Gettysburg : The Battle for Cemetery Ridge (by Mark H. Walker, Artwork by Nicolas Eskubi) simulates the first day of the battle of Gettysburg. The player controls the Confederate and Union formations that fought in the battle (by moving cardboard counters across the map and combating enemy formations). This game comes in the form of a PDF file and is a tabletop wargame. You will need to print the map and units (counters) before you can play the game. When printing The Battle for Cemetery Ridge DO NOT scale the images to fit the pages. Print the game at 100% (no more, no less). Scaling the pages will resize the counters, stretch the map, and end the world as we know it. It’s very bad stuff. Getting the Game
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You will need this information to access the bonus game; USERNAME = lee (all lowercase) PASSWORD = The “download key” found on P. 51 of the May 2004 issue of Armchair General Magazine. Type it in EXACTLY as you see it in the magazine. The last two “0’s” are in fact the number zero. It can be hard to tell the difference. |
Discuss The Battle for Cemetery Ridge on the Armchair General forums.
Missed the issue? Missed the game? Try Mark H. Walker’s website for the upcoming full version of this title. Click here!
General Concepts  The map includes McPherson’s Ridge, Gettysburg , Cemetery Hill, and the northern section of Cemetery Ridge. Each hex represents an area 250 yards wide. The counters represent brigades (600-700 men), artillery batteries (4-6 guns), and leaders. Each turn represents one hour. Action Cards Action cards determine the results of combat. Always draw the top card from the deck and discard it into a discard pile. When there are no action cards left in the draw pile, reshuffle them, flip them face down, and start over. You may use a six-sided die instead of the Action Cards; roll the die whenever the rules direct you to draw an Action Card. Stacking Up to three counters may stack in a hex. Only two of the units may be brigades. Stacking limitations apply at all times. Leader counters do not count against stacking restrictions. Unit Types Infantry: The poor guys who marched into battle. Includes General Buford’s cavalry (shown with a cavalryman on the counter), who fought dismounted. Artillery: Units whose weapon was the large bore cannon. Leaders: The men who led the troops into battle.
 Unit Color Union Units are light blue. Confederate units are gray. A stripe near the top of each unit’s counter signals the division (or in the case of artillery, corps) it belongs to. Most counters (artillery excepted) also have a vertical stripe on the right side that designates the corps to which the counter belongs. Setting up the Game Stack the action cards face down. Place the Confederate and Union units in the hex indicated on set up chart. The Confederate player moves first. Reinforcements Additional troops may enter during play. When and where they enter is designated on the set up chart. Bring the troops on one stack at a time at the designated hex. |
Outline of Play * Confederate Rally Phase: Draw an action chit for each disrupted Confederate unit on the board and compare it to their morale. Remove the unit’s disruption marker If the number is equal to or less than the unit’s morale. See Leaders for an exception to this rule. * Confederate Fire Phase: Undisrupted Confederate units may fire at units within range. Infantry may only fire at adjacent units; artillery may fire at units up to three hexes distant. Mark units that fire with Fired markers. * Confederate Movement Phase: Undisrupted Confederate units that did not fire may move. * Union Defensive Fire Phase: Undisrupted Union Infantry and artillery may fire at eligible targets. In the solitaire game, if more than one target is eligible, Union soldiers fire on the hex containing the most Confederate combat factors. Mark units that fire with Fired markers. * Confederate Melee Phase: Unfired , undisrupted Confederate units adjacent to Union units may melee those units. After melee removed Fired markers from all (Confederate and Union ) units. * Union Rally Phase: Draw an action chit for each disrupted Union unit on the board and compare it to their morale. Remove the unit’s disruption marker If the number is equal to or less than the unit’s morale. See Leaders for an exception to this rule. * Union Fire Phase: Undisrupted Union Infantry and artillery may fire at eligible targets. In the solitaire game, if more than one target is eligible, Union soldiers fire on the hex containing the most Confederate combat factors. Artillery may fire at enemy units up to three hexes away (count the target’s hex, but not the attackers). Mark units that fire with Fired markers. * Union Movement Phase: Undisrupted Union units that did not fire may move. This phase is ignored in the solitaire game. * Confederate Defensive Fire Phase: Undisrupted Confederate infantry and cavalry units may fire at adjacent units. Mark units that fire with Fired markers. * Union Melee Phase: Unfired , undisrupted Union units adjacent to Confederate units may melee those units. This phase is ignored in the solitaire game. After melee removed Fired markers from all (Confederate and Union ) units.
 Zone of Control The six hexes that surround infantry and artillery units are called its Zone of Control (ZOC) and represent the unit’s ability to control the surrounding terrain with its weapons. Units must stop when they enter an enemy ZOC. Units may not move from one enemy ZOC hex directly to another enemy ZOC hex. Movement Each unit has a movement factor (MF), which is an abstraction of the unit’s speed. In each turn units may none, some or all of their movement factor. In the movement phase the players may move all, some, or none of their units. Union units may not move in the solitaire game. Units that begin the movement phase stacked together may move together and split off units at any time. Units are moved to adjacent hexes, paying the movement factor cost to enter the hex or cross the hexside as shown on the Terrain Effects Chart (TEC). Units may not enter an enemy occupied hex (a hex with enemy units in it). Fire Combat Fire combat occurs in Fire Phase between adjacent infantry and artillery units within three hexes of the target hex. All units attacking the same hex must combine their combat factors and each unit may only attack once. Infantry brigades from different divisions may not combine fire, but artillery may combine fire with any unit in its corps. Artillery may not fire at enemy units if a higher elevation hill or woods or town hex on the same or higher elevation as the artillery is between the attacker’s hex and target’s hex. To determine if such terrain blocks fire, stretch a string between the center of the attacker’s hex and the target’s hex. If the string passes through a hex containing a higher elevation hill or woods or town hex on the same or higher elevation as the artillery, the fire is blocked. The fire is not blocked if the string passes down edge of a blocking hex, unless a blocking hex exists on each side of the string. Fire is never blocked between adjacent units. Units are never required to fire. |
To resolve combat add the combat factors of the attacking units and the Leadership ratings of leaders stacked in the same hex with any attacking units, modify the factors as dictated by the Terrain Effect Chart (TEC) and Combat Results Table (CRT), draw an action chit, and consult the Combat Result Table (CRT). The possible results are: Disrupted: All units in the target hex are disrupted. Place a disrupted marker on them. Disrupted units may not move, fire, or attack in melee (they may defend). If a unit or stack of units, defending in melee contains a disrupted unit, shift the odds two columns right (in the attacker’s favor). A disrupted unit that it disrupted again suffers no further penalty Loss (1,2,3): All units in the target hex are disrupted. Additionally, the defending units lose the total amount of steps indicated. A unit is flipped to its reduced (lower combat factor) side to indicate the first step lost, and removed when it loses another step. Leaders have no steps. If a hex containing a leader suffers losses the owning played draws an action card. If the number is even, the leader is removed from play. If all units are eliminated, the leader is eliminated too. All units must lose one step before any unit loses two. NE: No effect. Nothing happens.
