Gettysburg is second of <PERSON>'s wargame from the Treefrog line. Whilst being in spirit quite similar to its older sister, Waterloo, it is design on its own, featuring some unique ideas and different approach to issuing commands. This review is based on one game only and will list differences to Waterloo; I will also elaborate bit on my impressions from the game.
1. Rulebook. Complexity of the rules.
This is where Gettysburg wins hands down. Since there is no distinction between different types of units - which was the case in Waterloo in which you commanded cavalry, artillery and infantry, and the latter could be in defensive or square formation - rules are pretty straightforward. On the very first page <PERSON> wrote that those who are familiar with Waterloo shouldn't have any problems with grasping rules of Gettysburg; it is hard to not to agree with this.
Clearly written rulebook also helps a lot. As usual, this is neatly typesetted not-so-long brochure, printed on shiny paper. Rules are well composed and easy to digest, particularly when compared to those of Waterloo in case of which I had to thread my way few times in order to fully understand them. With Gettysburg, two rides in underground, to and from the office, was more than enough.
2. Damage cubes
Damage cubes are still here! There are two modification to how they're applied, one minor and the other of major importance. The minor one is that in Gettysburg damage cubes have to be applied evenly i.e. during assault, you can't have them assigned to one of infantries, particularly sacrificing it, but letting others to remain in their full combat strength. This provides an extra bit of realism (why on Earth, would the defenders should the weakest of the attackers?) and makes the game less 'gamey', from the lack of better term. Whilst you still can remove cubes by marching with heavily wounded unit far back behind the front line, I like this approach better.
This is, however, nothing compared to the major improvement, hear hear. In Waterloo, French enjoy two types of infantry - regulars and the Old Guard. The formers are yer standard combat unit, whilst the latter, posing bigger threat to the enemy, are harder to defend against. My gripe with Waterloo was that by clever management of damage cubes and well-planned commanding, you could perform the attack with the Old Guard and, should it not succeed, retreat, assign cubes to the regulars, move those back behind the front line and still enjoy fresh and undamaged Old Guard. 993
Hardly realistic. And, combined with advantage in the sheer numbers of units, giving French edge over British.
In Gettysburg this has been amended. Whilst the Union has four types of units (mobile cavalry, elite, regulars and inferior infantry), each of types has its own set of damage cubes which means there is no way you can reinforce your elite, taking away some cubes with the regulars. Now, this is something was also introduced in Waterloo!
3. Artillery
In Waterloo it was very easy to overestimate the role of artillery - I would frantically issue orders in vain hope to destroy or at least soften up the enemy. Whilst you could hope to hit the target in the adjacent area, the farther it was located, your chances were asymptotically closer to the improbable.
Battle of Gettysburg took place over fifty years later. Gunsmithery has move forward since and accurate fire over battlefields miles long was nothing unusual. In <PERSON>'s Gettysburg volley of artillery fire can have devastating effect. Particularly for Confederates, who can issue two orders in one turn, it is quite common to fire with multiple guns to soften the enemy and then make an assault on disorganized defenders. Deadly.
Prior to your first game I encourage you to examine the map, in particular location of hills and ridges which are best points to set up your batteries. When shooting from the plain, your range is limited to adjacent areas only. From the hill you may shoot as far as far areas away and since the distance to the target does not affect chances to hit, it is no brainer to move your guns up to higher altitude.
There are some minor nuances <PERSON> introduce for better historical chrome. For example, artillery can be targeted by the long range fire unless it has fired in former turns. This is quite obvious once you become aware it was actually mile away targets artillery was shooting at. Only when artillery fires, it reveals its position becoming prone to revival fire.
4. Command
When Waterloo was released, die-hard grognards laughed hard at <PERSON> and <PERSON>, I mean wooden pieces representing commanders. Whilst arguably of funny presentation, commanders are extremely important in game of Waterloo as they can activate two - instead of standard one - areas with one order. Again, this gives French significant advantage as they enjoy more commanders. 449