From: LESLIE SPAIN Subject: CONSIM REPORT (Long) - 3DOG The Three Days of Gettysburg: An Initial Experience I thought it might be interesting to the members of the list to hear about our first experience with 3 DOG as we played the game to try the system and to determine whether or not our group would undertake the complete battle scenario. The game was played by four veteran gamers at Le Marshalate's regular monthly meeting. This was also the first experience any of our group has had with the GBACW system so I will include the flow of the game and some impressions we gained about the game system. I would appreciate some feedback on whether this type of report is worthy of posting to the list. 0740 through 0820 (three turns) - The Confederates entered the map in strategic march column as called for by the entry conditions. The Confederates players had elected to attempt a turning attack against Buford's left, so Archer's and Davis' Brigades attempted to advance along Whisler's Ridge and deploy to the front and left of Gamble's position on Herr's Ridge. The Union player promptly mounted portions of Devin's and Gamble's Brigades and advanced to engage these brigades as they attempted to deploy. This tactic proved effective as the Union cavalry was able to force the brigades to come out of strategic march column prematurely (no strategic march inside 4 hexes and line-of-sight of an enemy unit). Additionally, a successful cavalry charge was mounted against one of Davis' green regiments on top of Whisler's Ridge. This threw the Confederate advance into confusion and slowed the arrival of Pegram's artillery. 0840 through 0900 (two turns) - Gamble's regiments (one out of command) retired back to Herr Ridge while the two regiments from Devin (5 strength points total) that had advanced were shot down by Pegram's now deploying artillery. The Confederate's continued to have difficulty on their right as several attempts to gain Maximum Effectiveness for Archer and Davis failed, resulting in modest retrograde movements by these brigades. Pegram's artillery gained Whisler's ridge while Brockenbrough and Pettigrew began to deploy. The Confederate left was now astride the Chambersburg Pike on top of Whisler's Ridge (Pegram) with Davis and Archer extending along Whisler's Ridge from the Chambersburg Pike to south of the Teller Farm. 0920 through 1000 (three turns) - Archer gets on track (gaining ME on a couple of turns) and advances to Herr's Ridge unopposed on Gamble's left astride the road running parallel and south of the Chambersburg Pike. Davis advances more slowly but maintains continuity between Archer and Pettigrew who has deployed to the right of the Chambersburg Pike. Brockenbrough is still deploying along Whisler's Ridge on Pegram's right. A.P. Hill arrives on the battlefield. This deployment is virtually unopposed by the Union as Gamble (along with Calef's battery A/2 US) is being pounded by Pegram now fully posted on Whisler's Ridge. For the Union, Meredith's (Iron) brigade for the Union leaves strategic mode prematurely and becomes entangled along Seminary Ridge. Cutler's brigade stays in strategic march and approaches Herr's Ridge to Gamble's left near the Hass Farm. As Cutler approaches Herr's Ridge he finds Archer waiting for him. 1020 - The Confederates win initiative for this turn. A.P. Hill provides Maximum Effectiveness for Heth who passes this along to Archer and Davis. Pettigrew and Brockenbrough are out of Heth's command radius so do not automatically receive ME. Archer closes on Cutler's lead regiment (He is strung out along the road), surrounds it and initiates shock combat causing the regiment to surrender. Cutler's brigade counterattacks, routing one regiment while Meredith's brigade begins to deploy on Cutler's left, ready to descend on Archer's flank. We halted the game at this point but the participants were expressing the wish we could have continued. Our playing time was approximately 4 hours. Conclusions: All of the players enjoyed the game. We all felt that the game system provides rich tactical detail with real opportunities to achieve "tactical" surprise. This game does a good job of providing the kind of tactical ambush which appears often in historical accounts. Even with the limited number of units involved in the early battle on July 1, it was obvious that the tactical choices available to both sides would make no two games alike. The game system uses fire as a function of movement with a lot of opportunity for reaction by the non-phasing player. The price you pay for this type of system is time. This game will take a long time to play. This is true even assuming some improvement based on experience with the system. The number of tactical decisions to be made by both sides dramatically increases with the number of units engaged. The game rewards thoughtful play and so players will spend the time! One significant negative is the game requires two pages of errata included with the game and over five pages from the web-site to play. We still wondered about certain specific situations that might have merited a specific comment. For example, does an extended column suffer any ill effects when it engages in fire combat? Does the trailing hex of an extended column have a ZOC? The rules and tables are silent about these so we made our own assumptions. This is OK, but took up some discussion time that I would have perferred to spend playing. On the whole, our group liked the game and we intend to pursue the full battle scenario sometime this winter. Les Spain lcspain@sanders.com