Play Test #4 - Pickett's Charge Scenario

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Yesterday we conducted our fourth play test of the rules for my Pickett's Charge game scenario for the upcoming Little Wars convention in April. With respect to the rules, we are down to making a few minor tweaks here and there that really don't have much impact on the way that the rules work. So we are mainly just running more iterations of the game to see what types of outcomes the rules produce.

On the terrain side of things, this was the first time that we had enough game mats from Cigar Box Battle Mats to cover the entire surface of three 6ft by 24ft tables. The difference in the look of the ground before and after using the mats is remarkable.

The two pictures below provide a "Before" and "After" view of the Union position on Cemetery Ridge with and without the Cigar Box mats.

Union position on Cemetery Ridge shown without the use of game mats.

Union position on Cemetery Ridge shown with the game mats from 
Cigar Box Battle Mats.

Here is a view of one of the back tables showing the starting deployment position of the Confederate army.

Joe Davis's Brigade of Mississippi and North Carolina regiments.
This is the starting back table for the Confederate advance.

Davis's brigade shown on a bare green painted table surface.

I'm kicking myself for not taking many "long distance" photos that show all three of the tables with the new game mats. As you may recall, we are using three 6ft by 24ft tables, arranged parallel to one another and with aisles running on each side of the center table. The aisle space does not exist in terms of table top distances. For example, if a Confederate regiment is on the back table and has 20-inches of movement and starts only 8-inches away from the edge of the back table, then the player measures the 6-inches up to the edge of the table, and then hops across the aisle to the center table, and then measures out the remaining 14-inches of movement that his regiment has. In other words, the aisle area effectively doesn't exist.

This can create some interesting moments in a game when, say, two opposing units are on opposite tables and the players do not realize how close they are to each other because their eyes have been fooled by the three feet of aisle space between the center table and one of the back tables.

Here are few more random views of the game tables with the new mats:

The Confederate back table showing the starting point of the Confederate advance.
The tree line represents Seminary Ridge. The Confederates will be moving from left to right.
This table is 6ft wide and has a length of 24ft.

Confederate's starting point on the back righthand table.

The Confederates "jump across" the aisle between the back righthand table onto the center table.

A move or two later, the Confederates approach the Emmitsburg Road while
maintaining rather orderly lines and formation.

A Confederate brigade attempts to cross the Emmitsburg Road. It takes one full turn to 
cross each post and rail fence on the road. Thus Turn 1 the regiment crosses the fence
but then that is the end of its movement for the turn. On Turn 2 the regiment can
now cross the second fence and resume its movement for up to half of its allowed movement.

And now a look at the Union deployment on Cemetery Ridge:

A Union artillery battery supports troops located in The Angle.
The famous Copse of Trees can be seen in the background.

Front view of The Angle

A Union regiment deployed behind the stone walls.

Union regiments defending The Copse of Trees which was the directional
focal point or landmark of the Confederates in Pickett's Charge.

We had to cut short the play test around 3PM because it is a one hour drive from Keith's house to my house, plus we needed about 30 minutes of post game discussion time to go over some of the things that we saw in the game. We plan on resuming the game this coming Friday, on Good Friday. After that there will be one final Dress Rehearsal play test game in early April and then it is time to pack everything up and get ready to take the show to Little Wars.

On Friday, I will make a point of taking some long view photos that include all three game tables and try to see if I can do something about the lighting so that I can produce some better looking photographs.

I am pretty much done with painting figures needed for the game so now I will be turning my efforts towards terrain pieces such as more post and rail fences for the Emmitsburg Road and perhaps a couple of 2-ft square fields using Teddy Bear Fur