Three Days of Gettysburg traces its lineage back to Richard Berg's "Terrible Swift Sword" (1976). Take command of the Union Army of the Potomac or the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, the largest battle of the American Civil War.
Players command their armies via the chain of command from corps down through divisions and brigades to the individual units - regiments of infantry and batteries of artillery. The series relies on interactive chit-pull mechanics to simulate the often-chaotic nature of the 19th Century battlefield at the regimental level.
Three Days of Gettysburg Deluxe Edition will include ten-plus scenarios. They range from small skirmisher contests on half-sized maps to the ultimate Gettysburg experience on four full full-sized maps depicting the entire battle, including the East Cavalry Battlefield! Other scenarios will depict the first day’s fight for the hills surrounding Gettysburg; the second day’s assault on Sickle’s salient; the third day’s cavalry fight on Cress Ridge; Buford’s defense against Heth as his division approaches Gettysburg using the new skirmisher rules; the July 2nd evening assault on Cemetery Hill; the fight north of town on July 1st, and several others. The game includes smaller scenario maps; experienced players will be able to play many of the scenarios in one sitting. The 3DoG Deluxe edition will include many exclusive rules to represent the special situations at Gettysburg. However, many rules are optional, allowing players to decide what level of complexity they want.
New components include cavalry counters of four strength points or less that allow the player’s tactics to resemble historical cavalry tactics at Gettysburg better. Confederate dismounted cavalry counters allow for the dismounted and mounted fight on the East Cavalry Battlefield. Many artillery units have corrected weapon types, and some batteries can be broken into sections for the smaller scenarios (think of Calef’s battery on the first day!). Additionally, artillery overshoot rules elegantly show the Confederate defective fuse issues.
There are two types of skirmisher units, detachments from infantry and dismounted cavalry and breakdown skirmish units of specialized units. Players will find skirmishers well suited for their historical missions and challenging to move (or remove) unless faced with formed units. The Bliss Farm can be the problem it was in the actual battle.
New rules allow artillery to take losses in lieu of a Disorder result. Now, Alonzo Cushing can make his heroic final stand at the Angle! New rules for when units Collapse allow elite units like the Iron Brigade and the 26th North Carolina to continue to fight as they did historically, even after severe losses. Revised rules better represent how units recover manpower losses; no longer are the better Cohesion units more likely to recover, and players will find it beneficial not to run regiments into the ground. With a new battle-book rule, refused units with plenty of manpower are no longer the weak links in your firing line.
New town rules help show the difficulties formed units faced moving through the streets and limit the firepower of units in town when firing. Shock in town hexes will be less deadly, and Gettysburg will not be the defensive bastion of previous editions. However, skirmishers can duplicate the problems they caused the enemy when sniping from the houses of Gettysburg.
The new maps continue to use Mark Simonitch’s beautiful artwork but include the following:
Stonewalls.
The house-sized rocks specific to the Devil’s Den.
Sloping hexes that better represent the uneven terrain and slopes at Gettysburg.
While woods have no Shock benefit, Rebels facing entrenched Yankees on Culp’s Hill will suffer like their historical counterparts. The many rock formations are presented differently from earlier editions, and artillery moving into a hex that takes more than four movement points will roll for Disorder. Players will find moving cannons up the slopes of Little Round Top as tricky in the game as it was in the battle.
We have added the eastern map that covers the cavalry battle between Hampton and Gregg on July 3rd. However, the addition allows for much more than just that. Both sides will find themselves using infantry to protect or threaten flanks on the new map, and Williams’ division of the Union 12th Corps can be in its historical position near the Daniel Lady farm on the afternoon of the first day.
-description from publisher's website
Game Scale:
Game Turn: 1 hour
Hex: 125 yards / 114.3 meters / 40ft elevation lines
Units: Battalion/Regiment - 50 men or 1 artillery piece per strength point
Game Inventory:
Two single-sided 22 x 34" full-color maps (northern battlefield)
One double-sided 22 x 34" full-color map (front: southern battlefield, Rear: enlarged Pickett’s Charge map)
One double-sided 22 x 34" full-color map (front: East Cavalry battlefield, rear: Combined map)
One double-sided 17 x 22" full-color small-scenario map
One double-sided 11 x 17" full-color small-scenario map
Eight double-sided countersheets (2,240 1/2" counters - includes 4 blanks and 25 errata for Dead of Winter, 5 errata for Twin Peaks and 92 optional for Into the Woods)
Two 11 × 17" (2-sided) Combat Tables Player Aid Cards
Two 11 × 17" (2-sided) Terrain Effects Charts + 2nd Disorder Tables & Range Effects Charts w/o Overshoot
One 8.5 × 11" (2-sided) Turn Record Track & VP/BCI Track
One 11 × 17" (1-sided) Union AM Chart
One 8.5 × 11" (1-sided) Confederate AM Chart
One 8.5 × 11" (2-sided) Confederate Reinforcement Schedule
One 8.5 × 11" (2-sided) Random Events Table + Confederate Release Schedule for Longstreet’s Assault
One 8.5 × 11" (2-sided) Union Reinforcement, 2-map + Federal Longstreet’s Assault Schedules
One 8.5 × 11" (2-sided) Union Reinforcement Schedule, 3-map
One 8.5 × 11" (2-sided) Union Reinforcement Schedule, 4-map
One 44-page GBACW Series Rule Book (2026 Edition)
One 32-page Gettysburg Deluxe Edition Battle Book
One 64-page Gettysburg Deluxe Edition Scenario Book
One 16-page GBACW Simple Version Rules Manual
One 52-page Gettysburg Simple Version Battle Book & Scenarios manual
Two 8½"×11" Simple Version (2-sided) TEC + Combat Charts
Two ten-sided dice
Solitaire Playability: High
Complexity Level: Medium
Players: 2 or more
Playing Time: 3-25+ hours
American Civil War, Civil War, Wargame · Chit-Pull System, Dice Rolling, Hexagon Grid
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