Devil's Den

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: This campaign mission has the player in the role of the Northern Commander facing a superior Southern force attacking the Devil's Den. The objective is to move into the area they want to take and destroy the enemy within forty turns or less.

This mission marks the return of the orange hex area designating the objective, and includes the first iteration in the campaign proper of the General unit, which is a commanding officer who can affect the morale and performance of your men for the good or bad.

The Leader Ability of the General unit is basically selecting two like cards out of three to utilize one of three skill enhancements offered: Damage Up, Dodge and Fortify. From what I have seen in the campaign so far I cannot imagine where Dodge would be of any value, whereas Damage Up and Fortify certainly would benefit maintaining a defensive position to deny the enemy (North or South) access to their objective.

The mission itself is a cakewalk - you move the troops into the Devil's Den area, fortify them, and plaster the enemy as they advance. At the outset of the mission the Southern forces are massed in the NW of the hex grid in three distinct groups: 4X400 Militia units on the left, 7X400 Soldier units in the center mass, and 3X400 Militia units on the right. The North is provided 5X400 Militia, 3X400 Soldier and one General unit all massed together in the SW.

The Southern Commander moved his units on the left to the left flank of the orange hex matrix as I moved in, and swept the center and right groups to the right flank. He then broke off a single Militia unit to the extreme right flank and held them there in reserve, along with a single Soldier unit in the north. These units stayed put as I slaughtered their comrades moving into the Den, and at first I thought I had to move to engage them so I began to un-fortify my units to maneuver for the kill.

However that did not need to be done as those units began to move to my
position once all of the other Southern units were eliminated. In the end it was a total wipe out the first play through - I won the scenario in a total of ten turns when the game allots you a total of forty as mentioned previously. Aside from a cool screen shot in the after-action movie mode, the General unit provided no discernible effect on the battle.

Other thoughts: Not having played Gettysburg for two weeks and decimating the enemy with thirty turns to spare with little thought on tactics, I can safely say this mission could be classified as "throwing a bone" to the player and giving them an easy win mid-campaign. Tactically there is no challenge to be had here. The mission designer should have employed some Cavalry or Artillery units for either side to spice it up a bit.