Little Round Top

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: This campaign mission has the player in the role of the Northern Commander facing a fairly equal Southern force in a race to see who can secure the orange hex area designating the objective. There is no indication in the briefing or anywhere else of how many turns are available, and there is no counter present.

In fact, the briefing itself makes the mission sound somewhat complicated, which could not be further from the truth. This mission takes the term "cake walk" to a new level entirely. I have not played this game for almost three months, and in the first attempt back I won the scenario in nine turns.

The starting position is several hexes southwest of the orange hex area and the force is comprised of the General unit and 4X400 Soldier units. The briefing indicates that you need to move the General to the highlighted zone to "summon" reinforcements and then bring them back "quickly" to defend the hill. There is no indication as to how this "summoning" is to occur once you get in position.

It turns out this happens automatically as when the General unit arrives in the orange hex area designating the objective, the reinforcements magically appear just to the north. My plan was depressingly simple - I brought all units in and around Little Round Top, fortified them and slaughtered the obliging Southern Commander who had all of the cunning and wit of a wet tennis ball.

The Leader Ability of the General was essentially useless or so it seemed as I could not detect any discernible advantage to the selections made (Damage Up and Fortify). This could have been masked by a superior tactical position with an entrenched force firing down against a moving force in open terrain. At any rate, the capability introduced in the game should have a more profound effect to at least be noticed.

Other thoughts: As expressed in my last write up concerning the Devil's Den, 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. Again, not having played the game in almost three months and then slaughtering the enemy in less than ten turns is not something I would have believed at the outset of the campaign.