Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
The Guns of Gettysburg is a simulation of the largest battle of the American Civil War. Like Bowen Simmons's previous games, Bonaparte at Marengo and Napoleon's Triumph, The Guns of Gettysburg uses a diceless and cardless system for governing movement and resolving combat.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Action Points
Spend a limited allowance of points across several possible actions each turn.
Area Movement
Move pieces between connected regions rather than along individual spaces.
Secret Unit Deployment
Place or assign units secretly before their positions are revealed.
Simulation
Model a real or imagined system through detailed cause-and-effect rules.
Variable Set-up
Starting conditions, resources, or layouts change between plays.
Read the full game description
The Guns of Gettysburg is a simulation of the largest battle of the American Civil War. Like Bowen Simmons's previous games, Bonaparte at Marengo and Napoleon's Triumph, The Guns of Gettysburg uses a diceless and cardless system for governing movement and resolving combat. Units in the game are represented by linear blocks rather than the traditional hex and counters, giving the game an appearance that evokes 19th-century battlemaps. The Guns of Gettysburg has simple rules and fast play but still reflects the historical limitations of the actual conflict. Though it preserves the aesthetics and "fog of war" mechanisms of Bonaparte at Marengo and Napoleon's Triumph, The Guns of Gettysburg is neither a sequel nor a successor to either game but a wholly new system of its own.