From:        gt9863a@prism.gatech.edu (Craig Kenneth Bryant)
Subject:     Review: Roads to Gettysburg
Date:        20 Sep 1994 20:17:53 -0400


I have been playing Roads to Gettysburg lately, and I can not speak too 
highly of it. I am probably going to start collecting the whole series of 
campaign games in this line (Here Come the Rebels, Stonewall Jackson's Way, 
and shortly, Stonewall in the Valley), finances permitting.

Roads is something I've wanted in a game for some time. Good grand strategy 
Civil War games (a la VG's Civil War) have been available for some time, and 
there are individual battle games and very good miniatures rules. This, 
however, is an _operational_ level game, falling somewhere between the two 
ends. It's also a grand "what if" game for the great "what if" campaign of 
all time: Could Lee have won if J.E.B.'s cavalry had been at hand? If he had 
taken Longstreet's advice and slipped around the Union army to threaten 
Washington? Could Meade really have hunted down and destroyed the A.N.V. 
after the battle? After seeing _Gettysburg_, these are probably the questions
you are burning with.

As for the mechanics, the game employs "manpower levels" to reflect losses in
combat (which I have always found superior to the simple elimination of 
units), and the turn is of variable length in terms of action--it lasts as 
long as a player wants to keep having his units do things (though at the 
price of wearing them down with increased fatigue levels). The turn is based 
on alternating "pulses," as well, allowing players to react to each other's 
movements as the turn progresses.

Just based on what I know of military command in the period, I have found the
systems for leadership and logistics to be very elegant in their relative 
simplicity and ability to capture the flavor of the age--oh, and the map is 
absolutely beautiful. The designer suggests taking it along on a tour of the 
battlefield for laughs, and that is what I plan to do when I get up there 
this Fall.

Craig Bryant

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From:        graham@bradbury.ee.washington.edu (Stephen Graham)
Subject:     Review: Roads to Gettysburg
Date:        21 Sep 1994 16:10:02 GMT

The game and the system are both flawed. Not fatally, but it can interfere 
with play.

The most glaring game error is the Union Entry Table. A bad result on that 
table and the Union player is doomed. If the Army of the Potomac enters on 
June 29th or later, the Confederates can win the game unopposed, particularly
so if there's rain. All the Confederates need to do is pillage all the 
eligible towns and avoid the Union army. This gives them more than enough 
points for a good victory. Crush a few militia units and life is grand. The 
Union player just doesn't have the ability to catch the Confederates and 
inflict enough damage to change matters. This might even be the case if the 
AoP enters June 28th.

Leader ratings are questionable as well. All of the Union Corps Commanders 
have a tactical rating of 3. All but Sickles have a coordination rating of 5;
Sickles has a rating of 4. Similarly, all of the Confederate Corps Commanders
are 4-5s. This seems rather odd.

Leader casualties only apply to the Confederates. Huh? In this campaign?  
It's easier counting Union corps commanders who _weren't_ killed or wounded 
at Gettysburg.

It's not possible to recreate historical march rates for the Union army.  You
can do it for one day, but then the fatigue level is too high.

Confederate cavalry brigades are the same strength as Union cavalry brigades.
The Union brigades are larger, better armed, and equally competent. Remember,
this is a month after Brandy Station.

On the other hand, the maps are beautiful. The scale is very good. I own 
every game in the series, largely because of the potential.

Stephen Graham