Illustrated Optional Rules and Clarifications for Gettysburg '88

A game by the Avalon Hill Game Company

Author: Steven Moses

Web Version: Walter O'Hara

The following additional rules are paraphrased by an excellent article by Steven Moses, first published in THE GENERAL, Vol. 29, No. 4.  Being a fan of the game (warts and all), I consider this article to be worthy of note for Getty88 players.  Therefore, I present this Illustrated Optional Rules page in hopes that it will be useful to fans of the game.  I will not post the rules or text of the article for copyright reasons.   These rules are considered OPTIONAL or CLARIFICATIONS.   I will highlight the differences.  Clarifications should be considered an attempt to explain existing rules that were either poorly written or inconclusive, Optionals as new rules proposed by Mr. Moses in his article.

All material copyright, the Avalon Hill Game Company, Hasbro, Inc.

Movement/Combat Rules

Artillery Units may cross streams only by roads and railways OPTIONAL

Artillery Units may cross streams only by roads or railways.
OPTIONAL

Units attacking across a stream receive a -1 combat modifier.

Attacking across a stream incurs a penalty
OPTIONAL: Artillery units may not move AND fire in the same turn.  I didn't think this needed a picture...
Artillery Can't Fire out of Gettysburg OPTIONAL: Artillery may not fire from Gettysburg city hexes.
CLARIFICATION: Units entering board in same hex must enter in column.  The yellow markers indicate  the movement costs for entry. Units must enter in column, incurring a 1 MP cost
Advancing units lose road bonus near enemy artillery OPTIONAL: Units may not use the road bonus within two hexes (inclusive) of enemy artillery.

Stacking Units

CLARIFICATION: Any number of Generals can stack together. Any # of generals may stack together.
Same-formation cavalry units may stack. OPTIONAL: Two Cavalry units from the same corps/division (only) may stack together.
OPTIONAL: Infantry units may not be stacked together

(on a paranthetical note, I agree with Mr. Moses... this game fosters killer stacks)

 Infantry units may NOT stack.
Artillery units may NOT stack. OPTIONAL: Two or more artillery units may not stack together.
OPTIONAL: Units in column may not stack together. Units entering the board in column may not Stack.

Leadership Benefits

Corps Leader Bonus OPTIONAL: Corps Commanders provide a +1 combat modification to units in hex. 

(in this example, Hancock is giving Caldwell a +1 bonus, and Longstreet is giving Hood a +1 bonus)
OPTIONAL: Army leaders (Lee and Meade) bestow a +1 modifier on units that within 5 hexes of the army leader.

(using the example above, Lee and Meade are added to give Hays, Gibbon and Caldwell plus one (for Meade) and Mclaws, Hood and Pickett plus one  (for Lee).  This is on TOP of their Corps Commander bonus)

 Army Leader Bonus

Artillery Fire Advanced Rules

Artillery LOS check OPTIONAL: Long Range Artillery Fire may not fire if the hex between attacker and defender contains a hill, woods, city hex or friendly unit.
OPTIONAL/CLARIFICATION: Long Range Artillery fire remains the same as printed in the rulebook, with the following clarifications:
  1. Defender is permitted defensive modifications for woods or city hexes only
  2. No punitive effect on the attacker if the attack is unsuccesful
  3. For a combat resolution differential of less than 4, there is no effect while a differential of 5 or more causes a max of only one hit
  4. If the defending unit suffers a hit, retreat is voluntary.
  5. Adjacent artillery units may either combine fire into a single attack or engage in individual attacks.
OPTIONAL/CLARIFICATION: Short Range (1 hex) artillery fire is treated the same as the rulebook with the following exceptions:
  1. As noted above in movement, Artillery may not move and fire in the same turn.
  2. A unit on a hill fired upon by only adjacent and/or long-range aritllery units does not received the hill defensive benefit.
  3. Victorious offensive artillery units may not advance after combat.
  4. At one hex range, the combat factors for artillery units are doubled, with any other factors added in AFTER THE DOUBLING.

Again, try to find the back issue to read the full text clarification and explanation of these optional rules.  If you are a fan of Getty88, you will appreciate the different (and more historical) flavor these rules will bring to your game.

Note: The illustrations for the rules variants are screen captures from the Gettysburg 88 Cyberboard gamebox, available throught the Play By Email Emporium and elsewhere.