Free Gettysburg Campaign

6/26/2018

Now Available!

At long last, our second installment in Altar of Freedom's campaign series is available for download. I'm very pleased to announce that--like most of our other supporting content--this supplement is 100% free for all players.

After the break, read more about our latest campaign, what's different from before, and how you can test your mettle as Lee or Meade in this fascinating, vast campaign.

What's New?

The map, of course. The map for this campaign is much larger than Vicksburg, covering a sprawling theater of operations in three different states. Below you can see a copy of the map to get a sense of the scope of play. In our play-test of the campaign, Ewell's corps successfully stormed Harrisburg, so it's quite possible for an aggressive Confederate team to advance even deeper into Pennsylvania than their historical counterparts. The new map also features mountains--a new terrain feature with movement limitations that serves to funnel movement through key passes and road networks.

While the basic mechanics of our first campaign system remain in effect here, movement rates are a bit higher, "raiding" is a new special action, and the Confederate army will be encumbered with "baggage trains" as a new map marker to reflect Lee's desire to gather and send supplies back to Virginia. As you might expect, there's also a new deck of random event cards to reflect the historical circumstances of this campaign--for example, JEB Stuart's disappearance and Stanton's reluctance to release the large garrison of Harper's Ferry to Meade's control are both card events here.

How to get Started

All elements of this campaign are free to download on this website, either as PDFs or image files you can resize and print. CLICK HERE to go directly to the page for the campaign, where you'll find the rules, the map, the random event cards, and the map tokens each available for download. You don't have to give us your email address, "opt in", or do anything other than start playing the campaign anytime you want. This supplement is another big "THANK YOU" to all the players around the world who keep buying and playing Altar of Freedom. I continue to be amazed how many copies we've sold since 2013, and remarkably, it's still going quite strong. As long as gamers keep playing, we'll keep supporting you with free stuff.

What's Next?

July is going to be a big month of updates and news here at the AoF homepage, so check back next week for a new terrain tutorial about making 6mm pine trees, as well as a brand new photo AAR from one of my favorite 1864 battles. We will also be featuring multiple videos from a massive project my club has undertaken over the last 18 months. I'm excited to unveil this grand project, and if you want a sneak peak at what to expect, pop over to Little Wars TV for the scoop.

--GRW

14 Comments

Thom Osborn

6/26/2018 06:44:19 am

Thank you for the Gettysburg Campaign, I have been waiting for this for some time. One small problem it looks like the base labels are for a different battle and not for the campaign.

GRW

6/26/2018 08:38:08 am

Thanks for this catch, Thom! This has now been fixed, with the most recent version of the PDF uploaded in place the old one. Anyone clicking it now will have the correct base labels!

Thom Osborn

6/27/2018 09:05:08 am

Thanks. Also on page 4 you list maximum units needed, but the numbers are much less (especially for the Union) then the OB has. Is there a reason for this? If the campaign ends up with anything like a Gettysburg game there are going to be quite a few more units involved tnen what you are listing as the maximum needed.

Mike link

6/26/2018 07:43:56 am

Fantastic to see a new downloadable Campaign. Will read and feedback if there are problems or questions. Thanks for this.

Mike link

6/27/2018 09:01:40 am

Have read the excellent campaign through and i have one question. On pages 3 and 14 it says there are 10 turns in the campaign. On page 6 it mentions eight turns in the campaign. Have I missed something here?

GRW

6/27/2018 07:12:34 pm

Definitely 10 turns! Gibraltar of the West is shorter, a 8 turns. I will fix this typo to clear up any confusion for people. Thanks!

GRW

6/27/2018 07:20:38 pm

You did not miss anything, Mike. I did! This correction has been made and the numbers are indeed much higher than originally listed. Unlikely a player would ever field anything like the full amount in a single battle for the campaign, but we had a couple fairly large actions in the playtest.

Andy Fuller

6/27/2018 11:31:49 am

That is a stunning campaign and will prove a real boost to my 6mm AoF armies. The production quality is superb. Very many thanks for continuing to support the ACW gaming community.

Mike link

6/28/2018 12:46:25 am

Thanks for making the updates so quickly. It would be interesting to see the largest battle anyone manages to force onto the tabletop from playing this Campaign!

Mitch

6/30/2018 12:42:29 pm

Thanks for the campaign and the pine tree tutorial. Are there future ACW campaigns in the pipeline? Thanks for your efforts.

Mitch

GRW

7/5/2018 06:48:46 am

You're welcome! For future campaigns, I do have two in various stages of progress--one eastern theater, one western--but I honestly don't know how far out those are from completion. Could be a year until the next one, as I'm working on scenarios (and a campaign) for our upcoming ancients rules, as well as video editing for the Little Wars TV project. Also stewing over another ACW project that operates on a much different scale from AoF. One day, there will certainly be another campaign, though.

Steve Preston

7/16/2018 12:28:42 am

Guys, you are superb, loving the You tube channel and Baccus must be loving you after I just ordered enough product to do any scenario in any of the books, can I just point out,, the banner at the top of every one of your books (except the main rule book says 'ATLAR' rather than ALTAR'... is it deliberate?

GRW

7/18/2018 10:53:53 am

Congrats on joining the 6mm movement, Steve! Oddly, no one ever caught the misspelling of "Altar" on the other books, but since you pointed it out I have corrected it on all the PDFs. Thanks! Glad you're enjoying the YouTube videos, as well.

John Kennedy

3/13/2019 05:42:34 pm

Hi, first wanted to say we really like the campaign rules and thank you for making these free. Most of the below is really just minor things and don’t detract from the campaign at all. But our group is thinking of running the Gettysburg campaign and I have a few questions after reading the supplement (sorry for the long post and/or if these questions have been answered in other blog posts).

Pg. 5 Map Tokens – In the 2nd paragraph says that the Confederate player also has Wagon Trains. The token set only shows Captured Baggage. I assume these are the Wagon Trains. Note: I kind of think a paragraph is needed just on Wagon Trains, when they move, how they move contact etc … see below.

In the fourth paragraph it indicates that the tokens are on page 23; they are now on page 24.

Pg. 5 / Pg. 25 Turn Sequence – The turn sequence shows the Union activating a corps first, but the text indicates the Confederate player activates first. I assume the text in the MAKING THE FIRST MOVE is correct?

Pg. 5 Fog of War – I am going to umpire the campaign, so each side won’t know where the other sides token are. At what point would you suggest that I do let the other side know that they are close to enemy forces?

I plan on giving them a rough idea on location of the enemy, but not sure if I just let them march around until they bump into each other or give them some notice that they are close to the enemy (1,2 or 3 spaces).

Pg. 8 Alternate Movement – Not sure this is a “problem” but with 9 USA corps to 3 CSA corps, the bulk of the Union army will move after the Confederate army has moved (CSA, USA, CSA, USA, CSA, USAx7). Is that intentional? Did you try moving three USA corps per activation (CSA, USAx3, CSA,USAx3, CSA, USAx3)?

When do Confederate Wagon Trains move? Do they move as a separate group or with any other corps when it moves.

Pg. 9 Contact is Made – I assume Wagon Trains, like pickets and supply depots also do not count towards the 3 division total for a battle?

Pg. 11(?) Contact with Wagon Trains – What happens when the union contacts a Wagon Train?

Pg.12 Reinforcement Arrival Example – In example C you write that a federal unit blocks his move … where is that in the rules? On page 13 under Reinforcement Limitations it only states “must avoid any impassible terrain (rivers/mountains)”, nothing about enemy unit.

Just to be clear, if Confederate marker C was swapped with the southeast Union marker, not only would the Confederate Division take part in the battle, it would block the two union divisions from taking part in the battle, correct?

Pg. 15 Federal Briefing - Where do WF Smith and Haller deploy on the map? I assume somewhere near Columbia where the picket is located. For now I put one in Lancaster and one in Harrisburg to guard the supply centers. I suspect your running out of space to keep it all on one page, but you might add to the Deployment Notes a Department of the SUSQUEHANNA and list the above locations for Smith and Haller.

Pg. 15 Federal Briefing – to be “consistent” you might want to change Pleasants Corps to Cavalry Corp under Deployment Notes.

Pg. 15 Federal Briefing – As I assume the mountain movement restriction applies to the union as well, you might add in the “Grid spaces with mountains can only be traversed via roads” verbiage to the Union Theater Map Notes sections as well.

Pg. 16 Confederate Briefing – Under the deployment notes, I’d change Baggage Train to Wagon Train.

Pg. 16 Confederate Briefing – under the Victory Points section, I’d change Baggage Train to Wagon Train to be consistent.
BTW I’d also suggest moving this page to in front of the Confederate OOB. To me it seems more intuitive to have the Federal Briefing then Federal OOB, followed by Confederate Briefing and OOB.

Pg. 25 Counters – Is the French Garrison token supposed to be a picket? Or should it have an infantry symbol and be listed as garrison?

Pg. 25 Counters – As both the Union and Confederate Artillery Reserves are under army command, where do they set up and what Corps do they move under? I suspect we don’t need the tokens as they are always with the Army leader, who is always present at any battle … but wanted to double check.

Pg. 25 Counters – are the six captured baggage (aka Wagon Trains) markers a physical limit? I realize there is a practical limit, given that the confederate player has to spend staff points, roll to get a wagon train and then send it back beyond the Potomac River in 10 turns.