I was unashamedly overexcited late last week when a big box arrived in the post. Inside it was the brand new game from Bowen Simmons, the designer of Napoleon's Triumph, one of the best historical boardgames I have. This time, he has turned his attention to the American Civil War and the ubiquitous battle of Gettysburg. Now, this game has been in development for ages, but due to health issues, Mr. Simmons never managed to get it into production (he actually produced, packaged and shipped Napoleon's Triumph himself!). So I was always concerned that The Guns of Gettysburg would never see the light of day...but then...enter Mercury Games! They took on the design of the game and used Kickstarter in the US to get it into production. Thankfully, they struck a deal with a German games distributor, Histogame, which meant that they opened up preorders for European customers, so we could get access to the game along with the KS pledgers. This was a great move by these two companies, as the shipping from the US would have been completely prohibitive. Anyone that preordered also received one of the KS stretch goals which is an actual bullet from the American Civil War!
So, I now have what looks like being another superb effort from the Simmons stable! I haven't had time to really digest the rules, but there are variable reinforcements and moving objective markers, so it looks a lot of fun! The components are also top notch, with the red and blue blocks being of good quality and the stickers are very...well...sticky! As per Napoleon's Triumph, there is a lot of consideration for the gamer, with a good few spare blocks, zip lock bags for all the blocks and counters, a duplicate sticker sheet and two rule books. The board is easily as sumptuous as the Napoleon's Triumph board (although noticeably smaller, which is a good thing if you only have a wee dining table!) and the rule book is full colour and chock full of diagrams. All in all, I can't wait to give this a try and I'll be sure to let you all know what the actual game play is like.
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| The box is nice and sturdy! That's the bullet on top. |
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| The board and all the blocks and counters. |
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| Full colour rule book... |
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| ...and lots of examples! |
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