This Hallowed Ground

Roll 2D6 with modifiers (+1 attached commander, +1 Rebel Yell, +1 Elite, -1 Green, -1 per 12" from commander, -1 through difficult terrain). 2 or less: Yellow Bellied! (Hold and become Shaken); 3-6: Forward Men! (advance to 6" and shoot); 7-10: Charge! (move to point blank, take defensive fire and morale tests, then contact); 11+: Determined Charge! (no morale test from defensive fire). In v4.4 a dice pool is rolled: 0-1 successes Failed, 2 Falters (move to 6" and shoot), 3+ Charge!.

A charge home test is taken to determine if the charge successfully contacts the enemy.

Arcs are drawn at 45 degrees from each corner; LOS and shooting only to the front arc from the unit leader point. Forward allows one pivot up to 90 degrees about the centre and obliques at 45 degrees keeping facing; Back and Sidestep move half rate. v4.4 adds wheeling about a front corner and pivots costing half movement.

Each arc is determined by drawing a 45° angle from each corner of the unit.

Infantry line 8", march column 12"; cavalry 12" or 18" in column; artillery 4" deployed, 12" limbered; commanders 24". March and Charge allow double rate; Back and Sidestep half rate. Units must stay 1" from enemies except in melee.

The unit moves up to double its normal movement rate.

Infantry: Line (5 bases wide), Supported Line (3 wide, 2 deep), March Column; cavalry: Supported Line, March Column, Dismounted Line with horse holders; artillery: Limbered or Deployed. Formation sets shooting and melee dice (e.g. infantry line 10D6 fire/4D6 melee vs supported line 6D6/5D6). Formation changes use Reform; cavalry mount/dismount and artillery limber/deploy during an Advance at half rate.

The number of shooting dice to roll depends upon the existing formation of the shooting unit.

A unit may move through friends provided its final position clears them; a retiring unit continues until clear. A retiring unit that cannot avoid an enemy is Broken. v4.4 forbids passing through march columns, limbered artillery or disordered units and forces a morale test when interpenetrating Shaken units. Chargers may not pass across an enemy's front within 4" (a zone of control).

Except when charging, friendly units may freely move through each other (including when pivoting) so long as the unit’s final position does not interpenetrate another unit

Difficult terrain can be entered but not Marched through (March stops at its edge); impassable terrain cannot be entered. The terrain table lists e.g. light woods difficult and obscuring, dense woods and buildings impassable and LOS-blocking, obstacles difficult with cover. Roads give x1.5 movement to cavalry and limbered artillery in v4.4.

Units are not allowed to March through difficult terrain.

Rules: roll 2D6 plus modifiers (+2 commander attached, +1 brigade or army commander within 12", +1 Steady, -1 per full 12" from brigade commander, -1 enemy within 6", -2 Shaken); the test passes if the result exceeds the unit's current hits, else the unit takes Hold; snake eyes always fails (Blunder). In v4.4 the unit rolls a pool by state (Steady 4D6, Worn 3D6, Shaken 2D6), 4+ is a success and a 6 counts double, and failure makes the unit Disordered.

If the result is greater than the current number of hits on the unit the test is passed.

Hold (no move, may shoot), Advance (normal move with Forward, Retire, Back or Sidestep, may shoot), March (double move in open terrain, no shooting), Charge, Rally (recover hits, one per brigade commander per turn) and Reform (change formation and facing). Each unit makes a single manoeuvre per turn and an orders die is placed behind it showing the order. Units engaged in melee are automatically on Hold.

Each unit in a brigade must be given one of the following orders during brigade activation.

Orders tests and charge home tests suffer -1 for each full 12" between the unit and its brigade commander; Independent units ignore this. In v4.4 commander rerolls are only usable inside command range (8" commander, 12" C-in-C), and Rally requires being in command range.

-1 – For each full 12” increment the unit is away from its brigade commander.

Each brigade has a brigade commander and the army one army commander. Commanders attach by moving into base contact, adding +2 to orders tests, +1 to charge home tests, -2 to morale tests and one melee die; they cannot detach from a unit in melee and make a free move away if their unit breaks. In v4.4 they grant rerolls instead: brigade commander 1 reroll within 8", C-in-C 2 rerolls within 12", never rerolling a reroll.

Commanders are used to issue orders to units throughout the army, provide the essential ability to Rally damaged units and provide much needed encouragement

In the core rules a tied melee stays engaged and is fought again next melee phase, with the previous winner marked by a Charge order die. In v4.4 rounds continue immediately until one side is broken or all its units retire.

If both sides are tied, the melee is a draw and units will remain engaged.

Dice come from formation (plus one per attached commander), hitting on 4+ with modifiers (+2 vs rear, +1 vs flank, +1 charging or won last round, +1 defending obstacle, -2 Shaken). All units on the losing side take a morale test, even with no hits. Fighting to flank or rear removes one or two dice.

The side with the highest resulting number of hits wins the melee and is not required to take a morale test

Each enemy in contact with a unit retiring from melee rolls 1D6 and scores a hit on 3+. If all enemies are Broken or Retire after the first round, unshaken chargers may make one breakthrough charge on the nearest enemy without an orders test. A winner against obstacle defenders pushes them back one base depth and occupies the obstacle.

If all enemy units engaged in melee are Broken or forced to Retire as a result of the initial round of melee, the charging unit(s) may (optionally) make a breakthrough charge.

In v4.4 a unit with 2+ unengaged Steady or Worn friends within 6" may reroll one die on a morale test. When several units are engaged, one is primary and the others add half their base dice; infantry supporting artillery add half their dice and absorb one hit in three.

Supporting units only contribute ½ of their base dice (rounding up) to the melee.

Roll 2D6, add current hits and modifiers (-2 attached commander, -1 Steady, -1 Elite, -1 hits under half Break, +1 broken brigade, +1 steady enemy within 6", +1/+2 engaged in flank/rear). Result at or above Break: Broken; at or above Shaken: Retire and become Shaken; otherwise passes. In v4.4 the unit rolls a state-based pool (4D6/3D6/2D6) needing 2 successes vs shooting or 3 vs melee, failure causing Disorder and a retreat or a break if Shaken; 8+ unsaved hits make 6s count singly.

Adjust the 2D6 result. Note that reducing the result is a good thing, whereas increasing the result is bad

A brigade is Broken when more than half its starting infantry and cavalry are Broken; its Shaken units are removed and its steady units can only Hold, Reform or Advance (retiring away from the enemy). When more than half the brigades are Broken, the army breaks and the game ends at the end of the turn.

When more than ½ (rounded up) of the brigades in an army are Broken, the army becomes Broken and the game ends at the end of the current game turn.

The rallied unit recovers 1D3 hits and returns to Steady if its hits drop below the Shaken value; it may still shoot. Each brigade commander is limited to a single Rally per turn. In v4.4 a successful rally removes D3+2 hits and requires the unit to be in command range.

Each brigade commander is limited to a single Rally command per turn. The unit recovers 1D3 hits

Shaken units cannot charge, halve shooting and melee dice and must retire from melee. In v4.4 Worn units roll fewer test dice; Disordered units cannot move or shoot, one Disorder marker is removed each command phase, and units disordered during the opponent's phase receive two markers.

Disordered – This is an additive state for a unit. A steady, worn or shaken unit can also be disordered at the same time.

LOS is from the unit leader point to targets in the front arc; full LOS needs half the target's facing visible. A unit within half an inch of an obstacle with half its facing behind it gains Cover, which also counts as Obscure (modifiers stack). Obscuring terrain applies if it cuts LOS to half the target, but a unit may see through up to 1" of terrain it occupies.

Any unit that gains a cover bonus is also considered to be obscured (the modifiers stack).

Rules: base to-hit 3+ with die modifiers (+1 point blank, +1 target in column/limbered or mounted, +1 Sharpshooters, -1 moved, -1 over half range, -1 cover, -1 obscure, etc.); 1 always misses and 6 always hits; if 7+ needed, halve the dice and hit on 6s. Shaken units halve dice. v4.4 instead fixes to-hit at 4+ and applies modifiers to the dice count (e.g. +4D6 against march columns, -2D6 against cover, minimum 2D6).

The basic to-hit value for shooting is 3+.

Carbines 24", rifled muskets 30", light guns 40", regular guns 60", siege guns 80"; point blank is 6". Artillery dice depend on band, e.g. regular guns 6D6/5D6/3D6. v4.4 gives every weapon close/effective/long/extreme bands with dice per band.

The three entries reflect (from left to right) the number of dice used at point blank range (6” or less), ½ range (6” to ½ range) and long range (greater than ½ range).

Initiative is fixed at the start of the game (by scenario or a D6 roll-off) and stays for the whole game. Each turn is two rounds, one per player, each consisting of Command, Shooting and Melee phases, followed by a shared End phase that removes order dice and smoke markers and checks victory.

Initiative order is established at the start of the game and stays in effect until the end of the game.

Command phase: attach/detach commanders, resolve all charges, then activate brigades one by one, resolving each unit's order and then moving the brigade commander, and finally move the army commander. Shooting resolves all small arms (and their morale tests) before artillery in v4.4. Melee is fought in an order chosen by the active player.

Charge orders are the only orders resolved prior to brigade activation.

The defender shoots at chargers moved to point blank range if they started more than half their move away (v4.4: further than 8"); chargers that become Shaken or Broken fail. No defensive fire into flank or rear arcs. Cavalry charged by cavalry may countercharge, meeting halfway with both counting as charging; v4.4 lets charged cavalry retire before contact.

Defensive fire is resolved by conducting shooting against the charging unit after it has moved to point blank range.

Rules: basic save 6, improved to 5+ in cover; no saves in melee. v4.4: small arms hits saved on 5+ (4+ in cover, 4+ with rerolls when fortified), artillery 6 (5+ in cover), and melee hits saved on 6.

The basic saving throw against shooting is 6. If the target has cover this is improved to 5+.

Hits are tracked with markers. Infantry are 18/20 (Shaken/Break), cavalry 14/16, artillery 12/14 in the core rules; v4.4 uses worn/shaken/broken values by unit size (e.g. standard infantry 8/16/24). Reaching the Break value removes the unit; Rally removes 1D3 hits (D3+2 in v4.4).

If at any time the number of hits on a unit is equal to or greater than the Break value of the unit, the unit is immediately Broken and removed from the game.

Each 4+ is one success and each natural 6 counts as two. Steady units get one automatic reroll on orders tests; commanders give 1 (8") or 2 (12") rerolls, which do not stack and can never reroll a reroll. Marksmen reroll failed hits; Stubborn rerolls failed morale.

Each D6 result of 4+ is 1 success, with each natural 6 counting as 2 successes. Steady units automatically gain 1 reroll.

The core rules use 2D6 totals for orders, charge home and morale tests and d6 pools for shooting and melee; v4.4 uses d6 success pools throughout.

A tape measure, several six-sided dice (D6), a marker for tracking hits on units

Lists include freshly raised, regular and veteran infantry regiments, skirmishers, named units (Iron Brigade, Berdan's Sharpshooters, Louisiana Zouaves), cavalry and field, horse and siege artillery, each with fixed special rules and optional Large/Small Unit.

Veteran Infantry Regiment

Rebel Yell gives Confederate infantry +1 to charge home (v4.4: reroll a failed or falters charge); Elite +1 charge home and -1 morale; Green -1 charge home; Independent ignores distance from commander; Stubborn rerolls failed morale. v4.4 adds Large/Small Unit, Tough Fighters (+2D6 melee), Marksmen, Skirmishers and Seen the Elephant (must reroll a successful charge).

Stubborn – Unit can reroll a failed morale test (a test that results in the unit becoming Shaken or Broken).

Core: +3 per broken infantry or cavalry, +2 per broken artillery, +1 per Shaken unit, plus scenario points; a difference of five or less is a draw. v4.4: +10 per broken command, +5 broken unit, +3 shaken, +1 worn.

If one side has six or more victory points than their opponent, they are victorious!

Little Roundtop, Pickett's Charge and McPherson's Ridge each give an overview, orders of battle and scenario rules; e.g. Little Roundtop lasts 8 turns, gives 10 VP for holding the hill, and has the 20th Maine roll from turn 6 to run out of ammunition, after which it charges with a bonus.

Starting Turn 6, the Union player rolls 1D6. On a 4+ the 20th Maine runs out of ammunition and can not longer shoot for the rest of the game.