The Drive on Metz: - Victory Point Games

14 In Magnificent Style Rules v1.0
Pickett with Garnett (planning a major push in
this sector of the battlefield), and takes a moment
to reflect on the fall of poor Pettigrew.
It is now the Brigade Activation Phase and
Rhett chooses Fry’s Brigade to Activate first.
Following some amazing die rolling – “<strong>The</strong> Lord
hails from Dixie!” – Fry goes on to capture the
Union Position in his Brigade Column and now
resides there with 7 SV and Trimble permanently
attached (Generals cannot be attached to or
detached from a Brigade in a Union Position).
Rhett, sensing a critical moment in the game has
been reached, Activates Garnett (6 SV) next. His
first task is to get past that intrusive Emmitsburg
Road obstacle. He chooses a Move action and
rolls a 3 and a 5, which has no effect (an
Advance result is not good enough to enter the
Obstacle space). He chooses to Move again, and
this time rolls a 1 and a 6, an Against the
Wind result! Rhett has a tough choice here –
either take the two Hits and advance into the
Obstacle space, or use up Pickett’s Leadership
Effect for this turn to re-roll the dice. With his main
concern being to get through that obstacle,
Rhett’s men take the two Hits. “Forward!”
Rhett advances Garnett into the Obstacle space,
reduces the Brigade to 4 SV, and then needs to
draw two Event chits, first a Blue one and then a
Gray one. <strong>The</strong> Blue Event chit is God is a
Southerner. How prophetic! Now Rhett draws
two Gray Event chits. <strong>The</strong> first chit is Division
Support, so he can choose any of his three
Divisions and increase their Brigades by a total of
3 SVs (because it is Game Turn 3). “Ah,
Longstreet has sent us some reinforcements!”
Rhett decides to add all 3 SVs to Garnett, thus
bringing him back up to 7 SVs. Garnett is now
ready to make a final push across the Red Zone
against the 4 SV Union Position opposite him. <strong>The</strong>
second Gray Event chit drawn is Smoke Cover,
which Rhett places in front of Lane’s Brigade.
Rhett chooses another Move action and rolls a
5 and a 5 for a Determined Advance.
Garnett’s Brigade moves two spaces forward! He
rolls again and gets a 2 and a 4 for an
Advance, thus moving Garnett’s Brigade
adjacent to the Union Position. <strong>The</strong> next Move
action next roll is into an Obstacle space (the
Union Position), and Rhett grimly shakes the dice.
A Southern miracle occurs as a 6 and a 6
appear (“On to Washington!”). Rhett moves
Garnett into the Union Position space, but before
Development by Alan Emrich
any Bayonet Combat occurs, he must first resolve
the Gray Event chit from his dice roll. He draws
Artillery Support – 1 Fire!; he then randomly
picks one Fire! chit and decides to place it on the
Union Position Garnett is about to fight in hopes
to soften it up a bit more.
And now the Rebels are at ‘em! Bayonet Combat
is resolved by first dealing with the just-placed
Fire! chit; it is revealed to be an Unsteady result,
so the Union Position’s SV is halved this turn in
Bayonet Combat! <strong>The</strong> two sides’ strength
calculations begin with Garnett’s value as follows:
7 SV; +2 by “using” Pickett (flipping his marker
over to its “USED” side); +4 for Fry’s support (half
of Fry’s 7 SV because General Trimble is with
Fry) = 13. Deduct the Union Position’s situation
from this total: -2 SV (half of the Union Position’s 4
SV due to being Unsteady from Confederate fire);
-1 for the other adjacent Union Position space
(Armistead has not yet captured it); -1 for the
initial attack across a non-Stone Wall border = -4.
<strong>The</strong> net modifier to the Bayonet Combat die roll
will therefore be +9, a virtually guaranteed victory!
Rhett confidently rolls two dice, but to his horror
he rolls a 1 and a 1! <strong>The</strong> net combat total is 11
(i.e., 9 + 2), which yields an Upper Hand result.
Rhett rolls one die for a 3 and applies that many
hits to the Union Position, reducing it to 1 SV.
Unbelievably, the Union troops have held the
position (!) and a continuing melee situation exits.
After Rhett is done cursing his infernal luck, he
advances Garnett’s Rally marker to the Red Zone
space next to the Union Position space and flips it
to its Done side. Now it will take at least one more
turn to seize this space and Rhett’s plan of
opening a breach in the Union lines is temporarily
thwarted.
[19.0] THE 2-PLAYER GAME
In the two-player scenario, the Union Player
applies the results of certain Blue Event chits
and can alter the targeting of others by giving
a future advantage to the Confederate
Player.