Across A Deadly Field - The War in the East

By John Hill and Mark Stacey

This supplement for Across A Deadly Field includes a number of scenarios of differing size and complexity, intended to give players a wide variety of options for their American Civil War games. The scenarios cover a number of the most famous battles of the Eastern Theater, including 1st Bull Run, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Brandy Station and Gettysburg, and offer both modestly sized and larger battles to the player. The smaller scenarios focus not only on smaller battles, but  also on engagements within a larger encounter, while the larger scenarios present a wider view of a battle. For example, Antietam offers the three distinct corps-level actions in the north, center and the south at Burnside’s Bridge, as well as the full battle. This offers Across A Deadly Field players a versatility that can accommodate their preferences and collections without sacrificing either playability of historical accuracy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Dec 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781472802637

John Hill

John Hill was formerly the China Watch editor for Jane’s Intelligence Review, and has reported widely on security matters for a range of Jane’s publications. He is Writing Centre Coordinator at Vancouver Island University.

Reviews for Across A Deadly Field - The War in the East

[charbonn-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a scenario book for the “Across a Deadly Field” rules. After a few pages of optional rules and some guidelines for laying out Eastern Theater battlefields, the book presents the scenarios. Oddly enough, there are no scenarios for 1861 or 1862. Instead, the presentation begins with a “First Day of Gettysburg scenario set” which, together with two scenarios for Meade’s Pipe Creek alternative, take up more than half the book. Some of these are fairly historical, some not. For example, “a very long day,” 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. of July 1, presents no enforced “lull from 12 noon to 2 p.m. when the only Confederate activity was artillery shelling. In ADF, that would be four turns of no Confederate attacks, which would drive most wargamers crazy.” Following the Gettysburg scenarios, there are two scenarios from the Shenandoah Valley in 1864 (New Market and Piedmont), and finally Ben Butler’s attack near New Market Heights.One minor glitch in the book is the identification of all regiments from Pennsylvania as being “Philadelphia” regiments.