Scourge of War Boards

Speculate away

It's not my intent to start a speculation thread...but...if some of the screen shots and the team's recent trip to Gettysburg seem to hint at that direction, I started to think of some landscape/terrain items that may not be known by the casual Gettysburg visitor or historian but should show up on the maps due to either their historical or physical pominance. I started thinking about the vegetation. Besides mapping the historically correct woods, woodlots, orchards, and (of course) Longstreet's Assault copse of trees (which at the time of the battle were probably not very tall) there are two individual trees that should be included.

The first is the 90 foot poplar that stood along the east side of Baltimore pike just north of the cemetery gate. This tree no longer stands. It was struck by lightning and removed before the turn of the century. The poplar tree could be seen from quite a distance and is mentioned in Frassanito's books. It was used by him to help identify the location where period photos were taken.

The second tree is across the lane from the Trostle barn. It was the location of Sickles' headquarters. This tree still stands.

Can anyone think of other things that would be missed if not included?

Good idea you have on this subject. I can remember reading on some of the improvements they are doing in Gettysburg. I think it would be good to see the fence rails they are putting in place that were there at the time of the battle, these new rails are being constructed around the visitors center I believe. Wonder if there is already maps that NSD team has that portrays all the fence railings of that time. I think this would be important. Just my two cents worth. I'm going the way of this game is Gettysburg, at least I hope it is.

Aahhh..fences...you have your stone, post and rail, worm, Virginia rider, rough cut plank, pickets, etc. Luckily, there are numerous sources that document almost all the information required to recreate the battlefield in great detail starting with surveys done shortly after the battle up to the present. I'd be very surprized if the NSD team has not already gathered many of these documents and is using them as a design basis. Any holes in the information could be filled in with some inquiries and/or a visit to the librarian at Gettysburg National Military Park (John Heiser) who happens to be a long time friend of mine. He'll curse me for making more work for him. After gathering a mountain of information, you have to decide from a practical standpoint how much detail you can put in a game map. Of course.....this is all speculation since we don't know the subject of the first game yet.