Bloodiest Day (1995)

Bloodiest Day: The Battle of Antietam, from Spearhead Games captures the essence of this crucial engagement. Bloodiest Day's unique approach to simulating Civil War battles uses alternating-impulses and an area map to capture the ebb and flow of Civil War battle as attack and counterattack build to a crescendo of combat.

17 September 1862, Sharpsburg, MD: The bloodiest single day of combat the North American continent would ever witness draws to a close. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, outmanned but not outfought by McClellan's Army of the Potomac, barely adverts disaster along the banks of the Antietam Creek. Heavy but uncoordinated Federal attacks had stretched the gray-clad lines to the breaking point. Only the nick-of-time arrival of Hill's Light Division blunts the final Union assault. McClellan refuses to commit his reserves to grasp the war-ending victory that lies within his reach. Lee's first invasion of the North ends - but the war drags on. Yet McClellan's imperfect victory would lead to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and change fundamentally the nature of the conflict.

System is loosely based on the area movement games from Avalon Hill (Storm over Arnhem, Thunder at Cassino, Turning Point: Stalingrad and Breakout: Normandy) and sister game to They Met At Gettysburg.

Game Scale:
Game Turn: 2 hours
Area: 1" / 2.54cm = 285 yards / 260 meters
Units: Brigades

Game Inventory:
One 22 x 34" full color map
One dual-side printed countersheet (176 5/8" counters)
One 30-page Bloodiest Day rulebook
Two single-side printed Player Aid Cards
Two single-side printed Order of Battle charts
Four 6-sided dice

Solitaire Playability: High
Complexity Level: Low-Medium
Players: 2 or more
Playing Time: 1.5 - 2.5 hours