Setup Outline
This setup page allows players to quickly and randomly decide some of the basic features of a typical game scenario. All of the steps below can be decided by players on their own without the help of this section, but for those players who don't feel like taking the time to lay it all out, the tables below can speed things up.

1) Choosing Battlefield & Forces
2) Setup Proximity
3) Leader Traits
4) Off-Board Artillery
5) Time of Day
6) Army Deployment
7) Heroic Opening Moves

« Choosing Battlefield & Forces
The choice of forces to be used, including nationalities, numbers, sizes and types of units to be used, along with the battlefield and terrain to be played on, are ultimately up to the participating players. Battlefields can range from open farmland to mountainous passes, with or without major rivers and towns. While creation of the battlefield itself is beyond the scope of this setup guide, new players can go with a common Civil War terrain like a gently sloped valley with the armies facing each other on opposing ridges. There are other numerous terrain options, ranging from major towns and related river crossings, to hilly or mountainous ridges. The combinations of possible forces and terrain are almost endless. Some players have almost as much fun setting up the battlefield as they do playing the game!

All players should be in agreement on what sides of the battlefield they are setting up on. Dice can be rolled to decide this. Another good idea is to decide in advance if the battle will feature clearly defined attackers versus defenders or more evenly matched sides who will attack or defend according to terrain and setup. With a clear attacker, it is best to place the defender on defensive terrain of some type and give the attacker some numerical advantage. This presumes that players already have some painted armies organized to one of the many possible orders-of-battle (OOB). The Republic rules page has a reference order-of-battle for Gettysburg and we intend to add more as time permits.

The above outline presumes a typical line-up of armies arrayed for direct battle against each other, with front lines and most of the armies already deployed. Another option is to have the armies meeting each other starting in road columns and steadily broadening their fronts as more troops arrive on the battlefield (called Meeting Engagements). These types of battles need careful consideration for which roads the various players can use to march onto the board. Meeting engagement games can either have players march on-board from the start, or the heads of the road columns can be held to specific setup proximities. Another intermediate option and one common to the American Civil War is having some scattered brigades (already deployed) running into each other over a broad front while others straggled onto the field in road column.

Set-up Proximity - The easiest and most common way to place troops on the playing area is to declare a location for the front line running between armies, and then decide the closest that units are allowed to setup to that line (i.e., unit proximity). This can be done by declaring a specific distance as measured from the rear edge of the board (most common) which forms a single setup boundary across the battlefield, or by laying pieces of string across the battlefield delineating the battle's front line. The string is interesting because it can be used to create a meandering, uneven front which is more historically common. Each side would then be allowed to setup within a certain distance (proximity) of the front line. The most common and convenient front line proximities place the leading edge of each deployed army approximately within long range artillery fire. How far within range is again up to the players, but common starting values are within one of the two outermost artillery range brackets. Note that players can impose more complicated setup options by (for example) allowing a setup proximity for one side which threatens the other side's flank. This should be done as part of the general scenario/battlefield design and with the understanding of the players.

« Leader Traits
Players should decide if they are going to use historical personalities in their game, or if they will be generating hypothetical game leader values to make for more unpredictable results. There is an extensive Leader List of historical personalities and their estimated traits for players who want to use something like the real life officers. The table below is for those who want to generate automated (hypothetical) traits for leaders of divisions, columns, corps, etc. Note that players may mix both historical and hypothetical; they might for example, use Sherman and his default Republic ratings as army commander, but with hypothetical corps/division commander traits. It will be more common to use this table for divisional level officers, because for many units of the time there is not always neutral information available regarding their division level leadership's command traits such as popularity with the troops, etc.

To use the tables below, follow the instructions for each leader the players wish to generate traits for (traits being the Class and Rating for each). There are two ways this can be done:

1. Simple Roll - Roll two ten-sided die (2D10) and cross index the corresponding box on the Leader Class table's Die Result column against the Class Type column to find the resulting leader class. At the far right is a reference column letting you know what the percentage odds are for rolling each line. Use the same die roll result on the Leader Rating table to establish second of the two traits. For example; a die roll result of 5 will give a C0 (Cautious/Zero) Class/Rating for the leader in question.
2. Complex Roll - To gain a more varied set of leaders, roll two ten-sided dice (2D10) twice (instead of once) with first result being for class and the second result being for rating. The results of this can give some very unusual officers. A variation on this is to let the player decide which of the two die results he wants to apply to Class, thereby automatically assigning the other result to the Rating.

« Off-Board Artillery
Due to the surprisingly long range (surprising for some people) that the latest artillery of the time was able to fire at, it was not uncommon for troops fighting in one area of the battlefield to be unexpectedly fired upon by enemy artillery who were nearby and happened to have line-of-sight on troops off to one side. If they were not otherwise engaged, that artillery might not hesitate to fire on those targets of opportunity.

Roll on this table if you want to see if there is an enemy artillery presence for either army, on either flank. Generally speaking the forces in question would be very sensitive to the presence of guns nearby, and so this would be known rather quickly for purposes of game play (i.e., the players will know at game's start if they have this flank threat). Roll 1D10 for the first condition; Presence of Friendly Guns Nearby. If this results in a Yes, then continue to roll the particular conditions for each off-board battery. For left or right flank, players may also just roll a simple odd/even or upper half/lower half die roll split.

Note that all off-board artillery is considered to have a line-of-sight that enters the battlefield at a 45 degree angle from its side, and the guns (if any) will always fire on the closest visible target within range (the Battlefield Penetration is the effective range of the off-board artillery onto the playing area). If on any turn, an off-board battery rolls a 1 or 2 for range column drift, it stops firing for the rest of the game. If both sides roll Yes for batteries on the same flank, those batteries cancel each other out on a 1-to-1 basis (one battery cancels one enemy battery).

« Time of Day
The reason players might want to roll for time of day is related to the Army Deployment table below. Roll a 10-sided sided die, a 1 through 5 result means that it is morning time and a 6 through 10 result means that it is afternoon.

« Army Deployment     
Players may use this table to control whether the respective armies are closely arrayed or scattered. Note that this should be decided only after it is decided which brigades will start the game deployed on the board (versus those assigned to march in from off the board). This table would only apply to those on the board in some way and only applies to the distance between respective brigades, not the distance between the brigade bases themselves. This die roll should be done before units are placed on the board.

Die Roll Modifiers: Energetic Senior Commander = +1, Cautious Senior Commander = -1

Precise = Brigades will remain as placed by the players.
Disordered = Half of that side's brigades on the field cannot setup within a quarter-mile of each other.
Scattered = Half of that side's brigades on the field cannot setup within a quarter-mile of each other, the other half cannot setup within a half-mile of each other.
Crowded = Half of that side's brigades must be in base-to-base contact in some way.

« Heroic Opening Move
Sometimes an individual officer or small group of men might commit to a near suicidal act of bravery to inspire the troops, secure a piece of terrain, deny the enemy some other piece of terrain - or just to intimidate. Each side rolls 1D10 with no modifiers, the high roller gets to roll again on this table and applies the resulting events/actions during the first game turn. This die roll should be done after units have been placed on the board.

Enemy Delay = The enemy brigade closest to the front must Hold on their first player turn.
Brigade Expedite = The friendly brigade closest to the front can advance or assault for free, no Maneuver die roll required.
Inspiration = The friendly brigade closest to the front will ignore (not receive) any morale hits on their first player turn.
Intimidate = The enemy brigade closest to the front takes one morale hit.