steps. Publication history Terrible Swift Swords was designed by Richard Berg, with graphic design by Redmond A. Simonsen, and was published by SPI in July 1976 in both double "flat-pack" and "soap box" editions. The game immediately rose to #4 on SPI's Top Ten Bestseller list, and stayed in the Top Ten for the next eight months. Sales of the game reached 30,000 units. TSS was the first of what would become a series of eight SPI wargames about the American Civil War, called Great Battles of the American Civil War (GBACW). TSR took over SPI in 1982 and republished a number of popular SPI titles in new TSR packaging. This included Terrible Swift Swords, which was republished with artwork by Larry Elmore in 1986. Like its predecessor, this edition also sold over 30,000 units. As a continuation of the GBACW series, TSR published the separate American Civil War game Rebel Sabers: Civil War Cavalry Battles in 1986. One of the four scenarios, "Dutch Roads", a simulation of a cavalry battle during Gettysburg, can be linked to gameplay during TSS. Nearly twenty years after the publication of TSS, original designer Richard Berg redesigned the game, which was released in 1995 by GMT Games as The Three Days of Gettysburg, with artwork by Rodger B. MacGowan. Reception In his 1977 book The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming, Nicholas Palmer called the game "strongly tactical in emphasis, with particularly detailed rules for firing different types of weapons." Palmer concluded, "A magnificent simulation, but far from swift." In Issue 54 of Moves, Steve List warned of the "many, many detailed rules" and called the game "dauntingly complex." He concluded by giving the game a grade of B, saying, ""beware of the time it takes to play. A solid weekend of diligent activity might suffice to reach a conclusion in a single day scenario, but the whole battle cannot be played out in one sitting." In The Guide to Simulations/Games for Education and Training, Martin Campion commented on its use as a classroom aid, saying, "The duration of the grand battle version of tbis game makes it unlikely that any class could play it in this way, but much can be learned from shorter playings." Campion advised that if the teacher acts as referee and knows the rules, the students don't need to be experts. He further advised "teach the players how to move,