I am of the opinion that the house rules regarding night action have been made unnecessary by the changes to the games themselves. It also seems that these rules almost always lead to confusion.
I am currently in a mult-player Gettysburg game with the "no melee at night" rule in place and my opponents surrounded a couple of my cavalry units with unlimbered artillery on the last turn before darkness. This situation occured when I moved Stuart and 3 brigades of horse around the Union right and occupied Two Taverns and blocked the Union I Corps path of retreat. I counted 56 guns that I could have taken if melee were allowed. In this game we also have a house rule that units cannot move forward and are restricted to moving behind positions established at night fall. With this rule, theoritically the Union I Corps would have had to stop pretty much all movement as my cavalry and units of another Confederate command had all roads to the SE blocked by simply being there. In other words the Union forces could not move without moving toward Rebel line.
We settled this through discussion in which I ageed to abandon Two Taverns to let the Yankees pass. So to make the house rule work and to avoid a unpleasant dispute I surrendered a major advantage that could have quite possibly resulted in the distruction of an entire Union corps.
I play these games for fun so in every situation when some issue arises, and they seem to come up every time a house rule is agreed upon, I simply concede to the Union players. It's just not worth the argument.
Major General Jon Thayer
Old North State Divison
3/III
Army of Northern Virginia
jonathanthayer@bellsouth.net