American Civil War
by CDV
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Category: Video Games
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Product Summary
Brand: CDV Software EntertainmentPrimary Contributor: Windows
Format: DVD-Video
Release Date: 2008-01-28
Platform: Windows XP
Publisher: CDV
Product features:
- Fight to reconcile the nation (USA) or ensure independence (CSA). Win militarily or politically, as national will play a crucial role.
- Play a scenario over a few hours or a full Grand Campaign following in Grant's or Lee's footsteps across massive operations or the entire war!
- Two playable sides, dozens of different troops, hundreds of events, over 300 historical leaders with unique abilities.
- Hundreds of events during the course of scenarios and campaigns to provide challenge and an element of surprise.
- Organize divisions, armies and corps, manage supply and morale, use sea, river and rail moves, and put the best leaders in command (if politics allow)!
Video Game Reviews of American Civil War
Customer Review: Civil War EPIC. EPICLY clouded.
Summary: 3 Stars
The game is one of grand strategy. Players take the role of the North or South and as a prior review stated, control everything from the military to the politics to the economy of their nation. I'll not delve into gameplay as much as some of the strengths and weaknesses of this near great game.
The learning curve is fairly steep. Dealing with the Army, Corps, Divisions and the abilty to split them up and reform them can be tedious. Add in the fact that commanders sometimes don't activate and follow your orders and you might find it hard to assemble your force where you want it. Realism? Perhaps so but this brings up the next issue.
The map and the units aren't easy to manage. So slow and disobediant leaders aside, its easy to misplace them! Stacks are hard to operate, the regions are small and can become cluttered and the lines of transit from the various units can create quite a spiderweb to blind the eye. Judging the overall value of your armies are not easy either. When you successfully scout out an enemy army a brief panel opens up revealing their strength. Not so for your own army, you need to piece some things together. Additionally accidental stacking of forces is easy to do if one isn't paying attention.
The map does have some neat features. The game is smart enough to know that if you try to attack across a river, there is a penalty. It allows you to build fortifications. Terrain matters! Though I do wish mountains were impassible to give the valleys a sense of one way in, one way out. The map features means clever manuevering is needed. Fight head on, and you'll be just like Burnsides! Weather changes are denoted on the map for easy reference. If the map turns white, that's snow! Don't march through it. Or if you do, it better be worth it.
Reinforcements are no fun. In the economy feature of the game you can raise troops from the various states under your control. These forces appear, then need time to amass and then you can send a batallion off to war. It is time consuming and requires you to frequently check on the status of raised units, and then comes the not so fun process of sending them to the front and integrating them. Additionally there are a horde of units one can try to raise. Perhaps too many. Realistic? Sure.
Naval combat at sea and on the rivers is also addressed and adds another layer to the game. Not too hard to manage excpet there is the ability to use river travel, the ability to use river transport ships, and there are river warships not to mention deep sea war and transport ships. The effect is just another layer to bog things down and clutter the map up. Realisitc? Yep!
Scouting is fantastic! Enemy forces can be hidden until you detect them. Cavalry comes in handy for this, and it is so nice to use cavalry as the eyes and ears of an army for a change! Sadly, when you create a cavalry screen it clutters the map up. Still, effective scouts! Realistic? You bet.
If you've not noticed, the game pushes for realism. This is not a bad thing, it makes it a different game than the more simple grand strategy products such as Axis and Allies, and I would normally embrace it as such. However, with the cluttered map and lack-luster interface the realism slows things down and gets in the way. Even with realism, players want to direct the war efficently, not spend an hour looking at a reinforcement table with a dozen units and then flitting through other tables, then back to the map only to have to peer about closely and wonder how best to split up a stack and ship over one new unit from a nearby town while three others are still gaining strength in three other towns. Even forgetting reinforcements, the game itself has too much information and no easy way to share it. I almost think it would have done better to simplify armies and leave the rest or simplify the other aspects of the game and keep the multi-layer Army, Corps, Division system. Having both is too much for the interface and map.
And that's how I'd sum up American Civil War, it has TOO MUCH good things to share and no easy way to express it. A much larger map and sleeker interface and an automatic way to set up a reinforcement pool would have turned this game into a real winner. As is, you need to be patient with it.
Price wise? $30 is fair given all the work that went into it, and if you get the hang of the game you will get hours of enjoyment. The play by email is a nice feature, but handled poorly. Too much work for the user when it should be click, send, done.
The manual is not that useful and the tutorial is better, but like many aspects of the game, tedious. The tutorial even closes out at times forcing you to re-open it.
I hope in the years to come the developers give some more polish to this game. I think it is on verge of a GREAT one! If you like the Civil War and want a game like Axis and Allies, this may be a bit too much for you. If you want a slow paced highly detail orientated game, this is the one.
Tip of advice. READ THE AGEOD FORUM ONLINE. The forum was more useful than the manual and tutorial. Hard core players are eager to help people as well.
Description of American Civil War
AGEOD's American Civil War: 1861-1865 - The Blue and the Gray is a historically accurate, realistic and fun turn-based grand operational strategy game of the American Civil War. Based on an expanded and improved version of the Birth of America game engine, the game enjoys a very intuitive interface and is easy to learn.An upgraded Birth of America engine with AI and game play design from one of the strategy gaming masters that conceived the blockbuster Europa Universalis. The largest American Civil War map ever, with unequaled hand painted look and detail levels to thrill both casual and hardcore fans of this crucial period in American history. ESRB Rated E for Everyone
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