Gettysburg: The Tide Turns

Eric Lee Smith designed an excellent boardgame covering five battles of American Civil War way back in 1992. The game was called Across Five Aprils, published by one of the wargaming heavyweights, Victory Games. Across Five Aprils was a light-weight wargame with an innovative chit-pull system for activating units. The uncertainty of chit-pulling reflected the chaos of battlefield wonderfully. One would never know if the enemy was going to pre-empt your plans by moving before you get to attack, or worse even, attack while your troops were still trying to form their lines. The system was one of my favourite ones, easy to play, exciting and very replayable. Unfortunately for reasons unknown, it never got used in other games. What does this has to do with Gettysburg: The Tide turns, you ask? Well, this game is straight adaptation of the game system presented in A5A. And it is designed by same Eric Lee Smith - the board game took 25 years to reach computerized form. The computer version had a painful history due to original publisher Shenandoah Games not being able to bring the game out and it moved under Slitherine's umbrella. There were apparently quite a lot of technical problems getting the game finished and finally released. I'm not going to elaborate on them, other reviews and Slitherine's comments have told the story already. All this is irrelevant to me, as Gettysburg: The Tide Turns finally brings a forgotten gem of wargaming to public reach again, and it does it very well. The rules are clear, game is easy and quick to play with varied results each time. The graphics presentation is top notch, with the living formations making a great impression on the vintage map. My only wish is that the game had born under more fortunate stars, as I would have loved to see the same game system expanded to other Civil War battles.

Gettysburg: The Tide Turns ощущается гораздо интереснее предыдущих разработок Shenandoah Studio (Drive on Moscow: War in the Snow; Battle of the Bulge). Угадываются механики этих игр, но они расширены и переиначены. К примеру, работа юнитов на соседних клетках действует иначе — подведенные друг к другу юниты образуют формацию, если правильно их расположить перед противником, то они сообща будут наносить урон и даже могут нивелировать урон по себе. Учитывается рельеф местности — леса замедляют движение, но дают укрытие; холмы дают превосходство; каменистая местность предоставляет укрытие, но нарушает формацию. Игра очень проста в освоении, но при этом не ощущается как мобильный порт, в противовес интересной, но куцей Battle of the Bulge. Это полноценный пошаговый варгейм на тему битвы при Геттисберге для людей, которые не хотят засиживаться за партией слишком долго. Впрочем, сценариев мало, поставленные задачи базируются на одной и той же карте. Есть дополнительные сценарии-головоломки, где необходимо за два хода привести патовую или проигрышную ситуацию к перевесу в вашу сторону. Чтобы следить за остальными интересными релизами, присоединяйтесь к Dokole?! Igor Tonet! на [url=http://dokole.me/]сайте[/url], [url=https://t.me/dokole]Telegram[/url] или в [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/dokole#]Steam-группе[/url]

As a veteran wargamer and a fan of the Civil war, I wanted to see how the Battle Hymn Vol.1 boardgame could be adpated on computer. I must say that the basic mechanics of the boardgame are nicely put into pixels : the map is beautiful, the chit system is the same, the movement and combat systems are very similar. BUT The AI is terrible. During my first game (Day1) as CSA, I could easily grab 2 objectives near Little Round Top 5 turns before the end. Then the computer (with max AI !!!) only seemed to optimise its defensive positions around Cemetery Hill, and absolutely neglected to counterattack despite big local numerical advantage and the certainty of defeat if staying passive. Big potential, but AI needs to be drastically upgraded.

Excellent and addictive turn based-tactical strategy civil war game! The map is BEAUTIFUL and really makes the game! This game looks incredible with the bold red and blue colors of the units on top of a hand-drawn battle map. It's like you are playing a war game inside of a Civil War Atlas. More strategy games need to do what Shenandoah Studies did with GETTYSBURG: THE TIDE TURNS. I can't say enough good things about how this game looks. The game itself is easy to learn but is challenging and keeps me playing way longer than I intended. It's fun to watch the randomized turns which adds chaos to the battle which simulates how the battle progressed in real life. There are a couple of minor cosmetic bugs (artillery targeting arrows somtimes wont dissppear after comitting the bombardment, and the map shifts back suddenly when selecting a new unit in the shorter zoomed in scenarios) but the bugs that people have complained about have been patched out. Also, I think having the units follow their selected paths to their new hex would be a nice touch instead of gliding over in a direct path. To Shenandoah Studios: This is the type of game casual and early strategy gamers are looking for! History buffs like myself want to control units on a beautiful map like this that is user friendly. I would love to see more maps and more scenarios with full customized victory tiles. I would love to see an Antietam, Chickamuaga, and Shiloh become available. Additionally, I think that you can and SHOULD pull off a World War 1: Schlieffen Plan game modeled right after this game (why isn't there a strategy game based on the first German advance on Paris in 1914 before trench warefare??). Highly recommend to new strategy gamers and casual gamers who want to enjoy a beautiful map with beautiful units. Best 10 bucks I've spent all year.

Love the look of the game, and I really want the kind of game they tried to make here. Unfortunately, it is buggy to the point of being almost unplayable. Games irrecoverably freeze far more often than they are completed. I really wanted to like this game. Unfortunate that I do not.

A conditional recommendation... the game is unfinished and will remain so forever, which is a shame. It is playable, and rather enjoyable - but be aware the campaign is glitchy, the text is a mess of formatting and punctuation errors, the AI is unimpressive (verging on broken), etc etc. Here's the reason for the positive recommendation: the game is worth a few dollars on sale, just to admire the absolutely stunning period map, and the fabulous way the units move and line themselves up in Civil War battle lines. It's mesmerizingly great art! And on gameplay: I find the game is actually best played head-to-head - either against another human (hotseat), or playing both sides as a historical what-if simulation. Played in this way, it is actually very engaging and the disappointing AI isn't an issue.

Amazing game! I would recommend it to others. I always play as the confederates because it is harder to win as them even though I am glad the union won and definitely would have fought for the Union had i loved back then. My history professor said a confederate win at Gettysburg would have forced the union to the negotiating table. What do you think?

Unfortunately, though this seems like a good entry-level game with a lot of potential, the freezing bugs that constantly plague even the current patch of the game make this a pass. I've yet to get through the 33 turn campaign because it just freezes. Multiplayer PBEM suffers the same problem, usually at turn 11. Too bad because the game play is a good starter wargame otherwise.

Where do I start. First if you know anything about the Civil War or Gettysburg and expect this game to come close to anything other than having the unit names mostly right you will be good. There is zero historical combat accuracy to this game. It is totally dependent on die rolls, so don't expect to make a brilliant flanking manouver one turn and execute the next because that is not how it works. All movement is based on a die roll to see what unit/side goes in turn. Your I corps may move and then the enemy may get a chance to move, shoot, retreat etc. All depending on the die roll. There is no chance to develop any type of cohesive strategy due to the fact that you never know which side or unit will be moving/figting next. To sum it up: If you like random gameplay, and I stress random. This game could be fun. If you are anything close to a student of the Civil War and enjoy historically accurate, or even possibly close to accurate, strategy and combat, avoid this game. It is basically a board game with dice, a below average map for the computer genre, and a semi-historical unit database.

This is a great wargame and anyone who says otherwise is some sort of rivet-counting mutant.