Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865)

Fantastic game! Epstein didn't kill himself

A great game completely undone by game breaking bugs. Supply is completely borked (if supply moves along railways, why must I build a supply hub every 30 feet?). If one of your forts is under attack, don't move an army to reinforce it or it'll fall the second the army makes it into battle. Want to inflict more casualties on your enemy after they break in battle? Too bad, your cavalry need to be told to use their sabres each and every unit they go after, and even if they do get to that unit on time they almost certainly wont do anything to them anyway. Add in rather obvious Total War-style rule bending permitted to assist the nearly brain-dead AI, such as knowing where all your units are at any time, an ability to ignore the readiness system, and complete disregard for any and all economic limitations, and what you have is a mess of a Civil War simulation that aspires to be a strategy game but collapses under its own weight.

A game that had so much potential but is not only unfinished but still heavily unpolished and has now been announced as to be abandoned for their second title. The battle AI is next to useless, movement is clunky and awkward, combat rolls and morale regularly make no sense. Whiskey and Lemon campaigns, while fun are regularly broken by bugs.

Basic features broken or make no sense. More Bugs than a Bethesda game at release. Game isn't worth a fraction of the price you pay for let alone full price.

Muy bueno solo desearia una traduccion al español

This is the BEST American Civil War game I have ever played, and I have played a lot of them (starting in the 1970's before they were on computers). There are quite a few idiots who have given this game bad reviews over the years. I think I encountered about 1 in 9 who had good points; but even in that case, the guy had played the game for like 250 hours (so I think you could say he must have got his money's worth even IF he doesn't intend to play it anymore). This game is NOT easy. This game is NOT a quick fix. There is a steep learning curve and it has very little of the standard sickly sweet putrescence which is so common in modern games which deal with war. Nor is it full of "Gotcha!" mechanics in which the bot opponent gets special favors and that is the primary source of challenge in the game. This game has been made by people who must be fairly expert in the subject matter, considered very broadly. I would say that they have played at least as many ACW and war games in general as I have which is scores of them if not close to 100. It seems clear that the developers of this game have put their love into this game and it is a pinnacle of beauty, elegance and complexity. Not to say it is perfect and I'm even still hesitant to call it a "masterpiece;" but it is a contender and I honestly don't know enough about it yet to deem it that. NOT recommended if you do not have the patience and fortitude to learn. (Original review at ~45 hours of play on ~19 Aug 2024) -=-=-=- ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: After playing the game for 94 hours I can say that my initial assessment was solid: the game is the best American Civil War game I have ever played. It is of course not perfect. There are some deficiencies and oversights in the core design, and given it is a single player game in which the computer opponent is the source of challenge it is inherently lacking in some respects compared to play against human opponents. But playing against human opponents always has its downsides too. I will recommend playing the game on Easiest settings first and with default settings. I recommend against using ahistorical settings (such as picking alternate starting policies for the Confederacy) as this seems to be a source of bizarre behavior by the Union opponent. You've got to play it for quite a bit to get a sense for it but if after 20 or 30 hours it seems too easy, then restart with harder settings. I did not finish my first campaign because of the aforementioned bizarre effects of using ahistorical starting settings. Below is a a bit of an AAR from my second campaign, which I think will prove to be a long and satisfying one: This game manages to capture the dynamic and unpredictable nature of ACW operations and tactics more than any other game I've ever played. Aug 1861, BG Johnston's Army of the Shenandoah is my heavy hitter in the Alexandria area. Has won at least one Major victory and a couple Minors. The Yanks were kinda beat up in that area (even though they are sitting on top of Nashville right now as my Cumberland Region Corps get their ♥♥♥♥ together). So Johnston made a bold move in late July and invaded. Defeated someone on the north side of the Potomac in the D.C. suburbs and I was then going to withdraw. But then a couple three Yank Corps managed to catch him and the battle was on the map with Pierce's Mill (which the game seems to love to set as the strategic objective). Long story short: I moved south on Day 1 to try to wrap around Pierce's Mill, Lee on the right flank (and on the other side of the river), Beauregard in the middle, and Longstreet further southwest, also on the opposite side of the river, and then Bragg with the arty behind Beau. When the morning of Day 2 came, my skirmishers I had out to harass the forces the Union had on the eastern side of the river near Beauregard opened fire immediately. But Yank Bot has re-positioned over night and was clearly gonna make a push into my middle at Beau (between Longstreet and Lee). This obviously was a very bad situation for me which was quickly made worse by Thomas' Corp showing up just to the northwest. I have managed to wrangle a Minor Victory out of it, but took more casualties than I would have liked, ammo is low and I'm outnumbered at least 3:2 if not worse, so . . . time to retreat over night I think. VERY rarely does a game with computer opponents as the challenge manage to capture that sort of emergent dynamic in which you take some risks, and the opponent response appropriately making you pay costs you did not intend to sustain and putting you at risk of catastrophe. That to me is the ESSENCE of the first year or two of the eastern theater of the ACW and it is amazing that it can be captured at all in a game.

GT: Civil War is definitely worth buying. There are some minor issues, mainly with the AI. However, the developers are very responsive and actively working on improving the game. Hopefully, there will be DLC and additional content related to the war and its era in the near future. The game offers a vast amount of replayability. As someone who has spent over 1500+ hours playing, I can confidently say that I have never gotten bored.

It has potential, but the AI has been inadequate and broken since day 1. The only way you can enjoy this game is if you come up with house rules and handicap your self (applies even on hardest difficulty). Devs released dlc and new features and still have not corrected the AI or the core game play.