Ultimate General: Civil War

BUEN JUEGO

I can grade this game on two scales: As a Civil War game we have, and as the Civil War game you and I probably are looking for. Luckily(?) in both cases it's more or less the same: It's okay. I don't regret the purchase on sale, but it's not that be-all-end-all Holy Grail of Civil War games the weird guys who know way too much about individual units in the 3rd day of Gettysburg and volunteer at the museum dream about. As a Civil War game we have, it is not only finished, but it also attempts to have a presentation that is not under the impression that Paradox UI's circa 2004 are God's gift to man. That means I have clear buttons and will not be going through nested buttons and menus just to order a unit or equip them. I can easily read the situation and the battle isn't just an abstraction of chevrons and NATO blocks smashing into each other on a map like a porno for the History Channel. It's not flashy and it sounds kind of weak, but it tries. As the Civil War game the aforementioned CSA re-enactors probably want, you'll probably have to keep waiting or look elsewhere. The logistics part of the war is as simple as a market of buy/sell gear and a magic radius of resupply around a Supply Wagon unit in-game. The terrain is very Total War levels of simple, flat modifiers to movement and defense without many opportunities to do much but create chokepoints. Unit formations and frontage are basically absent, bar flanking. Above all though, the inter-mission strategy layer is the biggest and most comically simple offender and even seems to be made to be cheesed by design. It kind of makes the whole thing fall apart. Enemy forces are scaled to yours and there's not a dynamic ability to choose your objectives, you just have phases of one main mission historical setpiece that advances the war and 1 or 2 side missions to get gear and money before the next "act". These can weaken or influence the main mission, but the scaler still applies. So if I was to say, send the entire Army of Virginia to attack Uncle Tom's Cabin which is strategically worthless, suddenly there's not just 3000 Union soldiers, it's 30000 awkwardly shuffling in on an already cluttered map. If I slaughter these 30000 Yankees in a victory so total that it makes Bull Run look like foreplay, there's still an endless supply of them grown in vats and waiting to suicidally charge at Vicksburg or Shiloh, and the war doesn't ever change based on how you're doing up until you're apparently at DC despite killing several Gettysburg worth of men in a side mission. The AI probably makes Lincoln sack another general from beyond the grave. The only progression is that you'll get new gear, some stat bonuses, and historical(and sadly missable) figures. That part really is commendable because some of these guys only show on lists of lists and aren't even really Wikipedia worthy. They can also die in ways remarkably less dramatic than their lives would warrant, as my Nathan Forrest died when I forgot to update his orders and he waltzed into the enemy. tl;dr it's okay get it on sale if you're starved for Civil War stuff, beggars can't be choosers

Really fun once you learn the game. I love smashing rebel cheeks with a wall of lead.

Historically not replicating equal values when you switch sides at the same level of play for instance I my play medium no help no handicap on Confederate side then if I flip to the union to try the battle its a different set of troops than I fought when a confederate. Many players are hoping to play with accurate representation when playing a battle without modifiers. Also the game has no free play. For instance if I play cold harbor it has a count down that has aggressive goals for the confederates who are in a defensive outnumbered position. When the countdown finishes you cant even lose and continue play it just has one day objectives that cannot wait on a union offensive to weaken you must push to win in a short time frame. No correspondence from the company when asking if they were releasing any updates for the limitations a year ago. Otherwise decent control of the units and a beautiful map layout.

Game is a glitchy mess, -draw a battle line your units will move all around the place and take massive casualities and route. -your units routing? 2000 size inf unit routes into the enemy and surrenders -your units are slightly close to each other? one unit entirely redeploys on its own and takes massive casualties -AI is able to have units shot behind other units while you can't, AI could literally just outgun and bumrush you with a horde of infantry no matter what -surronded the enemy? somehow its your units that gets the flanked debuff. -2500 inf unit getting charged by a unit of 500? every single unit next to the inf unit changes their facing to aim at the small unit of 500. Completely ruins the battle lines. -Trying to cross a small stream? good luck your entire army will blob up into one single place and take massive casualties There are so many glitches that make this game unplayable

Best civil war game ever. Great choices in how you manage your army and its weapons.

I love this game. I love angry it makes me when I get whipped. I listened to the Shelby Foote 3 part Civil War books on Audible, and that made playing this game even more fun. Even though I keep getting thrashed, I just keep on playing it.