American Civil War

by CDV Software Entertainment

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)!

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00125UHJ6
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: January 28, 2008
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,551 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

AGEOD¿s American Civil War: 1861-1865 ¿ The Blue and the Gray is a historical war game that places players at the head of the United States or the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Players take on the roles of military and political leaders trying to lead their factions to military, political or economic victory during five historic years that divided the nation. Players must organize their military forces, all while managing supply and morale as they plan actions over land, sea and by rail. The game consists of challenging scenarios, campaigns and grand campaigns, all played out on the largest American Civil War map ever created for a game. Strategy gaming fans will face a daunting challenge in this historically authentic title created by Philippe Thibaut, renowned designer of the award-winning Europa Universalis, Pax Romana and Birth of America.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not perfect, but damn good, April 16, 2008

By 

M. G Watson "Miles Watson" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: American Civil War (Video Game)

If sheer addictability is any measure of a game, then AGEOD'S AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, 1861 - 1865 probably rates six stars. It's almost criminally addictive, and has prevented me from doing much else but play it since I bought the frakking thing. I am a fan of strategy games on all levels, and this has "instant classic" written all over it.

CIVIL WAR is a grand-strategy piece, meaning that you are given the choice of controlling either the USA or the CSA from April of '61 to January of '66 - not merely their armies, but their economic development and to a certain extent, the internal and external politics of each. One must fight not merely a military campaign, but have an eye as to the political consequences of certain actions - defeats on the battlefield, capture of enemies, naval blockades, trade embargos, emancipation of slaves, taxes, drafts, etc. As in real war, the aim is not merely to physcially destroy the enemy army but to break his will to fight.

CW has many fascinating and engrossing qualities that give you a real sense of what Lincoln and Davis must have gone through as wartime presidents. First, you must decide how you want to raise your armies - by asking for volunteers or enacting a draft. (Each has its pros and cons) Then it is necessary to choose how to build up your infrastructure -building factories, buying locomotives, constructing riverine ships, transports, etc. Finally, you have to decide how you are going to pay for all this - via bonds, taxes, public appeals for money, etc. Political decisions relating slave emancipation, foreign intervention, etc., etc. frequently come into play for both sides as well.

On a military level, the game works like this. You control both an Army and a Navy. Spending money and using up manpower and supplies, which you don't have in unlimited quantities, you create forces (for the Army) on a regimental or brigade level, choosing from infantry, cavalry, artillery, militia, irregulars, support units, etc. which are all historically accurate and represented by detailed icons (men, cannons, ships, etc.) These forces come from your component states, and are always historically real. If you order the creation of a brigade in say, New York or Georgia, it will be a real brigade from New York or Georgia. Once the forces are created they must be trained, which takes a bit of time. Once trained, they can operate independently or be formed into detachments, divisions, corps, or armies, each of which requires a certain rank of leader and has certain fighting and logistical characteristics.

This is one of the frankly cooler aspects of the game: the leaders are real historical figures, represented by historically accurate portrait icons. These leaders are programmed to correspond to the actual historical figures' known characteristics - Custer is a hothead but a good Indian fighter, McClelland is a good organizer but a slow mover, etc. Therefore, the body of troops benefits or suffers from who is in command, and you, the player benefit or suffer from how good your pool of available generals is. Because the game is historically true, this pool is dependent on what year it might be. You cannot, for example, give Lee command of a Confederate army in April, 1861 - first, because he's only a two-star general at that time and therefore isn't eligible to command one yet, and second, because you, as commander-in-chief, are more or less obligated to fill vacant commands by seniority and not competence, or you will suffer corresponding political penalties. Generals become eligible for promotion only after winning battles, so you can't just make a good one-star general into a three-star general overnight, either.

The game is won or lost by two rankings: "victory points", which you get mainly from occupying territory, and "national morale points", which you get by winning battles or by making decisions which are popular politically. If your national morale falls below a certain level you lose automatically, as your nation has lost its will to fight. This adds an interesting dynamic to the game, as what is popular is not always what is smart.

The game's AI is better than I've previously encountered, and can be adjusted to smarter, dumber or more aggressive as you choose. CW's map includes the United States from the Great Plains to the Atlantic Coast, showing the individual states in great detail, down to the individual counties. It uses a simultaneous turn-resolution system which I last saw back in the 80s playing SSI games like DECISION IN THE DESERT and CRUSADE IN EUROPE. Instead of moving, supplying and shooting and then letting the enemy do the same, you issue orders and then end the turn; both you and the computer execute simultaneously, which leaves you less a "commander" and more a "suggester" - a realistic if not necessarily satisfying way of depicting strategic war.

Which brings me to the game's flaws. Battle in CW happens during the turn, so you have no control over it - something very annoying to me personally. Outcome is determined by the commanders skills, troop strengths, terrain, and luck, and the computer has a strange way of determining whether you won or lost. (On one occasion I was informed I'd "lost" the Battle of Fredericksburg, despite the fact I took the town and inflicted 10,000 casualties against only 2,000 of my own. Hmmm.) Also, whether you are awarded morale points for victories or penalized for defeats seems to have no logic behind it. I've won major battles and been given zero morale points, lost minor skirmishes and been penalized heavily. I'm sure there is a logic to how these things are determined...but I don't understand what it is. Finally, the version I have -- which may be improved by the patches which are available on the Internet -- crashes enough to make constant saving a necessity.

Despite these and other flaws, I would highly recommend AMERICAN CIVIL WAR to anyone interested in either the States' War or strategy games in general. It's a highly addictive, very imaginative and visually pleasing game which really forces you to use your noggin against a very well-programmed opponent. Hopefully subsequent versions will iron out some of the more annoying aspects of play, but even as-is, it's a hell of an accomplishment. Any game you can play for a whole day without blinking is pretty good in my book.

UPDATE 6/13/08

I would like to add that while the tutorials for ACW are quite good, the manual for this game is not written very well at all. Too much information is left out. You really need to comb through both if you want a proper understanding of the game.

A NOTE ON THE PATCH - 11/30/08

I recently went to the AGEOD website to hunt patches for ACW, and downloaded the only one I could find. (The website, incidentally, is written in French, but by clicking the US/Union Jack flag in the corner it will read as badly-translated English). I'd like to review the patch because it does address some of the problems mentioned here by other reviewers. Like the game itself the patch is a double-edged sword. It addresses some of the flaws but brings new flaws along with it. In brief, the positives of the patch are: it adds five new game scenarios to the repertiore, greatly simplifies the "reinforcement" menu (previously it was simply a list of new units and their hometowns; now it's interactive, which saves some time, though not as much as it should), and it increases the number of orders you can give a unit from four to eight. This is the best update by far. On the "old" version, you could only order passive stance, defensive stance, "intelligent" attack and "reckless" attack (my terms). On the new one you keep these options, but each one has four suboptions - an attack can be anything from an all-out kill-or-be-killed charge to a feint. Defensively, you can order anything from "hold to the last man" to "fire a round and then run like hell." This allows for much more intelligent armchair generaling and cuts down on needless losses. Unfortunately, a lot of issues remain unaddressed: visual clutter, sluggishness of map-movement, slow loadup, and confusion in locating units. Last, on the original vers, the game crashed mainly when you spent too much time recombining stacks of forces; now it crashes much more frequently, including between turns. Some people may find the patch to be one step forward and a half-step back, but it's probably worth at least a test-try. Hey, it's free....

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Civil War EPIC. EPICLY clouded., August 9, 2008

By 

Richard P. Marsden - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: American Civil War (Video Game)

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.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars American Civil War, January 21, 2009

By 

Harry Brewer (S'port, La.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: American Civil War (Video Game)

I've had this game for a while now & it's a pretty darn good game. I'm still learning things about the game so it's learning curve is pretty steep. If you loke war games on the strategic level, this one's for you.

I operate this game on Windows Vista Home Premium. The instruction manual that comes with the game says it's NOT officially supported by Vista. It's been mentioned that the game crashes a lot, in my case, this was initially true. Since I've downloaded the most recent patch (1.12) I've had very little problem with this though it still happens occasionally. The newest patch includes all the earlier patches which has added some more unique aspects to the game.

The other reviewers have covered most of the ground very well so I'll limit my comments somewhat. The map covers a HUGE amount of area. I was running 1GB of RAM & it was really using it. I've upgraded to 4GB of RAM so I've eliminated some problems there. Also, in the game options, you have four settings that will limit how much RAM the game will use; that's a great feature but it will slow down the game if you don't have it set on maximum. I would suggest, if possible, that you get the best video card available. On my laptop (all I have) I get quite a bit of "lag" when skimming through the map.

This is a game where coordinating your forces is extremely important. It's easier said than done because, like any battle situation, things are extremely fluid. The game operates on a simultaneous move system so things don't always happen the way you plan them. I've played Union & Confederate & it's almost like a different game depending on which side you play. Another hint is watch your supply levels; they're critical to operations. The game has a supply filter setting that really helps in this, I keep it on during play because it shows the supply level in every fort, town & city. You have to be extremely thoughtful during the phases where you decide your budget & volunteer/draft situations. Inflation can get out of control in a hurry!

The game is fairly accurate, historically. Most of the generals have accompanying portraits now that makes it easier to identify who's who. The generals are rated in strategic (how active they are), offensive (ability to go on attack) & Defensive (how well they defend). You'll find early in the game, not in the very beginning, that you have too MANY generals & by the end of the game you'll wish you had more. Where the Union has most of the material advantage, the Confederate has the superior generals. The Union is crippled because of the 3 star generals they have because most of them are inactive boobs. But that's not the only problem because some of them are darn near impossible to replace. Just try replacing McClellan & see what consequences you suffer!

Like the others have said, the manual is weak, many things aren't clearly or sufficiently explained. There are some tutorials with the game that help but even they aren't perfect. You can go to the AGEOD forum & they are some very helpful things there. There's a lot of informational support in this community & that's a good thing. But there's nothing quite like jumping in the game & just learning. It can be frustrating at times but it keeps you on your toes & keeps your interest up. There are different starting points for the full 2 theater game as well as some battle scenarios. I've only played one of those, Gettysburg, & it was very disappointing. I haven't tried since I've downloaded the patch so I can't give any information on that.

Some of the sellers have really good prices on this game & it's well worth it if you pay less than $[...].