Sid Meier's Civil War Collection

by Electronic Arts

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004UE0E
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: September 20, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,548 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Take command of either Confederate or Union troops and command them to attack from the trees, rally around the general, or do any number of other realistic military actions. The AI reacts to your commands as if it was a real Civil War general, and offers infinite replayability. The random-scenario generator provides endless variations on the battles. You can also test your strategic skills against a real-life opponent through a LAN or via the Internet.

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

98 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hurrah! For Antietam!, February 20, 2001

By 

cliff hayes (Cincinnati, OH,) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sid Meier's Civil War Collection (CD-ROM)

As a veteran of tactical war games using miniatures, I can say that Sid Meier has finally realized the potential of the computer in delivering a minatures quality game without the expense of acquiring figures and terrain (which can easily run into thouands of dollars).

Furthermore, these miniatures are animated! They march, they wheel, they fire, they charge, and sometimes they run away. Having played Gettysburg, my main complaint was that all Union troops were in kepis, all Confederates in slouch hats.

Imagine my surprise playing Antietam to see a regiment of Confederates Zouaves moving across the field, with fez's and tassles (from Louisiana, I think). The Iron Brigade wears their famous black hats. Some regiments have blanket rolls, others wear full packs. Kepis and slouch hats are found in both armies, sometimes within the same regiment. Some Confederates wear gray, others are in butternut. The tunic may be blue, the pants light blue.

Artillery includes Napoleon's, old 6-lbers, 3 inch rifles, and 10 and 20# Parrots. There is an option to fire cannister.

The sound effects are outstanding. You click on an order and you hear an officer yelling "Bayonets!" The gunfire sounds good, as does the grumbling within the ranks "When are we gonna get moving?", etc.

The terrain is beautiful and realistically detailed. Cover and line of sight are built into the rules.

Aesthetically, the game is superb.

The rules force you to use historical tactics. The are four grades of troops, from green to crack, and four grades of commanders. As they fight, losses and fatigue drive to regiments to the breaking point. You will learn the importance of tactical reserves, feints, and shifting the main point of attack.

Best of all, the player merely gives the orders. No hours painting hundreds and thousands of figures, or filling a 9X6 table top battlefield with terrain. And best of all, no rolling of dice, no consulting the rules manual, no bookkeeping. The program does all of this for you to the sound of roaring cannon and crackling musket fire.

Antietam completes the revolution in war gaming started by his Gettysburg. One can only hope Mr. Meier will extend his genius to the Napoleonic battlefield.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars VG game, needs a major overhaul for XP, March 17, 2005

By 

J. B. Lawton "jblii" (Newton, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Sid Meier's Civil War Collection (CD-ROM)

I love Sid Meier's games. I had never played Gettysburg before but have always been fascinated by the battle. I picked up the Civil War Collection for under $20 the other day and have been both exhilarated and significantly disappointed with it.

First, the exhilarating stuff:

The gameplay is very interesting and can be extremely challenging. I've been playing RTS games for years, including AoE, AoK, AoKTC, Empire Earth, Empires: DMW, RoN, AoM and a couple of others. Gettysburg is refreshing compared these games because your sole focus is fighting (no economy to micro-manage) and the fighting is far more historically accurate than other RTS games in terms of the use of formations, flanking attacks, morale and line of sight.

Take note that another recent review has stated some things that aren't correct: Brigade commanders can move regiments at the Double-Quick simply by pressing "Q" while the Commander is selected, and while the units are already moving to a destination. Also incorrect is the assertion that cannon do not fire "canister" rounds at close range. This element of game design is transparent, but it is noted in the manual that all cannon (especially Napoleon batteries) do more damage from close range than from a distance - in order to simulate the use of canister rounds by intelligent artillery officers, so no need to micro-manage this.

Second, the not so good stuff:

The game is now 8 years from original release, and it shows in ways that are crucial to the player's ability to actually play it. Most players are using Windows 2000 or XP these days, and the Antietam and South Mountain add-on games don't actually work fully on XP. There is no sound for the add-ons, which is a shame because they are actually newer code than the original Gettysburg is. Of course, Firaxis has a "patch" that "allows" the Windows XP platform to run the game, but the patch is incomplete and there are still major issues with the game as a result. For instance, one can't see the name of saved games when trying to reload an ongoing battle! Also, there are issues with map scrolling which cripple enjoyment of the game. Specifically, after loading up the game and playing the first scenario of the day, you cannot continue to the next scenario in sequence because the map will not scroll at all. So you are forced to shut down CWC and restart it to get the scrolling screen back. This is VERY annoying.

I've tested these issues on two completely different XP machines over the last week, and it is a consistent problem with both with a default install of the game (default directories, etc.). The game is broken; perhaps because of a DirectX incompatibility (I have 9.0c (latest version) on both XP systems.

So, very good game with major bugs for XP users. If you're still running Windows 98, go ahead and get it. Sid, please have Firaxis fix/update this game!

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sid Meier's Peerless Gettysburg, July 13, 2000

By 

Andrea Deurquiza "George dePue - "dep"" (Baltimore, MD, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sid Meier's Civil War Collection (CD-ROM)

Really excellent: Gettysburg's restrained voice-over dramatizations, truly cinematic reenactment videos, and sensible historical research yield a compellingly instructive understanding of the battle. AND the incomparable game engine -- providing flexible military and physical viewpoint, variable scenario pacing, and sequencing including "developmental" saving and replaying --enables an immersive "strategy" playing experience. Have only played a demo of Antietam, but it seemed to build on Gettysburg's accomplishments. Highly recommended.