From: Greg Nichols Subject: ACW on the Computer As most ACW fans (with computers) know, the computer has been a desolate and unfriendly place to refight our favorite war. That is maybe until now - Battleground: Gettysburg by Talonsoft is out and it's making good first impressions. Unfortunately for some of us, it's SVGA, cd-rom only, and requires 178mb for a full installation. Read below... From: Russ Subject: Battleground Gettysburg first impressions Date: 14 Dec 1995 14:10:02 GMT I picked up this game from EB the other night and have put in a couple hours of playing time. Mostly on the meeting engagement from the union side, with Buford's troops. I have a few impressions and would welcome the comments of those who are playing it and those who are just interested: 1. The graphics are clean and crisp. Especially nice are the 3D maps which give you a good feel for the terrain around Gettysburg. Very handy if your trying to choose a high defensive perch. You can choose to view the map from a more traditional top down view or you can view the map from the 3D side view. The nice part is that the 3D view offers miniatures style cannon and troops to look at. Officers are included as well. 2. Early on, and I stress early on, the AI looks fairly competant. In the engagement I played, the union was attacked head on by confederate troops by both ranged attack and by meelee (charging assault). The AI took heavy losses from these frontal attacks and tried to recover by flanking my positions. The AI seems to understand the need for cover and to flank when the frontal assault is too costly. However it is early yet and since Talonsoft is part of Empire Interactive I don't trust them yet when it comes to the AI. 3. In this game you can play single engagements from either side or you can play the entire 3 day battle. If you play the whole 3 day battle, you find yourself on a huge map of the entire Gettysburg area, and depending on which side you chose, you can determine how you want to pursue the fight and on what ground. Additionaly units show up as they did historically and from the union standpoint you will start the game with Buford's calvalry nearly within sight of the confederate forces approaching Gettysburg. Additional union troops are on the map, but these forces are ways away, and a holding action by Buford becomes a necessity. Where? You decide, and that's a nice aspect of this game. 4. Combat is interesting with cannon blasts on the target group, and bodies appearing in the target hex if the target troops got hit hard. Same for gunfire. I think each hex grid is about 125 yds, so you will be needing to get in close for some weapons to work. Carbines for example, are only good to one or two hexes, while the game treats rifled muskets as a two to three hex range I think. So not only are you worried about the strenth of forces, the quality, the leadership, fatigue, ammunition, and position of your troops, but you are also worried about the weapons they carry. By the way, your troops can build breastworks and gain benefits from protective structures such as walls in combat. Also with a FOG of war option enabled, you are limited to seeing just what you troops see. So a flanking manuever could be entirely overlooked by your side if it is not seen by your men. Also, leader quality plays a big part in avoiding a rout of your men when assualted by the enemy, or when they assualt the enemy. Again it is early yet, and I have yet to see just how well this one is implemented. 5. The game comes with good online help, and is a windows game. Lots of information is available during the game if you need it. 6. The AI can be set for manual (you do it all), semiautomatic (you choose the leaders and their orders - they execute them (have not tried this yet)), automatic, and automatic with fog of war (computer runs the show and fog of war is in effect). In terms of my overall first impression, this game looks like a good answer the the prayers of the Civil War fan, but I need a little more time to see for sure. It blows the doors off of Empire's Civil War for sure. Interestingly the box has a reference inside to William R. Trotters (PC GAMER) comments about Empire's Civil War Game on an advertisement for it. It makes reference to his glowing comments about it and wants to give you a special offer to buy it. Don't. I don't know what Trotter was looking at but he either needs to get serious about his job or sell used cars. Anyway, what does everybody else think about Battleground Gettysburg. Russ _______________________________ ______ ____ ____ ______ Greg Nichols / / / University of Michigan ___ ___/ ___ ___ Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library / \ / E-mail: gnichols@umich.edu ______/ \ _____ ______/ Staff Home Page: http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/ocu/greg.htm "The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous." --Frederick Douglass