From: "Ed Beach" Subject: [GCACW] More on Antietam Computer Game From: "Ed Beach" Chris- It is "real-time" in that the action moves continually. Makes for a much higher excitement level than a turn-based computer game. You can pause the game or slow it down if necessary, but in the heat of battle quick thinking is important. Leads to an interesting command control simulation of the Civil War ... often you don't move guys for a while because you don't have time to get orders over to them. (Orders in this game typically being mouse clicks and drags over the icons of a particular regiment/brigade/battery). Multi-player over the net occurs when one person (the "host") creates a multi-player session and a predetermined number of other people connect to the session (using an IP address). The game occasionally pauses to wait for data to be passed back and forth, but typically plays out almost as fast as solitaire. Multi-player is fun because you can have multiple players per side (left-flank commander and right-flank for instance). You can even all play against the AI. You can type messages back and forth to coordinate activities, but your actual coordination is often as confused as was a real Civil War engagement. It isn't really miniatures per se. Visually it looks very much like the battle paintings in the American Heritage Golden Book of the Civil War if you had that growing up as a kid (I did!). Control of units is at either the regiment or (most typically) brigade level. Many of the scenarios are just segments of the entire battle ("Dawn in the Cornfield", "Burnside's Bridge") so you typically end up with 4 or 5 brigades (10 to 15 regiments) per side in a battle. Artillery batteries are separate units, and you do have to choose between column, line, and skirmish formation for infantry. The good thing is that the game engine helps you out a lot. For instance to limber up artillery, move to a new location, unlimber it, and target an enemy unit requires only a single click and drag on the map. Takes several hours of play to feel truly comfortable maneuvering in a battle, but after that it is a blast. Though the real experts (Joe has been playing this for about a year solid) who know all the keyboard shortcuts can still maneuver faster than I. I believe there is a demo you can download if you want to try it before buying. Go to http://www.firaxis.com/downloads.cfm Be warned though, the demo is big ... (over 20 MB). -Ed ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Saturday, December 11, 1999 9:19 PM Subject: Re: [GCACW] Holiday Gift Shopping? > From: CGWithers1@aol.com > > Ed, > Can you help explain the game a bit more than the review? How is it > "real-time"? How do you do multi-player over the net? Is it miniatures > somehow but still at a higher level? > Thanks, Chris > > In a message dated 12/10/99 12:48:34 PM Pacific Standard Time, > ebeach@home.com writes: > > << In case any of you are looking for holiday gift ideas, one item you might > want to look at is the just-released computer game: "Sid Meier's Antietam". > I mention it because it is what Joe and I have been working on for our > 9-to-5 game development job (with BreakAway Games). If you are interested > in learning more, I recommend the following review of the game: > > http://www.evilavatar.com/gib/preview/antietam/antietam.htm > > The game is published by Firaxis games and can only be purchased through > their web site. That address is: > > http://www.firaxis.com > > Joe and the BreakAway team deserve the credit for this one ... I just > started at the company after Antietam was pretty well wrapped up. But > helping with the playtesting and scenario balancing was fun! > > If anyone does get this game and is interested in a multi-player game over > the Internet, let me know. Multi-player is a blast with this one! > > -Ed Beach >> > >