Posted on: November 30, 2019
spike_2071
Verified ownerGames: 198 Reviews: 11
Good successor to Sid Meier's Civil War
Overall, the game is good. There's a nice strategic layer above the tactical battlefield. The better you do in battle, the more experience points you gain. You can spend these points to increase the money and troops after each battle, lower the cost of new equipment or veteran replacements, increase the size of your army, etc. You also need to build up and equip your army. While this layer isn't super in-depth, it is a nice way to have a more vested interest in your troops. Having built up a specific division over the course of many battles keeps the game interesting over the course of the long campaign. The battles themselves are well done. Some are minor, and can be completed in a few in-game hours with only a few divisions or a single corps. The major battles (Antietam, Gettysburg, etc.) take place over the course of several days with changing (and new) fronts. Do well in the minor battles, and you can give them various maluses like decreased size of the enemy army, inferior equipment, or lower experience levels. The AI in the battles is solid, but not spectacular. Like most AIs, it seems to do better in defence than attack. In the beginning of battles it seems to do well, but eventually it just seems to peter out. It will send its cavalry and skirmishers to harass your troops as you approach, and I've had an entire division tied down by single AI skirmisher unit. But it fails to adjust to your troops movements once you decide on a flank to hit hard. Its line will remain relatively unchanged even as you move divisions from one side to the other to outnumber the enemy. I've lost only a few battles on the normal level, and most of those were because of a time limit. The AI isn't bad, but once you figure out how the cover system and other intricacies of battle work, you will consistently win against larger armies. Still, it's a fun game that reminds me of Sid Meier's foray into the Civil War, and that is one of the best compliments I can give.
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