American Civil War Games: My interest again peaked....

[bboyer66]

Virginia in AGEOD Civil War



Virginia in Forge of Freedom

[TheCommandTent]

Good news for everyone who liked Forge of Freedom. WCS will be unveiling their next American Civil War game Brother Against Brother at Historicon! Here's the announcement from the Matrix forum.
I've been waiting for this to release since it was announced!

Been waiting a while for this one.  Hopefully they have it done soon.

[Grim.Reaper]

The only ACW games I own and play are John Tiller HPS and JTS games and from my POV the only way to play them is via PBEM.

If you enjoy playing computer games that use counters to show the units on the map, and enjoy playing in 2D view, you would be hard pressed to find a more enjoyable series.

John Tiller HPS & JTS games have the best customer service (in case you need it) and it is normally very easy to find forum board help to any in-game questions that come up.  What makes these games stand above the rest is that they are still all 100% supported, even their games that were released 10-12+ years ago.

The real "deal maker" for me is that I can play his HPS/JTS games with no problems on my 7-8 year old computer that runs WinXP.  I also can still play their most recent releases with no problems. 

Many moons ago, I use to find myself in the never ending sega of having to upgrade my computer every time a new game came out that I wanted to play.  After getting burnt too many times, I decided to stick with the "old school" games that don't have all of the chrome and bells and whistles that new games have however, at least I know they will work and I won't be wasting $30-$40 when I buy a game.

Also, in case you like to use art mods, John Tiller HPS/JTS games are very art mod friendly and most of the games can be played without you being required to have the game cd in the drive (They will eventually all be this way).

Another nice feature is that with the newer game updates, the game manuals are in PDF form which means that you can easily upload them to a smart phone.  So now whenever you have some down time, and you are not at home, you can very easily read the manuals without being forced to sit in front of your computer or having to lug around a 200+ page out-of-date game manual.

As a owner of over 60+ John Tiller HPS/JTS titles, I can't recommend his games enough.   My two favorite series of his is ACW and NAP.

BTW, you forgot to include Overland  in your John Tiller list.  ;)

http://johntillersoftware.com/CivilWarBattles/CampaignOverland.html

Thanks!  Can't believe I forgot Overland.....now corrected:)

[Toonces]

You know, Bboyer has a point...   8)

[Queeg]

You know, Bboyer has a point...   8)

I played FoF a lot when it first came out but dropped it when AACW was released, mainly for the reason Bboyer notes.  I recently gave FoF another try, which just reconfirmed my original impression.  The map in AACW is far superior.

[mikeck]

I never cared for FoF. My complaint was that strategic movement or logistical errors that would kill you in real life (or other games like AACW or GGWbtS) could be overcome in a tactical battle because of the weak AI. So if I had a bad general assigned to under supplies troops and moved them to attack in bad terrain...I could still win. In essence, decisions made at the strategic level were meaningless because I could just win all of the battles.

I learned years ago though, there are fans of each of then big three strategic ACW games though and all have arguments why the one they like is better

[bbmike]

Tactical battles in Forge of Freedom


Tactical battles in AGEOD Civil War


:P

[JudgeDredd]

I totally loved Forge of Freedom - unfortunately they never did do anything to support higher res so it looks a wee bit butt ugly

^ That's a good screenshot and looks pretty crisp - not like how I remembered it from a few months ago!

[bboyer66]

Tactical battles in Forge of Freedom


Tactical battles in AGEOD Civil War


:P

I really wanted to like the tactical battles but the AI was just so brain dead. Not to mention you take away the variables of a generals talent. In Ageods Civil War if I fight General Lee with 120, 000 troops under McClellan and Lee has 70,000 troops, good chance I will lose that battle. In Forge of Freedom, I win every time.
 

[JudgeDredd]

^I must've really sucked at that game then - because I often lost  :D

[Toonces]

Sorry for the quick thread hijack, but @Judge Dredd, did you kill me about a half dozen times last night in Red Orchestra 2/Rising Storm?  There was a JudgeDredd on last night that kept whacking me and I was curious if it was you.

[/hijack off]

[JudgeDredd]

lol Toonces - that was me!  :)

No - it wasn't really - I suck at pretty much all games - and I don't have Red Orchestra because I have such a hangup about playing online (because I suck)