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AGEOD’s American Civil War: 1861-1865

December 5th, 2007 by CaptainPatch

...and the Ugly (cont.)

Probably the most annoying thing about AACW is that the program tends to drop “overflow” unit counter graphics several regions away from where they actually are. Like, a region in Kentucky may be crowded with a half-dozen stacks. Three of those may appear as far away as Alabama, in an area that doesn’t have any other units in it. The tooltip will reveal where they really are by stating the name of the region where they actually are positioned – but how good is **your** geography?

One of the more annoying things about the turn sequence involves coordinating troops. Each turn represents half of a month. During that time, a stack could very easily travel to an adjacent region and then launch an attack into the next region. Like, your stack is in region A. It moves to region B, and then attacks an enemy stack in region C. So, you move from A, through B, and into C. Now, if you already have forces in B, it would be highly advantageous to combine them with the force coming from A and then attack C together. YOU CAN’T DO THAT. If you want the forces in B to attack C, they receive movement and attack orders which they execute ASAP. The units from A show up on the battlefield strictly as reinforcements. That means what could have been an overwhelming attack is executed piecemeal – and your losses will be significantly greater than they had to be. Related to this is the fact that Attack orders become mandatory through the entire turn. If a unit stack is already placed such that it could attack on Day 1 of the turn, it will attack every day (up to Day 15) until it dies, routs, or there is no longer anything left to attack. Whereas, I don’t mind massacring enemy units, I would prefer that attacks are aborted in lieu of committing suicide assailing an obviously superior position. (Of course, there were battles such as the one at Fredericksburg. Maybe this aspect isn’t too unrealistic after all.)

On a historical note, there is the fact that the American Civil War is an inherently unequal contest. Population-wise, the North had about 22 million people; the South had only 9 million – of which nearly 4 million were slaves. The industrial base – the industry necessary to produce the goods to wage war, favored the North even more than the disparity between populations. The only area where the South excelled was in that it had significantly more talented officers. This means that if the game is accurate, about the only way for the Southern player to win is to be playing against a particularly stupid Northerner. And most Union players will most likely find that it is pathetically easy to win consistently.

Evolution and economics of online distribution

Despite the fact that this game is essentially already a complete game, AGEOD intends to keep on improving it. The fact that it is almost entirely sold through the AGEOD website, and there is a dedicated forum that is VERY active and available, expansions, supplements, and patches look to be a regular feature. This means that as AGEOD tweaks the AI and adds features like more “newspaper articles” and officer portraits, consumers will be able to update their game. (I wonder if they’ll add more music. I hope so!)

At present, AGEOD’s American Civil War, The Blue And The Gray can be downloaded for €35.11. That certainly favors Europeans. Here in the US, we seem to be suffering from an inequitable exchange rate. That €35.11 cost me $50.53 on the day I purchased my copy. By now, the cost more than likely has crept up. (That's the falling dollar for you, CaptainPatch! - ed.)

Whatever the cost, and despite the flaws and shortcomings, if you are the kind of person that feels it would be incredibly cool to peer down on the Big Board at the War College and shove pieces all about, this is your kind of game. But if you’re a plug‘n’play kind of gamer, steer clear! This game has enough meat to satisfy your appetite for logistical minutiae for a long, long time.

“For want of a Nail the Shoe was lost; for want of a Shoe a Horse was lost; and for want of a Horse the Rider was lost; being overtaken and slain by the Enemy, all for want of Care about a Horse-shoe Nail.” - Benjamin Franklin