Birth of America II
Review
Hardcore strategy gamers are welcome to this latest AGEOD title.
by Marko Susimetsä
reviewed on PC
Controlling your troops (cntd.)
The handy interface is used in all tasks spanning from assigning officers to particular military accompaniments, organizing your divisions, armies and corps and monitoring and establishing the proper supply lines. Every troop has a plethora of statistics that affect their performance, and the generals all have their own strengths and weaknesses which affect their ability and skill at controlling the troops underneath them, so you must be very meticulous when you reorganise your armies and send them in the fray.
And more attention to details is required when you actually move your armies on the great map. Forests will provide defensive cover and letting the enemy cross a river when attacking you will most certainly decrease their chances of winning the day. The Cohesion system from Napoleon's Campaigns has been adapted to this game as well, meaning that your troops will lose cohesion if you make them travel long distances before the deciding battle, or order them to take part in fool's quests. Furthermore, lack of supplies combined with bad leadership may well mean that your troops die of hunger and cold and disease long before they ever see the first hint of an enemy...
In addition, a brand new concept of Engagement Points is introduced. These are earned from victorious battles and can be used to purchase armaments or political, economic or diplomatic favours. Other concepts from past titles transferred to this one include the various orders that you can give to your troops, such as spiking the guns, surrender with the Honour of War, remove leader, distant unload from ships.
Simultaneous move execution and battles
For those unfamiliar with AGEOD games, it is perhaps good to re-iterate that turn-based doesn't really mean the same here as it does with many other games, such as the Civilization series. Rather, in Birth of America II: Wars in America 1750-1815 both sides will decide their troop movements simultaneously and these decisions will be executed at the same time at the end of the turn, each turn representing a week of game time. The program will then see what sorts of interactions will occur between enemy forces, if their movements bring them to the same area on the map.
In essence, this means that if you plan to attack an enemy unit in an adjoining area, it may well be that he is no longer there when your troops arrive there. This makes it very possible that the enemy will be able to circle around you and perhaps take the town that you left in order to attack him.
Background music
As in previous AGEOD titles, the background music consists of various pieces of period military music that seems to be triggered quite randomly as you play. New period music is played by the 3rd US Infantry Regiment and the US Army Fife and Drums Corps. Unfortunately, this also means that my peeve from the previous titles is still here: the music is still focussed on military music and other period pieces will not be heard in the game at all. This is also one factor that lessens the feeling of immersion when you play the game.
Overall
Birth of America II: Wars in America 1750-1815 is in essence a strategic board game, nothing more, nothing less. This has been AGEODs style ever since their first title and, personally, I look forward to the day when their games begin to offer some more immersive aspects, such as more varied selection of period music, some looks or information about the actual life conditions in the period and the generic world view. Likewise, some more attractive graphics might be in order – at least unit animations if not anything else. In the end, I would have liked to see some more improvements in the UI - something to make this game more approachable by non-hardcore strategy gamers. Thus, I had to decrease my overall scores a little bit in comparison to my previous AGEOD experiences.
However, for any fan of pure strategy board games, Birth of America II: Wars in America 1750-1815 is certainly a must-buy title, especially if the American history is one of your topics of interest. And when the AI starts to be too easy for you, there's always the possibility of a hotseat and play-by-email games, as well as a TCP/IP multiplayer game with your friend.
7.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
