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Hurrah! For Antietam!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 86 / 88
Date: February 20, 2001
Author: Amazon User

As a veteran of tactical war games using miniatures, I can say that Sid Meier has finally realized the potential of the computer in delivering a minatures quality game without the expense of acquiring figures and terrain (which can easily run into thouands of dollars).

Furthermore, these miniatures are animated! They march, they wheel, they fire, they charge, and sometimes they run away. Having played Gettysburg, my main complaint was that all Union troops were in kepis, all Confederates in slouch hats.

Imagine my surprise playing Antietam to see a regiment of Confederates Zouaves moving across the field, with fez's and tassles (from Louisiana, I think). The Iron Brigade wears their famous black hats. Some regiments have blanket rolls, others wear full packs. Kepis and slouch hats are found in both armies, sometimes within the same regiment. Some Confederates wear gray, others are in butternut. The tunic may be blue, the pants light blue.

Artillery includes Napoleon's, old 6-lbers, 3 inch rifles, and 10 and 20# Parrots. There is an option to fire cannister.

The sound effects are outstanding. You click on an order and you hear an officer yelling "Bayonets!" The gunfire sounds good, as does the grumbling within the ranks "When are we gonna get moving?", etc.

The terrain is beautiful and realistically detailed. Cover and line of sight are built into the rules.

Aesthetically, the game is superb.

The rules force you to use historical tactics. The are four grades of troops, from green to crack, and four grades of commanders. As they fight, losses and fatigue drive to regiments to the breaking point. You will learn the importance of tactical reserves, feints, and shifting the main point of attack.

Best of all, the player merely gives the orders. No hours painting hundreds and thousands of figures, or filling a 9X6 table top battlefield with terrain. And best of all, no rolling of dice, no consulting the rules manual, no bookkeeping. The program does all of this for you to the sound of roaring cannon and crackling musket fire.

Antietam completes the revolution in war gaming started by his Gettysburg. One can only hope Mr. Meier will extend his genius to the Napoleonic battlefield.

VG game, needs a major overhaul for XP

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 24 / 24
Date: March 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I love Sid Meier's games. I had never played Gettysburg before but have always been fascinated by the battle. I picked up the Civil War Collection for under $20 the other day and have been both exhilarated and significantly disappointed with it.

First, the exhilarating stuff:

The gameplay is very interesting and can be extremely challenging. I've been playing RTS games for years, including AoE, AoK, AoKTC, Empire Earth, Empires: DMW, RoN, AoM and a couple of others. Gettysburg is refreshing compared these games because your sole focus is fighting (no economy to micro-manage) and the fighting is far more historically accurate than other RTS games in terms of the use of formations, flanking attacks, morale and line of sight.

Take note that another recent review has stated some things that aren't correct: Brigade commanders can move regiments at the Double-Quick simply by pressing "Q" while the Commander is selected, and while the units are already moving to a destination. Also incorrect is the assertion that cannon do not fire "canister" rounds at close range. This element of game design is transparent, but it is noted in the manual that all cannon (especially Napoleon batteries) do more damage from close range than from a distance - in order to simulate the use of canister rounds by intelligent artillery officers, so no need to micro-manage this.

Second, the not so good stuff:

The game is now 8 years from original release, and it shows in ways that are crucial to the player's ability to actually play it. Most players are using Windows 2000 or XP these days, and the Antietam and South Mountain add-on games don't actually work fully on XP. There is no sound for the add-ons, which is a shame because they are actually newer code than the original Gettysburg is. Of course, Firaxis has a "patch" that "allows" the Windows XP platform to run the game, but the patch is incomplete and there are still major issues with the game as a result. For instance, one can't see the name of saved games when trying to reload an ongoing battle! Also, there are issues with map scrolling which cripple enjoyment of the game. Specifically, after loading up the game and playing the first scenario of the day, you cannot continue to the next scenario in sequence because the map will not scroll at all. So you are forced to shut down CWC and restart it to get the scrolling screen back. This is VERY annoying.

I've tested these issues on two completely different XP machines over the last week, and it is a consistent problem with both with a default install of the game (default directories, etc.). The game is broken; perhaps because of a DirectX incompatibility (I have 9.0c (latest version) on both XP systems.

So, very good game with major bugs for XP users. If you're still running Windows 98, go ahead and get it. Sid, please have Firaxis fix/update this game!

Sid Meier's Peerless Gettysburg

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 32 / 36
Date: July 13, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Really excellent: Gettysburg's restrained voice-over dramatizations, truly cinematic reenactment videos, and sensible historical research yield a compellingly instructive understanding of the battle. AND the incomparable game engine -- providing flexible military and physical viewpoint, variable scenario pacing, and sequencing including "developmental" saving and replaying --enables an immersive "strategy" playing experience. Have only played a demo of Antietam, but it seemed to build on Gettysburg's accomplishments. Highly recommended.

I may not be a general but I play one on...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 18
Date: June 28, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is one of the most realistic tactical simulation games I have played. At the harder levels working at normal time this game is very hard to beat. Living in Maryland I have walked the battlefields of Antietam and Gettysburg. I now have a better understanding of both battles having "fought" them first hand.

Good stuff: Very fun similar to the Close Combat series. Great learning tool to understand battles. Challenging on a grand scale. The full battle includes directing more than a hundred units.

Bad stuff: The interface can be fidgety to operate--especially when there is a breakthough and you need to move fast. I have had the game lock up and lose information (rarely).

Overall I found this was a great tactical game. It features a good mix of hands on action and a good game AI.

Excellent Civil War Package!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 17
Date: July 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This set is a must for the Civil War buff and the gamer who likes historically-based games!

With real-time strategy, you are attacking and defending while the computer is doing the same thing. In my humble opinion, this is more entertaining and realistic than the turn-based games.

Both Gettysburg and Antietam offer several scenarios of two categories: historical (your chance to replay and perhaps change the outcome of what actually happened in the battles) and speculative (a chance to play and win "what if" scenarios that did not happen in the battles, i.e.- one Gettysburg scenario has Stonewall Jackson present - an interesting scenario indeed!).

The graphics for both battles are excellent. Since I have visited both battles several times, I was readily able to identify terrain features for both battles.

The player is also allowed to choose either North and South and the level of difficulty - in my opinion, these are excellent features.

Buy and enjoy the set! Highly recommended!

What an Awesome Civil War Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 18
Date: July 10, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Being a history freak and a reenactor I am really picky on how correct history is. Sid Meier does that as well as keeping the game fun. The battlefields are precise and detailed just like the real battlefields. The sound effects and graphics are really good. You can actually hear the bugle calls and the sounds of gunfire and cannons are great as well. But this game requires some stradegy. You can't attack head on. You will get driven back just as if you were a general in the Civil War. If you want to win you must try to get around the enemy and flank them. I got it about a year ago and I still win and lose. Overall this an excellent game for history fans and people who just like good stradegy games! Maybe Mr. Meier should add more battlefields to his collection. How about Fredericksburg or Manassas!

Who took the "strategy" out of my strategy game?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 26 / 34
Date: October 02, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I just got this package, and let me first say that it is a great looking game, with an intuitive interface, and seemingly bug free. Here are my problems with the game:

1. The only strategic element in the game is when, where and how you move your units in to engage the enemy. That is pretty much it.

2. There are no recources to manage, nothing to collect, nothing to build, and nothing to research. You have no idea what type of weapons you or your enemy are using, and what the relative combat effectivness of those weapons are.

3. Unlike other civil war games I have played, victory points are somewhat meaningless, as they have no application to future scenarios or battles. For example, I have "Civil War General," a turn based Civil War game, and in that game, how badly you beat up on an opponent, and thereby how much "supply" you obtain from making him give up ground, counts towards your total supply points, which then allows you to purchase better weapons for your troops in future parts of the campaign. Without this consideration, as in this game, there is little point to going the extra mile to really trounce your opponent, you merely have to meet the scenario's objective, and that is it.

4. The game eventually boils down to you sitting there and watching your guys shoot. You do not have to monitor their morale, organization or health. The units even retreat on their own. You also have no idea of your unit's relative combat effectivness from a numerical standpoint v. the opposing unit you want to engage. You also have no control over who your unit directs its fire against, you just move them into relative proximity with the enemy and they start shooting.

5. While the map is beautiful, it is difficult to determine what is high and low ground, and whether your unit is on that area. In other games of this genre, your unit's info card will tell you their elevation and level of cover, however, there is no such feed-back in this game except what kind of terrain you are on, (grass, woods, etc.) You really have no conception of how the terrain affects your unit from a numerical standpoint, only that one type of terrain is better than another. Without this info, it is very difficult to decide how and where to conduct an attack.

As this game is only $15 it is well worth buying, and it is very historically accurate. I just would have liked to have seen it in a campaign type mode with the above considerations, it really has potential.

Best game ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 14
Date: April 17, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I have played war games for almost 35 years. This one is the best one ever, simply stated. Most computer games, you can pretty much figure out within a few reps, how to beat the computer easily. This one, no way. I'm getting better, but after 100 tries or so, i'm still winning some, losing some. Also, with most computer war games, the strategy of just "attacking with everything" usually wins. In this game, no way! You need the same planning that a general needs in real life. If you're caught without reserves, you could be in big trouble. Head on attacks? Don't work most of the time! Flank attacks? Yes, but they take time and you could get caught with divided forces. To sum up, this is the most realistic, fun war game I have ever played. It is an absolute MUST for any wargamer. I hope that more are forthcoming in addition to Gettysburg and Antietem. Hey, how about Chickamauga!

CWC- Gettsburg! and Antietam! work on WinXP(SP2)

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 14
Date: June 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

A complete set of instructions to allow Gettysburg! and Antietam! to be fully functional on Windows XP (Service Pack 2) can be found at http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewforum.php?f=8

This should re-assure buyers of this software package that their investment in this purchase will not be wasted, and that CWC is as playable now as the individual titles were when they were introduced.

True classics...

XP Compatibility

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 14
Date: January 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Several reviewers mentioned Windows XP problems. Game will work correctly with XP. Need to download and install Gettysburg's Windows 2000/XP compatibility patch.

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