Any good Civil War PC games out there?

CaptBones · 10-22-13, 08:01 PM

That's the American Civil War, 1861-1865...just to clarify. I still have, stashed away, Sid Meier's Gettysburg, Antietam and South Mountain, plus Talonsoft's Battleground Shiloh and Battleground Antietam. Even though they are Windows 95/98 (and DOS 3.1!!!), I can get them to run perfectly well on my Alienware Area 51/Windows 7 machine, but man are they "clunky"...hence my search for something newer.

After quite a bit of searching and experimenting with a couple of relatively "new" such games, I am wondering why, during the Sesquicentennial anniversary, there are no PC games of equal caliber to the old ones that I mentioned. I can't believe that there aren't any as good as those oldies, but "up-to-spec" for Win 7/8 and the capabilities of today's desk-top and laptop/notebook machines. I guess everything is being made these days for consoles and mobile devices...oh well.

But, then I thought there might be someone hereabouts that could point me in the right direction to find a good...emphasis on GOOD...one or two of the type I'm in search of.

What, you might ask, is a GOOD one? Well, "strategic" (which seems to be rather broadly used in the game/simulator world to also describe tactical and grand-tactical level games) and "real-time" are descriptors that typically fit the kind of game/sim that I'm looking for in this category. Although, I wouldn't throw a GOOD turn-based game out of bed for eating crackers either...

Now, before anyone steers me toward the Paradox/Madminute "Take Command" products; I tried them a couple of years ago and could not get their Tech Support to help resolve the bugginess and/or big problems; even the seemingly simple problem of the "invisible cursor" appears to be a permanent "Fail". So, forget them!

Also, I've already looked at the relevant Mods to "Empire: Total War" and "Napoleon: Total War" and am not particularly thrilled with them. The units and weapons of both Federal and Confederate armies are wonderfully done (good job Modders!), but they are, so far as I've been able to find, left out there marching around on "generic" (and mostly European) battlegrounds/maps. There don't appear to be any actual historical or variable-historical scenarios for them to engage against each other, with real objectives other than some "beat the stuffing out of the other guy" motivation.

OK...too much babbling I suppose, but if anyone out there can figure it out and point me in the right direction, I would be very, very grateful.

Thanks for your indulgence,
Capt Bones

10-22-13, 08:01 PM	#1
CaptBones The Old Man Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Rockton, IL Posts: 274 Downloads: 208 Uploads: 0	Any good Civil War PC games out there? That's the American Civil War, 1861-1865...just to clarify. I still have, stashed away, Sid Meier's Gettysburg, Antietam and South Mountain, plus Talonsoft's Battleground Shiloh and Battleground Antietam. Even though they are Windows 95/98 (and DOS 3.1!!!), I can get them to run perfectly well on my Alienware Area 51/Windows 7 machine, but man are they "clunky"...hence my search for something newer. After quite a bit of searching and experimenting with a couple of relatively "new" such games, I am wondering why, during the Sesquicentennial anniversary, there are no PC games of equal caliber to the old ones that I mentioned. I can't believe that there aren't any as good as those oldies, but "up-to-spec" for Win 7/8 and the capabilities of today's desk-top and laptop/notebook machines. I guess everything is being made these days for consoles and mobile devices...oh well. But, then I thought there might be someone hereabouts that could point me in the right direction to find a good...emphasis on GOOD...one or two of the type I'm in search of. What, you might ask, is a GOOD one? Well, "strategic" (which seems to be rather broadly used in the game/simulator world to also describe tactical and grand-tactical level games) and "real-time" are descriptors that typically fit the kind of game/sim that I'm looking for in this category. Although, I wouldn't throw a GOOD turn-based game out of bed for eating crackers either... Now, before anyone steers me toward the Paradox/Madminute "Take Command" products; I tried them a couple of years ago and could not get their Tech Support to help resolve the bugginess and/or big problems; even the seemingly simple problem of the "invisible cursor" appears to be a permanent "Fail". So, forget them! Also, I've already looked at the relevant Mods to "Empire: Total War" and "Napoleon: Total War" and am not particularly thrilled with them. The units and weapons of both Federal and Confederate armies are wonderfully done (good job Modders!), but they are, so far as I've been able to find, left out there marching around on "generic" (and mostly European) battlegrounds/maps. There don't appear to be any actual historical or variable-historical scenarios for them to engage against each other, with real objectives other than some "beat the stuffing out of the other guy" motivation. OK...too much babbling I suppose, but if anyone out there can figure it out and point me in the right direction, I would be very, very grateful. Thanks for your indulgence, Capt Bones