Any good Civil War PC games out there?

[CaptBones]

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

[Narko]

http://www.matrixgames.com/products/500/details/Civil.War.II

[CaptainHaplo]

They need to make a remake of No Greater Glory as well.

Good find, Narko!

[Dread Knot]

Are you interested in games that just simulate Civil War battles, or the war as a whole?

[akula65]

Although it is considered a legacy title now that Civil War II has been released (see Narko's link), you might want to consider its predecessor AGEOD's American Civil War:

http://www.a-acw.com/ (Use the Wayback Machine to view at http://archive.org/ )
http://www.ageod-forum.com/forumdisplay.php?78-AGEod-s-American-Civil-War
http://ageod.nsen.ch/aacwwiki/

A demo is available for the game. You might be able to find AGEOD bundles such as AGEOD's Military Strategies: Battles of 1750-1918 that include physical copies of the game as well

Good luck!

[Hinrich Schwab]

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!


I have played 2nd Manassas and it is a good game. Paradox has always had bad customer support in my opinion and I think MadMinute is defunct. I could be wrong. What kind of system are you trying to run the games on. Maybe I can help you out.

[CaptBones]

What a website/forum! Even a clunky old guy with screwball questions can get real answers here, from nice people, instead of the kind of snot-nosed, holier-than-thou, whatdya mean you don't like so-and-so, "Baloney-Sausage" that you run into on other, "gamer", sites/forums.

Anyway...Narko/akula65: THANK YOU...sometime last year, I ran across the older AGEAOD titles somewhere, but could not find anything recently (mostly because I didn't spell it correctly...duh!). The links especially are a great help...I didn't know they had released CW II and it looks like just what I've been hoping to find...THANK YOU again!

Dread Knot: I guess my answer would be "yes". :D My "ideal" CW game would present the war as a whole, played as several of the key Campaigns in the East and West; including both "generic battles" and drop-in battles in the campaigns, somewhat like Empire: Total War and Napoleon: Total War. Yeah...I know there are Civil War Mods for those games and there are new/revised/upgraded versions of those mods in development, but the existing mods are really buggy (the modders even admit that and warn you) and the new and improved versions have been in development for a l-o-n-g time and I'm just tired of waiting. Plus, the need to install those mods to play a CW campaign/battle and then to have to uninstall the entire mod in order to go back to play the "vanilla" game is not at all appealing (yes, I have those two games via Steam...for better or worse)...I can see that process turning into a "train wreck."

Hinrich Schwab: Good to see you over on this forum; thanks for the offer to help. If I could get TC2M to work it would be great. I have an Alienware/Area 51; i7 Quad Core Processor (3.2GHz/8MB cache); Win 7 (64Bit) Home Premium OS; 12GB DDR3 1333MHz Triple Channel RAM; Dual 1GB GDDR5 GTX 460 - SLI Enabled Video Cards; (2) 1TB SATA 3Gb/s, 7200RPM, 32MB Cache, RAID 1 HDDs; Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio; Dell U3011 Monitor. TC2M always starts/runs in Windowed mode with the cursor "disappearing" behind the game window; I could never get beyond selecting a button/bar in the main menu. After that, it was a guessing game to try to figure out where the cursor was, or wasn't. The opening theme music also just runs on and on and on and never stops, even after I close the game window/exit the game. I tried a couple of "fixes" suggested on the old Paradox forum, but none worked, or even made any difference for that matter. If you've got any ideas, I'd very much appreciate giving them a try...thanks again, in advance.

And thank you, again, to all of you...great guys! :salute:

[Lionclaw]

There's Forge of Freedom as well. http://www.matrixgames.com/products/333/details/Forge.of.Freedom:.The.American.Civil.War.1861-1865

Haven't played it all that much, so I can't give an impression. :) :oops:

Sometimes strategy games leave me scratching my head. :O:

[Dread Knot]

For what it's worth there is also Gary Grigsby's War Between the States. Another strategic level ACW game. Not terribly complicated, but with a lot going on under the Hood....generally speaking. :03:

http://www.matrixgames.com/products/357/details/Gary.Grigsby's.War.Between.The.States

[Hinrich Schwab]

Hinrich Schwab: Good to see you over on this forum; thanks for the offer to help. If I could get TC2M to work it would be great. I have an Alienware/Area 51; i7 Quad Core Processor (3.2GHz/8MB cache); Win 7 (64Bit) Home Premium OS; 12GB DDR3 1333MHz Triple Channel RAM; Dual 1GB GDDR5 GTX 460 - SLI Enabled Video Cards; (2) 1TB SATA 3Gb/s, 7200RPM, 32MB Cache, RAID 1 HDDs; Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio; Dell U3011 Monitor. TC2M always starts/runs in Windowed mode with the cursor "disappearing" behind the game window; I could never get beyond selecting a button/bar in the main menu. After that, it was a guessing game to try to figure out where the cursor was, or wasn't. The opening theme music also just runs on and on and on and never stops, even after I close the game window/exit the game. I tried a couple of "fixes" suggested on the old Paradox forum, but none worked, or even made any difference for that matter. If you've got any ideas, I'd very much appreciate giving them a try...thanks again, in advance.

And thank you, again, to all of you...great guys! :salute:

Tell me what solutions you have tried so I do not recommend them again.:) I do not want to be a broken record. :D I have also run the game on Windows 7 on an older quad core rig with an equally older Nvidia card. I am suspecting a compatibility issue, but I need more details as to what fixes you have tried before I can diagnose further.

[Oleander]

I haven't played it yet but there is a CW scenario that shipped with Civ V Brave New World, looked very similar to the style of R.E. Lee CW General, which is another good game. Link. (http://www.old-games.com/download/5142/civil-war-generals-2)

I've played the mods for both Empire and Napoleon as well, both of them are pretty but they aren't balanced very well.

That being said, the guy that created Darthmod is working on a Gettysburg RTS that should be ready within a year or so, and given his recent work with the Total War series it should be really good. http://www.ultimategeneral.com/blog

[Skybird]

Check here, the Civil War titles, obviously.

http://www.hpssims.com/

I cannot comment on their quality, I do not know them, I only know Modern Campaign: Danube '85 (epic map, 65 thousand hexes).

[CaptBones]

Lionclaw, Dread Knot, Oleander, Skybird...great ideas and links, thank you all.

Hinrich Schwab...believe it or not, I stumbled into an apparent solution to almost all the problems. :doh: I reinstalled TC2M, using the standard "trick" to create a root folder outside of the Program Files/Program Files (X86) folders.

Then I forgot to open the executable's Properties and select "run as XP" in Compatibility Mode. I clicked the desktop icon and the darn thing opened and ran in full-screen. I even managed to guess at the location of the cursor and closed it successfully, no more endless theme music or "dithering" Windowed-mode screen! Perhaps the machine is smart enough to know how to run the program without silly user interference to tell it how to do its job...strange.

So, the only problem left, I hope, is that disappearing cursor. It is visible on the task bar down at the bottom of the screen (I keep that locked on top of all apps), but as soon as I move it off the task bar, it disappears behind the game screen and you really can't play by guessing where the darn thing's at. :-? If you can give me a hint at how to fix that, I'd really appreciate it!

[Platapus]

Redneck Rampage?

(ducking)

:D

[nikimcbee]

I wish they'd modernized Sid meier's Gettysburg.

[Oleander]

I wish they'd modernized Sid meier's Gettysburg.

It wouldn't surprise me if Sid was working on a new iteration of it, the Brave New World scenario may have been a test. A game like that is pretty tasking though, you'd need something similar to the Total War engine to make it enjoyable. I never really understood why more publishers never made games around it, we have plenty from every other time period.

[CaptBones]

Whew! Using the links and suggestions provided, I've certainly found what I was looking for; thanks again, and again, everyone.:salute: So, ignoring, for the moment, the little bugs and glitches that are present in the titles that you all have lead me to try out (I LMAO at the "Conga Line" when each Regiment makes a turn or reaches its ordered destination :har:), here's my impression, so far, of several "good" American Civil War PC games.

The Matrix Games "Scourge of War - Anniversary Edition" is IMHO a great tactical/grand tactical level collection of games representing several key battles in the Eastern Theater (Gettysburg, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Brandy Station, and Pipe Creek [Fictional]). It's designed to be moddable, has a good scenario editor and appears to have a large MP/modding community (as well as "sandbox" mode). The other American Civil War titles by Matrix Games and AGEOD look to be good games as well; I just haven't been able to pull myself away from the SoW battles yet!

Special thanks again to Narko, akula65, Lionclaw, Dread Knot, and Skybird (hey Platapus, that sounds like a good title for an indie game...you working on it? :haha:).

Oleander, nikimcbee; you might try SoW Gettysburg (quite a bit less expensive than the entire 150th anniversary collection). I think it's as good as, or better than, a "modernized" Sid Meier's Gettysburg would turn out to be.

Hinrich Schwab...your positive impression of TC2M prompted me to look at it again and I found an old Paradox/Madminute forum, which had the answer to the cursor problem. My screen text size was set to 150%. When I reset it to 125%, the cursor appeared as it should; I set a custom text size of 145% and it still continues to work. So, now that I have it working, I have to take back my negative opinion of TC2M; it's a good game (being the "precursor" to the Matrix SoW games, that's to be expected I suppose) and I'm enjoying it also.

So, I'm a happy camper :D...but the missus does not share my enthusiasm. Except, she's all-in when it comes to either keeping me out of her way, or "entertaining" the grandkids and using these games/sims to teach them a little patience and critical thinking vs emotional "reactionism" (bet the game/sim designers never thought of them as being used as that kind of "tool"). Thanks again everyone!!!

[Hinrich Schwab]

Hinrich Schwab...your positive impression of TC2M prompted me to look at it again and I found an old Paradox/Madminute forum, which had the answer to the cursor problem. My screen text size was set to 150%. When I reset it to 125%, the cursor appeared as it should; I set a custom text size of 145% and it still continues to work. So, now that I have it working, I have to take back my negative opinion of TC2M; it's a good game (being the "precursor" to the Matrix SoW games, that's to be expected I suppose) and I'm enjoying it also.


I am sorry I could not get back with you sooner to help you out with this. My past week has been a bit screwy.:doh: I am happy that my recommendation motivated you to resolve the issue on your own. The game is very, very good. :yeah:

[Aktungbby]

dsoliver18!:Kaleun_Salute:

[Exocet25fr]

Medieval 2 Total War - Secession Civil War Mod

https://www.mundusbellicus.fr/forum/total-war/medieval-ii-total-war/mods-modding/2555-secession-civil-war


Zouaves in the War

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zx5hqIdb-o