Civil War Gettysburg: Utter Defeat

Time Played:
10.6 Hours

My favorite wargame of the past decade is Ultimate General: Gettysburg. I fondly remember playing Civil War Generals 2 in Jr. High. And I've always wanted to play Sid Meier's Gettysburg. Civil War video games call to me. There is something about the tactics of the era that I find appealing. Historical miniatures and war board games offer similar enjoyment. So I thought I would take a chance on the generically named Civil War: Gettysburg, created by the generically named HexWar Games.

Civil War: Gettysburg has a sufficient tutorial. It observes the basics, if not the in depth game play. After this swift introduction, the player has quite a few options to sort through. Which scenario should the player choose? The top three choices: Gettysburg Battle Edition, Gettysburg Standard Edition, and Gettysburg Master Edition. The difference lies in objectives. Battle Edition has no objectives on the board. Standard Edition has optional objectives that make the game easier if they are achieved. Master Edition has compulsory objectives, that if not fulfilled, end in defeat.

The mandatory victory condition is inflicting significant casualties on the enemy, without suffering too many yourself.In addition to these three scenarios, Gettysburg also includes engagements that led to, were simultaneous with, or followed after the battle. These include Day 1, Day 2, Twilight, Day 3, Thoroughfare Gap, Furr Farm, Goose Creek, Ewell's Chapel, Marsh Creek, and Little Round Top.

After choosing the scenario, the player chooses the difficulty; Casual, Standard, or Hard. Casual is described as “rash”, Standard as “normal,” and Hard as “cautious,” and “objective focused”. After four campaigns against the Standard AI, I would describe it as reckless, thoughtless, and foolish. It throws away units in pointless defenses. It never retreats or withdraws. Everyone fights to the death. Its attacks are similar in character. The AI charges suicidally forward, uselessly trying to storm fortified positions. It doesn't maneuver for a better position, and it doesn't try to concentrate its fire to break a hole in the enemy line.

I also played two matches against the Hard AI. It isn't quite as reckless, but I wouldn't promote it to General any time soon.

The final option is Classic vs Historical Mode. The instructions describe Classic as “less difference between the weakest and strongest units,” while Historical is, “Unit values … are as historically accurate as possible. It may be much harder to destroy [specific] enemies.” After two Classic and four Historical scenarios, I can say I didn't notice a difference.

Civil War: Gettysburg is a turn-based, hex-grid, wargame. It is similar to war gaming (miniatures or board games), in that it has multiple charts to reference; Terrain Effects, Melee Combat, Melee Modifiers, Range Weapons, Shooting Modifiers, and Morale.  Charts are frustrating, but at least, compared to some other games, the charts are in the actual game (and not in a separate manual).  Every turn the player orders every unit to move or attack. The game can only move one unit at a time, so I recommend players to turn the game speed to fast, or they will spend significant time watching the same animations of troops moving or firing.

The player controls four types of units; infantry, cavalry, artillery, and commanders. Infantry move or fire, or move and fire (but the fire is less effective) up to two spaces. Cavalry move and attack adjacent spaces. Artillery shoot up to twelves hexes away. Each unit has two formations. Infantry move faster in march column, and fight better in line. Cavalry move faster in mounted, but can dismount to act like inferior infantry. Artillery move faster in limber, but can't fire unless they unlimber. A non-voluntary formation is disordered. This happens when a unit suffers significant casualties due to fire. Disorder is incredibly rare, and I'm not sure how much damage a unit has to take for it to occur.

Infantry and Cavalry are straightforward. Artillery fire comes with some complications. Different guns have different ranges. Firing is limited by range, but also elevation. Players may find it difficult to gauge where a battery can hit without moving the battery to a spot. The elevation may be too low, too high, or blocked by units or terrain.

Ranged fire normally inflicts one damage, but sometimes zero or, rarely, two. Most infantry and cavalry start with ten hits. Units can't be healed, rested, or combined.

Units also have a morale value. Morale doesn't matter except for melee. It determines how long a unit can remain in melee. Units from opposing teams must always leave a space between them. When units charge they cross that space and move into the enemy unit's space. The winner of the melee remains, the loser retreats. Melee casualties are significant. The defeated force loses as many as five or six hits, while even the victorious side suffers one or two hits. Before the melee, the defender fires a defensive volley. Sometimes the attacking units retreat after the volley. If a unit is charged twice in a turn it only fires a defensive volley at the first attacking unit. Defending the town of Gettysburg, with its city terrain is powerful. Defending units massacre enemies attacking into city terrain.

Civil War uses supply rules but lacks supply lines. Every time a unit fires it has a small chance of running low on ammunition. Once a unit is low on ammo it fires less effectively. The unit recovers supply by not firing. If it continues to fire it will remain low on ammunition.

Both ranged and melee fire are affected by terrain. But also troop quality; poor, average, veteran, and elite. Troop quality doesn't change during the battle. While it looks like it should significantly affect combat, I didn't notice elite units outperforming poor units. You'll see why further along.

Units can't move through allied units, which significantly hinders movement. Also, there is no undo button for misclicks during movement.

Before revealing my successes and failures, I want to mention the presentation. The unit info bar at the top of the screen is huge and mostly empty. It blocks a significant portion of the screen, and I couldn't find a way to hide it. Dead bodies are removed at the end of the turn (boo!). The map has no representation of the peach orchid or wheat field. The general appearance of the map and units are serviceable but dull. Graphic errors are common, especially with artillery which appear in spaces, when they aren't there. Flags on the edge of the map mark where reinforcements will appear, but don't say when. The flags disappear when no more will arrive. The rules don't specify how Generals function. Do they bolster all units from their Corps, nearby units from their Corps, or all nearby units?

I played six battles and will briefly describe them. All battles were the complete three day battle of Gettysburg. I started with the basics, and each battle I added an additional element (or switched sides) to see how the game changed.

The 1^st was a Union Battle Edition on Standard difficulty. The enemy played foolishly, leading to a pathetically easy victory. It took two hours to exhaust the enemy through casualties. I held the town of Gettysburg, the main road, and Little Round Top with ease.The 2^nd game was the Confederates Battle Edition on Standard difficulty. The enemy stood in place and were slaughtered. I marched into Gettysburg with ease, and never stopped advancing, taking the entire Cemetery ridge.

The third game I played as the Union again with Battle Edition on Standard but with the Historical rules. I didn't notice a difference. I swatted aside the rebel assault, massacring them as they threw themselves at the town. I held Gettysburg unopposed.

It was on the fourth attempt (Union, Standard Difficulty, Historical), that I tried the Standard Edition. This introduced objectives, but ineffectively. Since the difficulty was still Standard, the enemy was still pathetically easy. When the game told me to hold the town of Gettysburg until turn 16, I did. Then it told me to withdraw from the town by turn 20, and I refused. The game warned me, but nothing happened. It also warned me about holding another objective. Objectives are hexes marked with flags. The flag at the site was marked as Union, yet the game told me I did not control the objective. I sent a unit to the spot and it stopped complaining. If it is marked with my flag, it should count as owning it. Regardless, I crushed the Confederacy.On the fifth attempt, as the Rebels, I finally tried both Hard Difficulty and Master Edition simultaneously. The objective, take Gettysburg in twelves turns. And this was the first time I failed, because failure to take an objective in Master Edition is failure. I was one turn away from capturing the town, but the enemy had finally put in the effort to defend effectively.

The sixth and final attempt saw the Union on Master Edition, Hard Difficulty brutally repulsing the attack on the town of Gettysburg. I was crushing, holding the city with ease. I was told I had to hold it until turn 16, which I did. Then I was told to evacuate. I refused, and lost the game. I can understand taking objectives, but never have I played a game where I had to withdraw from a position that I could hold. Forced evacuation objectives are ridiculously restrictive. I didn't play again after this.

In conclusion,

Civil War Gettysburg is a simple rendition of a war game. It is too simple, the AI too poor, and the visual quality too mediocre. The tutorial explains the rules, but the charts are poorly integrated into the game. Civil War needs significant AI improvements and a user interface upgrade to be worthwhile. I wouldn't recommend it for the multiplayer experience (where at least you wouldn't have to play against the AI). I appreciate the developer is trying to make a war game/miniature game, but this isn't worth the player's time.