MAIN FEATURES

A player controls one of the major contenders in the campaign in play, trying to achieve military (and political) victory according to scenario conditions.

Scope of the game covers all of the USA, from the Eastern seaboard to Kansas, from 1861 to 1865.

Game map is divided into more than 1500 regions, each being hand-drawn in normal and winter mode, for a whopping 120 millions pixels surface (handled dynamically by a caching technique), with a great diversity of terrain and climate as well as  development/infrastructure items and levels. It includes the ability to use most of the major navigable rivers, which played a crucial role during the Civil War.

Alfred Waud, Hotel Dieu Near Southwest Pass

Game turns correspond to one fortnight (15 days) to one month of historical time (depending on scenario or campaign in play). Scenarios vary from a few months to almost 5 years with players primarily controlling the military action of their nation. This includes such activities as drafting forces, building forts and depots, sieges and blockades, raiding enemy cities, supply lines and rail network, building ironclads, raiding commerce, escaping blockade, and battles, both on land and at sea.

Scenarios: there are mainly two camps fighting each other (with possible foreign help) of in all of the game's yearly or monthly campaign scenarios or the multi-years campaigns, as follows:

•    Seeing the Elephant (Bull Run 1861 Battle Scenario) •    Bloody April (Shiloh 1862 Battle Scenario) •    Thunder at the Crossroads (Gettysburg 1863 Battle Scenario) •    1861: The Coming Fury (July - 2 Theater Campaign) •    1862: Struggle for the Heartland (2 Theater Campaign) •    1863: Triumph & Defeat (2 Theater Campaign) •    1864: Bloody Roads South (2 Theater Campaign) •    1861: The Civil War (April - Full 2 Theater Campaign)

Troops are depicted down to the individual regiment and battery level with the basic manipulable unit being the brigade. These can be arranged into various needed organizations such as divisions, corps and armies, handled by a realistic yet easy to understand Command Chain rule. Naval units come in the form of warship squadrons and flotillas. You can also manage supply lines and wagons, water transport, forts and depots. Wide diversity of troop types is implemented, including: light infantry; sharpshooters, engineers, railroad and medics units, balloons, coastal and siege artillery; Rangers (Texan or not!) and irregulars; marines; militias; monitors and ironclads, ships of the line; frigates and transport flotillas, timberclads and cottonclads, etc. There are more than 250 different models of units in all. All are rated for various aspects such as offensive and defensive strength, morale, experience, cohesion, troop quality, geographical origin and movement type. Foreign units include the British, French, Indians and Mexicans.

A large array of historical leaders (over 300) is included, most feature unique abilities based on their historical performance. Over 50 different abilities are included, some examples of which are: Charismatic, Hated Occupier, Stealthy, Expert Seaman.

Population-based (i.e. political) aspects of the conflict (especially during the Grand Campaign) are taken into account, impacting militia and guerrilla levies, Foreign intervention, shifting loyalties, information gathering, reconnaissance, etc.

No Diplomacy: there is no diplomatic module per se in the game; foreign war (and peace) is dealt with as a series of conditions (victory points and locations) that accumulate and are tested regularly by the game script engine and events. It is combined with a system of random events which asks the players to make crucial decisions.

Military Production: the production system is limited to military units. The players will have to handle assets such as conscripts and war supplies to produce various types of units in their production centers. Special units like ironclads and such are handled by engineers units on the map, and can be captured before completion.

Technological Improvements: the system is rendered via our original script tool. Technical or tactical improvements that could be considered as “research” will be handled via events and the game script engine, with the player inputing choices.