American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

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Question-Who has played it, and did you like it?

MG Elkin
XVIth Corp-Commander
AotT

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I have come to you from the West, where we have always seen the backs of our enemies. . . . Let us look before us, and not behind

I no longer have it installed so I will have to give my comments from memory (what little is left of it).

If I am remembering correctly the worse draw back of this and most 3D type games is no email support. They usually have direct play across the internet play but this is difficult to set up and hard to schedule if the game lasts any length of time.

SoW does have great graphics. It's fun to watch them fight. It isn't particular fun to try to actually control the regiments. I found the game particularly bad about automatically forming your regiment into column and marching a 100 yards and then going back into line. This is a side effect of the AI having to control the regiments when you are looking elsewhere. It is the curse of these type games that try to play in real time. As you increase the scale of the battles you play the worse this becomes.

The other problem with this and the gender of real time games is correctly placing units. Without a hex grid to define terrain in absolute terms you will find you have to micro manage your units to get them into position. Want them behind a fence or along a tree line. Maybe twenty or thirty micro commands later you will have your brigade properly placed. Meanwhile two or three division have marched off the battlefield pursuing some AI dream. The AI isn't smart enough and the graphics aren't clean enough for you to place a unit exactly where you intend it to be with a single click. The regiment may end up to far in one direction or another or oriented so it doesn't line up correctly to gain the benefit of the terrain. You end up sending them to the general area you want them in then having to remember to revisit the units to adjust their orientation and position while watching little icons indicate whether it is qualifying for the terrain benefit.

It is really neat to zoom in and watch the little men fire cannons and fight the enemy but you quickly learn not to do this because while you are watch one part of the action the rest of the battle has gone to hell in a handbasket.

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General Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
AoT II/1/3 (CSA)

Thanks for the information.

MG Elkin

_________________
I have come to you from the West, where we have always seen the backs of our enemies. . . . Let us look before us, and not behind