Question of the Week: What’s your favorite Civil War game?
Have you played a Civil War video game, board game, or tabletop game? If so, which game (or style of game) is your favorite and why?
Have you played a Civil War video game, board game, or tabletop game? If so, which game (or style of game) is your favorite and why?
15mm ACW miniatures, Johnny Reb rules. Been playing them for over half a century.
I don’t recall the name, but some 30 years ago there was a computer game with Mort Kunstler background art that allowed you to choose specific battles to fight. Units of varying strengths would appear on the battlefield to correspond with history. Terrain features allowed enhancing defenses. There were other features that allowed for quite a fun game experience. I wasted (?) many an hour refighting various battles.
Civil War Generals! (I’m fairly certain).
CW Generals 2 was my favorite. As for board games, Battle Cry was great for a simple battle between friends without complex rules. I have a ton of painted ACW minis, but never found anyone interested in playing. Rule sets are hard to find.
Victory Games’ The Civil War was an excellent strategic-level game on the war. For tactical games, there was none better than the Battleground series for PC.
I still play with my metal soldiers
Do you still play with your Privates?
Back in 1995 or96 I received Civil War Generals 3, I played it a lot in Windows 95 but apparently the game was never upgraded to be compatible with later Windows editions. I also own AH’s “Gettysburg” (1977 edition?) with three levels of play. Never could get anyone to play the advanced level with me.
Gettysburg 1977 is my favorite as well. I prefer the second level. (brigade size, unlike the first AH Gettysburg which was division size Also like Sid Meyers Gettysburg; however, it can only be played on Windows 98. Sid’s Antietam was too big.
The original Gettysburg by Avalon Hill 1964. Played Chancellorsville by Avalon Hill many times but could never get a Union win.
Last year I started a retro acw project to build two opposing armies. I bought 1/72 plastics – still the cheapest “optimal” tabletop scale. The project stalled as I have so many others like operation torch Vichy French v USA. Anyway preferred theatre is in the west – I have been to the Gettysburg of the west near Santa Fe while Wilson’s creek has its wargaming attractions not least when the armies were uniformed by any means. I don’t do accuracy- no button counting. Rules wise I have maybe a dozen sets, field of battle and fire and fury are my preferred but very quick games can be had with Neil Thomas rulesets or skirmish rules by others. There are also free rulesets online.
I never bothered with computer simulation games or board games.
I loved the Avalon Hill games as a teenager. Now, Ultimate General
Scourge of War Gettysburg and associated DLCs. The game is over 10 years old and is no longer available in a physical format (no one has CD/DVD drives these days anyway) but a visually enhanced version is now available on Steam.
When I was young, VERY YOUNG, I ‘inherited’ a Civil War-based game produced by Parker Brothers, the same Parker Brothers who made the iconic “Monopoly” game. In fact, it was officially called “Civil War Game by Parker Brothers”, and was put out in the very early 1960s.
That was a great time for such games. “Broadside” was a good one for ‘naval encounters’. Those games were ALMOST as cool as the “Johnny Seven One Man Army” I got at Christmas 1965. I eliminated a lot of Viet Cong with that baby! A LOT of Viet Cong! Ahh, good times…
S&T edition 129 Harvest of Death: The Second day at Gettysburg
Avalon Hill Gettysburg 88 i think is another good board game.
Sid Meier’s Gettysburg! was the first video game that got me hooked on the Civil War. Civil War Generals 2 had an excellent scenario creator that I spent hours upon hours on – really got me thinking about orders or battle for the first time. In college I played some Ironclads tabletop with my own paper markers just printed on my own. I recently got my hands on an original 1980’s box set of Ironclads to potentially rekindle that interest.
I spent an absurd amount of time playing Sid Meier’s Gettysburg. And if I could get an old PC up and running, I’d play it right now. In addition to the great gameplay, it really helped in learning the Order of Battle and prominent locations on the battlefield.
I developed a Civil War game with my students, then divided the class into opposing sides. I’ve tried different variations: one year they could only communicate by written notes, the “generals” being actually out of the room.
Some years go better than others. A few years ago, I thought the boys would kill each other for real. The players get an advantage if they spend a turn “entrenching” their forces. When we watched “Glory” afterwards, one of the students yelled at the screen, “don’t attack! They’re entrenched!”
I have two: Euchre, a card game popular with Union troops during the Civil War; and Baseball.