Battleground:
Gettysburg is Talonsoft's second entry in its Battleground series, covering all three
days of the largest battle ever fought on the North American continent. If you've ever
read The Killer Angels or watched Ted Turner's Gettysburg movie or Ken Burn's Civil
War documentary, you're familiar with the drama of the situation - Lee's Confederate army
loose in Pennsylvania in a desperate attempt to win the war by invading the North, the
Union frantically trying to find and engage the rebels, the accidental meeting of the
armies at Gettysburg. What followed left us with names and events still shrouded in legend
- Devil's Den, Little Round Top, Pickett's Charge, the 20th Maine, the Wheatfield. And
they're all here in Battleground: Gettysburg.OK, Battleground: Gettysburg is a wargame
- but one, like Panzer General or Steel Panthers, that should appeal to non-wargamers as
well. It's a turn-based regimental-level game that can be played face-to-face, over the
modem, or against the computer's AI (more on which later). You have the choice of playing
several scenarios, from the short initial meeting engagement to the whole three-day
enchilada. The program loaded smoothly and easily, the manual is complete and
comprehensive, there's a decent tutorial , and I ran into no bugs or hang-ups after hours
of playing. So give Talonsoft an A+ for development.
The Look: The game looks great. You
can shift among 5 different map scales of the battle in progress - a large strategic view
of the entire battle, two 2D maps that look much like a typical board wargame, and two 3D
maps (as above) that give the look and feel of a game using real miniatures. The
Battleview 3D screen is a terrific innovation; when the lines of blue and butternut
soldiers line up and blast away on the screen, you really get a gut feel for how Civil War
battles were fought. The bottom of the screen (which can be hidden) is taken up with the
terrain info and unit list boxes. The terrain info box gives information on the hotboxed
hex, as well as an actual photo of that battlefield location (a nice touch), and the unit
list box gives you information on your units and a nicely-rendered drawing of the unit's
uniform. I really liked this feature; it added color to the game and personality to the
units. It was a kick sending Barksdale's raggedy Mississippians up against a regiment of
flashy Federal Zouaves.
Gameplay: As good as the graphics
are, the most remarkable accomplishment by the Talonsoft team is that they have produced a
state-of-the-art wargame of the sort preferred by hardcore boardgamers (it reminded me of
the Gamer's Civil War Brigade Series) and made it playable and fun for beginners. Make no
mistake, the game is "deep" - it takes into account such factors as supply,
fatigue, morale, leadership, formation, and facing - but it does so elegantly. If this
were a boardgame, you'd be faced with reams of charts and many die rolls; here the
computer takes care of all that, leaving you free to command your army rather than play
file clerk. You must attend to these factors - sending an out of ammo, fatigued unit into
a melee will cost you bigtime - but this just adds realism with no cost in playability.
This combination of detail and graphics adds up to
one of the best and most fun simulations of Civil War warfare I've played. Units line up,
flags flying, and fire away at each other at close range; sometimes the enemy breaks and
routs immediately, sometimes the skirmish becomes an extended slugging match that is only
settled after one unit tires or runs out of ammo. Melee is bloody and decisive. Artillery
fire is devastating. Inspirational leaders can be the difference between victory and
defeat, and they die a lot.
I do, however, have a few quibbles with the gameplay. The Battleview
3D screen only covers a relatively small portion of the playing area, especially in the
large, full-battlefield scenarios, and it's easy to lose track of where you are and what
the overall situation is. This can be remedied by shifting back and forth between the 3D
and 2D map, but this is a rather clunky necessity in an otherwise seamless interface. I
got used to this eventually, but at first it was aggravating. The other quibble I have is
with the AI. If you do play against the computer, be sure to use the Fog of War option;
this only allows you to see enemy units that are in your unit's line of sight, eliminating
the "God's eye view" problem. It also gives the computer a bit more of an edge.
It needs it, because the AI, while better than most computer wargames, is still a little
dense. It's pretty easy to win decisive victories - the computer sometimes abandons
objective hexes, it doesn't protect artillery very well, and it passes up on shots that it
really should take. On the other hand, it can surprise you, especially with the fog of war
option on. In one game, I overconfidently advanced my fatigued Alabamans off the
newly-captured Little Round Top, only to be taken in the flank and routed by some hidden
Federals. Ouch.
Talonsoft has just come out with the next game in
this series, on Waterloo, and judging from the screen shots I've seen, they've cranked the
graphics up another notch. I can't wait to play it, or their soon-to be released Shiloh
and Antietam games.
Overall: Excellent game that really
gives you the feel of "being there." Like Panzer General, this is a great
crossover game; even those who don't usually enjoy wargames ought to find this game
entertaining, and it is a must-buy for wargamers or anyone interested in the Civil War.
--Rick Fehrenbacher |