Conference smurf::civil_war

    On the Amiga, I've played Gettysburg and Chickamauga by SSG.
    
    Gettysburg is the earlier design; it's much slower than Chickamauga;
    it's also real frustrating, because if you're south, as i usually am,
    it's almost impossible to win.
    
    Chickamauga is much quicker to play; it's fairly easy to win
    heavily as either north or south.
    
    Both sound like your description of 1st Manassas, except that
    Gettysburg is 3 days of about 12 turns each, and Chickamauga is
    2 days of about 12 turns each. The games will NOT go beyond these
    time limits, which I find frustrating.
    
    They seem very accurate in terms of units, strengths, etc; also the
    boards are nicely done. As far as how accurate the play is in terms
    of realism, I'm not sure; but there are some weirdnesses - there's no
    way for a unit to surrender, so you can surround a unit for turn after
    turn until it's completely attrited away, which takes much longer than
    it would in reality, for example.
    
    All-in-all, though, I'd recommend Chickamauga highly, but Gettysburg
    (until they update it to Chickamauga stds) is too slow and
    frustrating.
    
    Ken

    
    	I have played all 3 of these games by SSG and consider the game
    system the best computer game on the market. They were originally
    written for 64K Commodores and Apples. The IBM versions add a little
    speed. The limited memory makes the computer player somewhat
    predictable. The system is at it's best with two players, limited
    communication and limited inteligence. The 1st Manassas scenario
    with it's low piece density and room for manuver is one of the best.
    	Now if they could make it play head to head on two systems it
    would be almost perfect.
    
    						P.J. O'Neill
    					VMS Mail WCCLUB::ONEILL 

    
    	Re. 47.1
    		There are two seperate computer gaming companies that
    should not be confused.
    	
    	Strategic Studies Group, based in Australia, produce Decisive
    		Battles of the Civil War Vols I,II & III. These contain
    		about 6 battles each. Scenarios can be constructed
    		for anything in the 18th & 19th Cent. There are many
    		things to recommend this system and it is my favorite.
    
    	Strategic Simulations Industries- An older comp. very prolific,
    		but now mostly fantasy. A pair of designers released
    		Rebel Charge at Chicamagua, Gettysburg, Antidam, Shilo,
    		Sons of Liberty (1776) & Arnhim (1944) using basically
    		the same system. Very detailed and accurate but the need
    		to give detailed orders to each and every unit twice an
    		hour make them SLOW.
    
    	I'd be happy to discuss these with anyone interested.
    
    							P.J. O'Neill
    						       WCCLUB::ONEILL

I have the SSI version of Gettysburg, and after a recent trip to 
Gettysburg, I've ressurrected it.  I've been playing the advanced game
with hidden units, optional cavalry, and variable times for unit entry.
Lately, I've been the confederates and let the computer play the yankees.
I find that if you just play day 1, it's fairly easy to win with the 
confederates.  In fact, it's relatively easy to storm Cemetary Ridge, Culps
Hill, Big and Little Round tops.  But by about noon of the second day the
yankee pressure becomes enormous and it's very difficult for the confederates
to hang on.  Only once have I been able to achieve a decisive victory for the
confederates; I had about -15000 points, (the larger the negative number, the
better the victory for the CSA), and when it was time for the computer to
move the yankees, it simply surrendered.  That happened at about 2:00 pm on
the second day of the 3-day campaign game.

Yes, you do have to give orders to each and every unit of the side that you
are playing but that doesn't bother me.  The game is about 5 years old but
it still holds my attention.

Cheers,

Scott

    And for those of us you are cheap..there is a shareware version of the
    civil war games for 4.00. Have not tried it but it requires VGA and a hard
    disk.
    
     phillip

    
     Where would one find these games?  I have been looking everywhere for
    a Civil War sim game, but no luck.  I know no one has replied in this
    note for awhile but is the shareware version mentioned in .5 still 
    available?   Any pointers on where to find a gmae would be apreciated!
    
        Thanks, Dan

    Note 2395 in the GAMES note file (501CLB::GAMES) has a discussion on
    Gettysburg simulations, in particular the Swfte International version
    for Windows.