Linear Warfare's Odds and Ends, New and Old

In this blog entry, a good oldie that has defied completion status for years and two newborn speeders that break the speed of playability.

HistWar Napoleon Got Patched

With ... New stuff? Whatever. It is hard to keep track of happenings when the developer is so remarkably cryptic, and insists to keep comms in a godforsaken forum. Only thing I know is that HistWar is the Napoleonic grand/tactical (operational sometimes) gold standard.

As for myself, I have been enjoying the game for quite a while now.

The mesmerizing uniforms and visuals bear most of the blame for my past failures to move forward to fighting in sensible way. 

One thing that I learned this weekend is that is possible to let the AI move two of my Corps in support of each other. This results in better coordination during offensive operations.

Another great thing that I started using is sequential orders. In this case, Mortier's Corps will march forward (green line) and then at 1047 will deploy into an offensive towards the north east.

Whatever happened to adjustable real time

Two interesting American Civil War games have appeared at Steam. Both of them appear to be still under development, which is apparently the new release standard for small studios.

1. Ultimate General Gettysburg

Ultimate General Gettysburg is a tactical war game that  features very appealing and functional graphics. I was not so convinced when I fired this game up for the first time. But the caricature-like appearances quickly gave way to a game that is very approachable and it is full of tactical treats.

Ultimate General Gettysburg feels and plays like a Sid Meier's Civil War game for the 21st century. The map, which looks like one of those tourist maps sold gift shops, is very effective showing important landmarks and crucial terrain.

1. Battleplan: American Civil War

Another one from Steam, again about the American Civil War. The scale is grand tactical, with the units (regiment-sized) represented as blocks. The feeling of playing Battleplan is of taking an Osprey book (which BTW is the sponsor for the developers) and making it playable.

One of the advertised selling points of this game is the ability to build pontoon bridges. This feature works within the real of history in the Fredericksburg scenario shown above. But because no explicit engineer units are represented, any formation can force any river if you give them time.

Neither of the games above has an explicit chain of command (just get whatever general within range and receive a morale bonus). Battleplan has a system of couriers and orders transmission similar to HistWar, though.

Both games have unlockable scenarios, just because the latest marketing data suggests that you are twelve years old. :) No, seriously. What's up with this madness of hiding content from the user?

And last but not least, both games are played in continuous time at an incredibly fast pace. So fast that you will need to press the pause button and issue orders every ten or twenty seconds. Both games come dangerously close to become pure kinesthetic experiences (i.e. a click-fest where the only challenge is how fast you can click).

Cheers,