Games We Play - American Civil War

Forgotten Campaigns

Overview

Forgotten Campaigns is a title unlike the others in the Civil War Battles series, in that it covers a wide range of actions from all theaters of the war. In this 15th installment of the series we have rolled up the actions not covered in other titles, and in many cases actions that the historians have not devoted much attention to either. Fighting will range from frontier actions in New Mexico during 1862 to Mobile Bay in 1865. The Red River campaign of 1864 is included as is the War in Mississippi with Brice's Crossroads and Tupelo. Naval combat plays a prominent role in many actions as well, with coastal actions from Charleston to Baton Rouge and many others.

Battles included are:

Features:

  • Forgotten Campaigns includes 115 Scenarios – covering all sizes and situations, including a solo tutorial scenario plus specialized versions for both head to head play and vs. the computer AI..

  • The master map (293,550 hexes) includes all the significant locations fought over in Forgotten Campaigns.

  • The order of battle file covers the Union and Confederate forces that participated in the campaign with other formations added in for hypothetical situations.

  • Campaign and Scenario Editors which allow players to customize the game.

  • Design notes which cover or include the production of the game, campaign notes and a bibliography that includes the sources used by the designer team to produce this simulation game.

  • Forgotten Campaigns provides multiple play options including play against the computer AI, Play by E-mail (PBEM), LAN & Internet "live" play as well as two player hot seat.

  • Campaign Shenandoah

    Overview

    The Shenandoah Valley, a place of beauty and natural wonder. But during the Civil War years, a place of great military value and strategic importance. For the South, the valley became known as “the breadbasket of the Confederacy.” For the Union, it was a backdoor into the heart of an enemy. Now is your chance to step back in time and take up the call for battle. A time when “Stonewall” Jackson became a name to be feared, and where the Union capital was nearly captured, along with President Lincoln and his hopes to reunite a nation torn apart by civil war. Campaign Shenandoah provides the perfect opportunity to refight the great Valley battles of 1862 and 1864; Battles that decided the fate of this hallowed ground. Some have names that you may be familiar with; the battles for Winchester, and Kernstown, and the Battle of Cedar Creek. Others are smaller, but no less important; Cross keys, Cool Springs, and Fort Stevens. You need only pick a side, select your game options, and fire your first shots that may change history, or confirm it.

    Scenarios

    Campaign Petersburg

    Overview

    After more than three long years of bloody warfare, both Union and Confederate soldiers are demoralized and worn out. Will this war ever end, was the pervasive thought. Despite this never ceasing carnage and hardship, neither side is willing to compromise or surrender. Union commander General U.S. Grant was utterly convinced that it was only a matter of time, and worse yet, Confederate General Robert E. Lee was also similarly convinced. Yet, there may yet still be hope for the South, and so the fighting continued, and the campaign for Petersburg began. For nine months, starting in June of 1864, the campaign was fought, and shots were fired daily. Some battles were small, some large, and both sides suffered unimaginable hardships. There were days that were unbearably hot, and others unbearably cold, some wet and some dry, and all were bloody and miserable. Now it’s your turn to experience these challenges, simulated for you in Campaign Petersburg. From the confines of well-prepared trenches, and city blocks, to the heavily forested Virginia country side and open farm land, your troops will maneuver and attempt the destruction of your enemy. Prepare yourself and engage the enemy, your soldiers are awaiting your orders.

    Features and Enhancements

    Scenarios

    atlanta

    Campaign Antietam

    Overview

    Many battles preceded and followed, but none would be so costly on both sides as Antietam. No more would citizen soldiers populate both armies. Rather, they would now be known as professional veterans. For the Confederacy, the brilliance of Robert E. Lee would be needed to keep the southern army alive. Opposing him, a series of union generals would be tried. Many would fail. In the end, George McClellan would be called upon, a second time, to save the Union. Will he succeed, or will Lee lead southern armies to victory?

    Features

    Scenarios

    Campaign Atlanta

    Overview

    At the beginning of 1864, the Union was poised to begin its final drive into the deep South. The plan was simple, Union General William T. Sherman and his three separate armies with over 110,000 men, would advance south, seek and destroy the Confederate Army of Tennessee and capture Atlanta. However, a determined General Joseph E. Johnston was ordered to stop this invasion. Johnston's plan was also simple, fortify and defend each mile of southern territory, inflict greater losses on the enemy and force them into a costly mistake. Cleverly using the difficult terrain of northern Georgia, the plan nearly worked.Now you can re-fight the entire 120 mile march to Atlanta. Stop and face the invaders at places like, Rocky Face Ridge, Resaca, Kennesaw Mountain, and even Atlanta itself. Your choices will decided the fate of the Confederacy. Fight well and bring victory to your chosen side.

    Scenarios

    Features

    Campaign Chickamauga

    Overview

    By late 1862, the war in the west was proving to be a very difficult theater of operations for the Confederacy. The disastrous defeats at Fort Donelson and Shiloh were especially damaging to the southern cause. But hope and spirit prevailed. A new plan was developed. Invade Kentucky, force the bulk of the Union army out of Tennessee, defeat it and encourage Kentuckians to join the Confederacy. Campaign Chickamauga recreates the campaigns and battles of late 1862 and 1863. These battles would help decide the fate of both Kentucky and Tennessee and ultimately, the Union.

    Scenarios

    Features

    chancellorsville
    chancellorsville map

    Campaign Chancellorsville

    Overview

    Following Lee's failed invasion of the North in 1862, and McClellan's inability to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia near Antietam Creek in September of that year, President Lincoln tried and failed to find a commander who could defeat Lee.

    He chose first Ambrose Burnside, then Joe Hooker. During the next eight months they would in turn fight two major battles which they hoped would win the war and end the Southern rebellion. History records these battles as Fredericksburg (December 1862), and Chancellorsville (May 1863). They would later be known as Lee's greatest victories, the "high tide" of the Confederacy--and the final battle of Thomas "Stone Wall" Jackson. Now comes your opportunity to repeat these victories for the South, or take command of the Federal army and crush the rebellion once and for all. Be bold and never look back!

    Scenarios

    Features

    corinth

    Campaign Corinth

    Overview

    Campaign Corinth depicts the Mississippi front of the vast Confederate offensive in the Fall of 1862 that culminated in the battle of Corinth. Defending Federal gains in Mississippi and West Tennessee are Federal Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William S. Rosecrans. Their opponents, Confederate Generals Earl Van Dorn and Sterling Price, have dreams of planting their banners on the banks of the Ohio River.

    Scenarios

    Though every scenario may also be played as a stand-alone, the bulk of the scenarios are integrated into the operational/tactical campaign, providing a high degree of replay value.

    Features

    Campaign Franklin

    Overview

    Campaign Franklin depicts General Hood's desperate attempt to reach the Ohio River in Tennessee and thwart General Sherman's advance in Georgia. But stubborn Union defenses along with his own mistakes will foil his plans

    Scenarios

    Features

    gettysburg
    gettysburg map

    Campaign Gettsburg

    Overview

    It is the crossroad of the War between the States. July 1, 1863, dawns hot and bright in southeastern Pennsylvania. General Lee had slipped behind the Union Armies, which were moving south to engage them in what many believed, then and now, to be the climactic battle of the American Civil War.

    Scenarios

    Features

    Campaign Overland

    Overview

    The Overland Campaign was like no other Civil War campaign, and shares more similarities with the First World War than with earlier battles such as First Bull Run and Shiloh, and was made more horrific by the meeting of passion and technology in the first of our "modern" wars. Gone was the old practice of marching out of camp to fight a battle and then, win or lose, marching back to camp to refit before fighting another. This campaign was a relentless struggle, a dance of death through tidewater Virginia, with the Union Army under U S Grant continually trying to outflank Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Every flanking maneuver found Lee's ragged veterans blocking the way. Grant was every bit as aggressive as Lee, and he had the manpower of the North to back him up. They started calling him "Butcher" Grant, and someone told him that his and Lee's armies would be like the Kilkenny cats that devoured each other. Grant grimly said, "Our cat has the longer tail." It was part of a two-pronged plan. Years later, Sherman summed it up by saying, "Grant was to go for Lee and I was to go for Joe Johnston".

    Scenarios

    Features

    Campaign Peninsula

    Overview

    By the middle of 1862, the Confederacy teetered on the brink of disaster on all fronts. Defeat after demoralizing defeat plagued Southern forces in the west. At the same time in the eastern theater, General George B. McClellan's Federal Army of the Potomac arrived at the outskirts of Richmond after a slow but steady 50-mile march up the rugged Virginia peninsula. On 31 May, the Confederate army, under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston, turned and attacked McClellan's army at Fair Oaks and Seven Pines. The two-day battle caught the Army of the Potomac in a vulnerable position astride the raging Chickahominy River. After initial success, the Confederate attack was blunted and both sides returned to their lines. Perhaps the most significant result of the battle was the wounding of Johnston and the elevation of Robert E. Lee to the command of the Army of Northern Virginia.

    Scenarios

    129 Scenarios, including the historical battles of:

    Plus 7-, 6-, 5-, 4-, 3-, and 2-day "Campaign Scenarios" are available for players who wish to play the entire Seven Days beginning at each day of the weeklong campaign.

    Features

    shiloh logo
    shiloh map

    Campaign Shiloh

    Overview

    It is 1862. The Eastern theater of the American Civil War is deadlocked. But a mobile campaign is being fought in the West. Union General Ulysses S. Grant is fighting his way down the Mississippi River, capturing Forts Henry and Donelson. Confederate General Johnston launches a surprise attack against Grant's encampment at Pittsburgh Landing--otherwise known as Shiloh Church. "Shiloh" means "peaceful."

    Scenarios

    Features

    vicksburg logo
    vickburg map

    Campaign Vicksburg

    Overview

    It is the end of April 1863 on the Mississippi River. After disastrous Union campaigns at Chickasaw Bayou, Steele Bayou and Greenville, General U.S. Grant now elects to bypass the Confederate fortress city of Vicksburg. Instead, he will take his Army of the Tennessee and march down the Louisiana side of the Mississippi River.Anxiously expecting a Union thrust somewhere across the river into Mississippi, Lt. General John C. Pemberton and his Confederate army occupies a strongly fortified position extending both north and south of Vicksburg. With Grant's crossing of the mighty river there will be no turning back...for either side.

    Scenarios

    57 scenarios, including the historical battles of:

    What-if" battles include

    The campaign is played over a large area from Snyder's Bluff south to Port Gibson, and from Vicksburg east to the state capital of Jackson. On the advance, the Union player can choose among several strategic pathways with the ultimate goal of capturing Vicksburg. The Confederate guardians of the "Hill City" can elect to act purely on the defensive or counterattack instead.

    Features

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