From: "d7" Subject: Gettysburg Review (Sid's) Once in a great while you happen across a game that is truly remarkable in its scope and execution. Sid Meier's Gettysburg is one of those touchstone games that take the entire art of computer gaming to another level. In his designer's notes he relates how he poured over the detailed drawings of civil war battle dioramas as a boy-something many of us can relate to. His dream of creating a computer game that would bring the pictures to life in real time has been realized in Gettysburg. The game combines excellent graphics, both in detail and scale, animation, sound and an elegant and simple user interface that creates the "feel" of a civil war battle in a way that has not been captured by any other title to date. The closest comparison in terms of graphic excellence would be the highly regarded Battleground Gettysburg game from Talonsoft. But where Talonsoft used painted maps that still bore the heavy regular imprint of a hexagonal overlay, the maps in Sid's Gettysburg are smooth and lifelike 3D-renditions of the battlefield, with no hexagonal edges to spoil the effect. And the troops themselves, arrayed in columns and battle lines, are very well done. You can see the artillery positioning and unlimbering, and watch the crews load and fire the guns with well coordinated animation and sound. The comparison to Talonsoft's game ends there, however, because the real time engine and elegant user interface crafted by Sid Meier is a quantum leap ahead of the sequential mechanics presented in Talonsoft's offering. The Talonsoft game was little more than a dressed up porting of the venerable "Terrible Swift Sword" gaming system developed by Richard Berg and SPI over 25 years ago. As such, its rigid, sequential, turn-based system was hopelessly outdated at root. In that game, every playing piece must be meticulously dragged to its new movement hex, or moved hex by hex, until all movement for one side is complete. Then the player goes back over each and every piece in a separate "phase" to determine fire, then melee, etc. The computer is used to paint the nice game board, calculate results of combat and add a thin overlay of sound and video effects and minor animation. In Sid Meier's game, the player take the role of a commanding general and issues orders to his troops in real time. The game is "running" constantly, like Close Combat or Warcraft, and you can look in on the battlefield from varying angles or rotated camera positions to watch the battle unfold. Each regiment in the battle is faithfully represented in a correct order of battle. You have the option of selecting any regiment and determining its formation and current orders: Column, Battle Line, Advance, Charge, Withdraw, Retreat, Hold, etc. In short, you issue an order or series of orders to the regiment, which it carries out to the best of its abilities based on its current morale, training and leadership. The game does not degenerate into a tedious drag and drop affair or force you to maneuver hundreds of individual regiments. Most Civil War actions were coordinated at the Brigade (Confederate) or Division (Union) level, and this is where the player control interface really shines. By selecting a named Brigade officer, a new series of formations and orders can be issued to each subordinate unit in the Brigade simultaneously. Thus by simply selecting "battle line" you can watch as a brigade of five or six regiments shakes itself out of road march column and moves to form a line of battle. Once in position the line can be advanced on a Brigade frontage, or wheeled left or right with simple commands. Empires' "The Civil War" tried this in its tactical rendition of the battles resulting from strategic play, and "War College" attempted a real time top down view of a battle akin to an animated West Point Atlas...But both of those attempts seem feeble shadows when compared to Sid's achievement in Gettysburg. All told, the feel of the game is truly awesome. It is a joy to shake your brigades into line, organize your attack and then send the division in against an enemy position as the action begins to heat up and the ambient sound effects of the battle pull you in and make for an experience that is compelling, wholly engrossing, and loads of fun. This is warcraft for the history buffs-a real time civil war battle simulator that truly uses the strengths of the computer to create a game that makes all its paper based ancestors, and their cumbersome computer knock-offs, look pale by comparison. Sid Meirer's Gettysburg is a high water mark for simulated wargaming, and one that herald's a new direction for the genre altogether. There is plenty of action here too...Some 30 scenarios ranging from quick meeting engagements to complete days of the three day battle. You can play the scenarios in a kind of linked campaign to experience the entire battle, or you can deviate from the history, tailoring the personality of your opponent, mix of available forces, and order of appearance. There is even a random "shake & bake" scenario generator (not editor) to let you experience "what if" engagements using the units and game map for endless enjoyment. Its all here folks...Action and detail, right down to leadership models for the different generals. It all comes together under the hand of a master game designer and can truly be called a labor of love. Sid Meirer's Gettysburg is one of those few "must have" games of the decade for any wargamer worth his salt. ps...Sorry if I mis-spelled Sid's last name!