Game of the Week, July 14 - 20
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 decide the fate of the Confederacy. Fight well and bring victory to your chosen side.
- Rocky Face Ridge
- Resaca
- Cassville
- New Hope Church
- Pickett's Mill
- Dallas
- Kennesaw Mountain
- Chattahoochee River
- Peachtree Creek
- Atlanta
Campaign Atlanta uses five options to simulate the flow of the campaign. The main version is simply titled Campaign for Atlanta. This option allows each player to start at Rocky Face Ridge and fight his/her way to the gates of Atlanta. Ten battles are represented, with the climatic battle being fought for the city of Atlanta. Players are given a strategic choice of two options. Each battle will weaken the opposing armies. On three occasions, a Union major defeat will end the campaign for Sherman and force the Union to rethink its drive through the deep South. Should the armies advance to the next level of the campaign, they can expect their armies to be weakened.
The second campaign option is a simple variant of the Campaign Atlanta file. This version uses the new weather feature developed by John Tiller.
The third campaign choice is the historical version. It consists of 5 battles. This is a straightforward campaign—only the historical version of each major battle is given as a choice. Fight the campaign as it was fought historically. The intent here is to force each player to fight the campaign as it was fought in 1864.
The fourth campaign option is a variant of the third one, using the new weather feature.
Finally, the fifth campaign option uses the concept of a meeting engagement for all battles. As with the historical campaign option, players are only given one battle choice for each of the five battles represented. But this option should offer plenty of replay possibilities due to the very nature of a meeting engagement.
Now we present a historical video on the complete campaign, running 3 hours and 42 minutes!
Here's a quick overview, from the American Battlefield Trust:
And a third option, from Georgia Public Broadcasting:
And now for some suggested reading material.
Now for some screen shots from the game. As with the entire Civil War Battles series, this title has three 2D views and two 3D views to choose from. Then you have options to select from 2 different 2D icon sets, and finally you can have either colorized or black & white unit and leader images. There are also some free alternative 3D maps that can be loaded from the Support page if you wish.
Bryan Lash thank you very much. Quite correct!
“War Like The Thunderbolt”
Sorry about the correction but no one would be able to find the book otherwise.
For any ACW fan that does not have this title, now is the time. This one has so many good scenarios, I find myself playing with others in the title so often and I always enjoy it. Pick it up. You will not have trouble finding an opponent to play it with!
I greatly enjoyed “War From The Thunderbolt” as a good one volume overview of the campaign.
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