Game of the Week - March 17 - 23
This week we return to the 19th century and the American Civil War with Campaign Overland. This title will be on sale for 25% off normal pricing now through Sunday March 23rd.
The Overland Campaign was like no other Civil War campaign, as it shared more similarities with the First World War than with earlier battles such as First Bull Run or 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".
To get a bit more detail about the content in Campaign Overland you can check out the Design Notes. And the Getting Started tutorial document.
**Note: The version in the store is the new 4.05.2. This is being released today for both this game and the Demo. You can see that update post for more details.
(All images can be clicked for full-size viewing.)
This title includes 129 stand-alone scenarios and an additional 53 are pulled for the Campaign system.
A sampling of the battles included are:
- Wilderness
- Spotsylvania Courthouse
- Gordonsville
- Mine Run
- Po River
- Myers Hill
- Harris Farm
- North Anna
- Yellow Tavern
- Trevilian Station
- Bethesda Church
- Cold Harbor
There is even a "monster" 1300+ turn scenario played out on the entire one million + hex master map. If you choose to play that, however, you need to read the specific notes John Ferry put together for it on how to handle supply, reinforcements, etc. You can see those notes here.
This title includes 5 different Campaign offerings as well, pictured below:
Here's a video from the American Battlefield Trust with an overview of the campaign.
Now for some screen shots from in the game. As with the entire Civil War Battles series, this title has 3 2D views and 2 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. ** Note: the Master map does not have an alternative 3D map available.
As we bring the post to a conclusion we want to mention the Civil War Battles specific section of our forums, where you can discuss this title, or any others in the series.
When you are ready, head on over to the Campaign Overland product page and pick up a copy for yourself!
I read Rhea’s book on The Wilderness. It was a fascinating piece of writing.
Gordon Rhea writes like an excellent 1970s slow-burn film; slow to move but once you get going you cannot get off the roller-coaster until it stops. He also has some of the best “You are there” action sequences I have ever read…
Another good read for this game is Strategy & Tactics Quarterly #27, which is an entire magazine issue devoted to the Wilderness Campaign with excellent battle maps. This can still be ordered as a back issue from shop.strategyandtacticspress website.
Are there many solo scenarios in this one? I love the civil war entries I have but they do have the weakest AI and least solo scenarios of any of the WDS games I own. It looks great for PBEM or Solitaire though.
Great game. Lets you play all the important battles of the overland campaign right up to Petersburg. Being a Civil War buff i already have this game since…. well, long ago. A must have if you are a serious student of the Civil War. Perfectly complimented by Gordob C Rheas excellent books. A Complete Study.
Excellent game in the CW series, lots of good playable length scenarios. Anyone looking for an opponent on this after you pick it up for a bargain let me know!
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