Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865)

This is an incredibly detailed and rendered simulation. The learning curve is steep, thankfully a detailed tutorial is included. Beautiful maps, which are framed and rendered in such a way as to add much to the overall effect. Smaller menus are also detailed, and colorful. Numerous tool tips aid one in navigation. Excellent replayability, with numerous decisions on many levels. There are times when the AI does frustrating things, but they are continually patching the game and these will no doubt be corrected. The options menu offers an incredible array of ways to adjust the overall appearance. Our only complaint; and it is a very minor one, is the readability of the fonts, especially in the smaller information menus. Please offer the option of a different, more readable font. The sound track and video selections add to the overall effect. Highly recommended as a highly complex and immersive Civil War simulation.

cool game and they do everything well...EXCEPT the battles...which is like...the whole point of the game. the AI is god awful and just launch disorganized piecemeal attacks at fortified positions so the defender almost always wins and your units dont listen to your commands half the time. FIX THE AI. Edit: 41 hours and several years later, it still hasnt got any better. In fact if anything it is worse because now i have to reload the game every 15-20 minutes or my units/armies will freeze and not move anymore regardless of orders

Not good, like the concept and map. was hoping for a good game but it is rubbish. difficult to see your troops hard to control the units and map and navigate around. very little control and takes units out of location when the day is over to start the next day battle, very annoying. also the strategic map does not reflect the location of the battle as it selects a nearest or random location and disposition. will not be playing this gamer again after reading how to play, what a waste of time. one day a game will comer out with the promise this one appeared to make.

On the face of it, the game is decent. It's got a rudimentary economy system, the usual unit management, and the AI isn't run by a block of cheese. But..... I've been playing strategy games (like Total War etc) for a three decades and I can't beat this game. Even on the easiest setting. Okay, so I've not got hundreds of hours invested in Grand Tactician, and I have only read brief guides, but if you want to play as Confederate in this game you are screwed. Whatever you do, the Union simply creates a gazillion soldiers. You can't do anything about it. Within six months, the game is finished. I've tried focusing on different tech tree routes, invading, not invading, creating one huge army, creating lots of armies, defending areas, attacking areas, blockading, not blockading, none of it matters. You just get steamrollered. Battle-wise, I'm fairly astute and can win from poor positions, it's just that when you are facing considerable Union odds (because....well.....that's how the game is set up) you hardly ever get to field an army that is anywhere near the size of the Union one you will face. And if you do, which does sometimes happen, they'll simply lie down and wait for you to expend your ammo. It's a game I wanted to like, and some YouTubers do make it look easy (although, I noticed, not many playing the Confederates) but even following their guides and play style brings obvious defeat within the first year. Example: Latest run through saw me with decent sized armies fairly quickly in Virginia. And no units were using mixed muskets. While those armies were being raised (as quickly as the game would allow - and following the tech tree which gives access to recruits), the Union simply walked in to Richmond and built a fort. I've been unable to ever build a fort in the game since day one. Anywhere. They then created two armies in Richmond totalling 50,000 men before my already mobilising armies nearby had reached their recruitment. I had more men over four armies though, totalling 60,000 men. Sent them to attack Richmond. One week later they lose. And the AI simply brings in another 30,000 army and then sends two more 30,000 armies into the west - where, because I was using my recruitment in the East, meant instant death. You can't beat an AI that easily fields twice or more manpower every single time.

The concept and certain aspects of the game are innovative, interesting and keep me wanting to play. Although the bugs that occur during battles are very annoying, persistent and will lead you to be just angry at the developers of this game. The game has been out for 4 years and I have looked at online forums that are 3 or 4 years old with other players complaining about the same issues that I'm having. So it appears that the developers are not working on fixing the multiple issues with this game, which is a shame because it would be enjoyable if not for the battle simulations being unplayable.

Mechanics need work. Trying to put a unit into position will jump to different spot if near anything (or not near it). Twice I have been winning in a battle with the enemy in full retreat, then suddenly a box pops up saying I am defeated. Part 2. Tried to retry the game. So many issues during battles. Waste of money.

I spend my entire 37 minutes reading the 200 page unskipable tutorial. It's so horrifically complicated that I legitimately couldn't figure out how to even start the campaign. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I didn't pay $45 to read all that mess.

Could be great but the devs just don't want to fix anything and are on to a new game...