Battleground Shiloh: Another Very Good Civil War Game.
Written: Jul 17 '02 (Updated Jul 17 '02)
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Pros: Historically accurate, cool computer strategy game.
Cons: Takes forever to play.
The Bottom Line: Another Civil War game for the dedicated Civil War gaming enthusiast!
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| Ironcladd's Full Review: Battleground 4 - Shiloh |
"Battleground Shiloh: Another Very Good Civil War Game".
The Battle of Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862, was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War to that date, with as many casualties as in the Napoleonic Battle of Waterloo, half a century before. Historians and military historians and tacticians have studied this terrible battle in depth for the past 140 years in colleges and universities, and West Point. One interesting result of all of this research is the computer game, “Battleground Shiloh”, originally put out by the Talon Soft Company in 1997. This is the fourth of the “Battleground” series by them, and the second American Civil War Battleground series, following Battleground Gettysburg. The actual battle pitted the Union’s Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee against Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston’s Army of the Mississippi. It seems that most of the up and coming generals of the western theater were there: Sherman, Sheridan, John A. Logan, Braxton Bragg, Bishop Polk, Prentiss, P. G. T Beauregard and Don Carlos Buell. In the battle, Grant’s army was taken by surprise, and pinned against the Tennessee River; However, Buell came up with reinforcements in the form of the Army of Ohio, and these combined armies managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Battleground Shiloh is a computer strategy game that faithfully recreates this battle in the most minute of details, from the physical topography, landmarks, roads, as well as accurate roll calls, with the correct leaders, and historical arrival times at the proper places throughout the game and its scenarios. This is an in depth and involved game that has a lot of merit to it, especially for the avid Civil War gamer. What follows is a brief table of information on Battleground Shiloh, followed by a review of what I consider to be the highlights of the game.
Table of Information on Talon Soft’s Battleground 4—Shiloh.
Originally Published by: Talonsoft, Inc.
Date of Release: 1996
Operating System: Windows 3.1, Windows 95, compatible with all further Windows Operating Systems.
CPU; 486DX33 minimum.
Hard Drive: 5 MB Minimum free space required.
CD-ROM: Double Speed( 2X) required.
RAM: 8 MB Minimum.
Input Devices Required: Microsoft compatible mouse.
Graphics: 256 Color SVGA. Supports 640X480, 800X600, or 1024X768 screen resolutions.
Sound Card: All Windows compatible sound cards.
Features of the Game:
Lavish 3-D graphics.
Full Color Re-enactment videos.
Head to Head Play via modem against human opponent.
Null Modem Play.
Play by E-mail.
Two-player hot seat.
Variable time for release of Union corps.
Multiple Scenarios.
Encryption keys.
Fog of War.
Variable command control.
Review/Highlights of Battleground Shiloh.
Game Basics.
The fascinating and historical Battle of Shiloh was a near Union victory for General Ulysses S. Grant. It was the first Union victory in a major Civil War battle up to that time, and succeeded in driving the Confederates out of Tennessee for the time being, all the way south to Corinth, Mississippi. This computer game faithfully recreates the historical Battle of Shiloh, represented in a full Battle of Shiloh scenario, as well as a “what if” scenario with variable arrival rates of troops, and with smaller and shorter scenarios from the historical battle, like “Hornets Nest”, “Shiloh Church”, etc. It is a hexagonal, or hex, based game, with each hex representing 125 yards of scale on the accurate maps that are used for the game. It is also a turn-based game, with each turn representing 20 minutes of real time. There are multiple scenarios in the game, including a full, 60 move Battle of Shiloh, with historically accurate arrival times and geographically accurate arrival places for each army that are faithfully recreated by the animated icons for infantry troops, cavalry, artillery, leaders, etc. There is also a “toolbox” on the game screen, which is the “command center” for what you, as commander, will want to do, and how you will be able to do it. There is a red square or hexagon indicator that is the place where a unit is selected to move or to fire, or melee in its turn. In addition to this, there are different unit formations, in column, meaning the troops are in a marching mode, and in line, meaning the troops are in a line with rifles or muskets at the ready to fire at an enemy unit. There is also “unit facing” to think about, and this is important because if one has an infantry unit of let’s say 500 men facing north, and another unit of 500 men from the enemy side comes up from the south, the initial unit can’t fire or defend themselves against this unit who is behind them, so facing is very important. There are also different unit types, infantry, cavalry, artillery, and leader units. Movement is limited to a maximum of 12 hexes for infantry on a road to 24 hexes for cavalry and mounted leader units. Unit morale is another consideration in this game. A unit can become “disrupted”, and unsteady, and less effective. There are “fatigue levels” that a unit incurs when being shot at, from 0 to 9. When a unit reaches level 9, it usually becomes disrupted, or it can also “rout”, meaning unit morale has disintegrated, and the unit “runs away”. However, if a unit’s leader is nearby, the unit dialogue at the beginning of a player turn can “recover fatigue” by “rallying”. As you can see, this game is very involved in the number of variables surrounding events and situations.
There are two map views, a full screen map that can be 2-D or 3-D in perspective, along with a real-time miniature map that is in the bottom corner and can be accessed with a mouse click. There are “objective points” that have a certain value that add to the point totals one needs to achieve victory in a game, or a scenario. Game victory is achieved based on the number of points one accumulates, and this is also tallied by the point totals for losses or captures of individual units. 25 infantry equal 10 points, while the same number of cavalry equals 25 points, 1 artillery piece equals 20 points, and the leader units, from colonels without names to General Ulysses S. Grant or Albert Sidney Johnston (who was killed in the original battle), range in value from 3 to 80 points each. At the end of the scenario game, the points you have as opposed to your opponent have, determines the victory or defeat level.
Game Play.
Battleground Shiloh is a turn-based game. One turn consists of two separate sets of four moves each by the two opposing sides, resulting in actually 8 separate movements in total. Game play itself consists of a movement phase, a defensive phase, an offensive phase, and a melee phase, followed by the same from the opposing side. This aspect of the game makes it very time consuming, and a little bit like chess in a way, as one can see the map and devise strategy from here. Basically, to win at any of the battleground games, one has to be intimately involved with the strategy of attack or defense, and a little familiar with the historical patterns in which these battles were fought. In the Civil War, many of the victories were actually defensive victories, with the winners the ones who could hold the “high ground”, and defend it by digging in and massing his troops, and hence, his firepower. Battleground Shiloh is no different in this aspect. There were horrendous casualties of killed, captured, and missing in the American Civil War, and in this game, the casualties are even more exaggerated than in the real life situation. The problem that most players of real-time gaming will have with this game is the length of time it takes to learn, and the extremely long time it takes to play this game. However, there is some degree of merit and fun to playing and winning a game like this. Again, it is like chess in many of these respects, being a well thought out, and well played game.
Further Game Highlights.
The two-player game against a human opponent is the best way to experience this game. I like play by internet mode, as one can play with a real life opponent at one’s leisure, and there is usually a day or so that goes by in which to think about your moves, and your execution. There is an encryption feature that allows the player to make his move under “fog of war”, so that the opponent can’t go and see if he is planning a “sneak attack” out of his “line of sight”. I have tried the live “modem-to-modem play, and it is fun, but the games actually take hours and hours to play, and it is difficult to find someone who has the same free time as you do.
The A/I feature is very dynamic in this game when playing against the computer. The A/I has various levels of difficulty and the computer can whip the raw recruit without further ado. The A/I method of fighting against the computer is great practice for the time one evolves to play a human opponent. On the toolbar, there is also an A/I button one can press if you want the computer to take over for you if you have to leave the room, and it will move units for you, fire, attack, melee, etc. There is also an “automatic defense” button that is useful in Play by Email mode. This allows the game to proceed a little faster when you send a set of “moves” to your opponent, and he can then move, and the computer fights the auto defense for you, then the opponent has his offense phase and melee, and sends back his half of the moves.
As usual, there are “bugs” involved with this game, and one has to go to Talon Soft’s home page, www.talonsoft.com, to get the “patches”, and download them into the game directory file, and unpack and execute them to take effect. I always wondered why computer software companies sell games that aren’t fully tested, could you imagine if auto companies did this, and you had to go in for an “upgrade” from time to time? It’s just a little annoying that there are so many “bugs” in games like this, and that it is a hassle to go and get them fixed.
In addition, Battleground Shiloh was originally made with 16-bit technology. However, the game designer has upgraded to 32-bit graphics, and this upgrade is available on the Internet at the “The Real Unofficial Wargame Page”, whose URL is: http://home.hiwaay.net/~tiller/ It is here that one can upgrade to a 32-bit game, which has a more features and better graphics.
Other things I like about the game are the music and the video effects. The music is period music by Willie Horton, who did lots of the music in Ken Burns Civil War series. There is an opening video sequence of re-enactors accompanied by a cool Civil War era song. The music is a new feature in this game, which is an improvement over Battleground Gettysburg. The music can be turned off, as it will play constantly during game play in the background, along with the sound effects of the game. The music is one aspect of the Battleground series that continues on the rest of the 9 in the series. The video effects are simply a little movie that will play when you command your troops to fire or melee, and a video of a line of union troops or confederates firing their muskets, appears and then disappears, as the animated effects of the fire on the 3-D figures happens. Again, this feature can be disabled too, but I usually keep it on for fun.
All in all, Battleground Shiloh is a very good strategy game for the American Civil War enthusiast, the student of history, and the computer gamer alike. I quite like it, and usually have it installed in my computer and it is ready for a go, usually with a play by email chum or two. However, it is probably considered primitive today, in light of the wonderful graphics of the real time strategy and action games on the market. But, it is still a good game is a very good war gaming series, and is a must for the Civil War gamer!
A note on “The Unofficial Wargame Page”.
Besides the 32-bit main program that can be found here, John Tiller(a gaming software designer), has a main editor for all of the Battleground Civil War games, so that the computer software and program savvy gamer can create his own scenarios, difficulty levels, troop concentrations, order of battle, etc. In addition, there are a number of different scenarios one can download that range from Civil War games in the Battleground series, including Battleground Shiloh. This aspect of the game changes the game from static thing to a never-play-the-same-way-again kind of game, which is nice.
Recommended:
Yes
Version Played: Released
Operating System: Windows
CPU: Intel Pentium II
CPU Speed (MHz): 401-500
RAM (MB): 128
Graphics Card Family: Don't Know
Best Played With/Intended For: Multiplayer
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Ironcladd
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Member: James Zaworski
Location: Shenzhen, China
Reviews written: 475
Trusted by: 151 members
About Me:
I am an English teacher, Archeologist and Anthropologist.
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