Civil War: The Game "Great Battles"

Well, this game is the first one I ever owned, so, it's the game I am most familiar with.

You start out with getting to choose which side you are, how much money you have, if you have borders or not, and year (if you play a historical setting). If you don't use a historical setting, you pretty much bypass the year.

Then, you come to the main map. There are four forts that you must control in order to win the game. You cannot win if you destroy every force on the field; you must own each fort. Each fort produces troops for the side that owns it. That is why you must have them all, or else, you will be forced to fight armies that come out of nowhere.

You cannot attack another force unless you have a general. Same goes for your opponent. When you do attack, they will give you a trivia question, then go into an actual battle with your armies. You have a limited amount of turns. The larger your army, the longer it will take to lose. The larger your enemies army, the harder it is to win. If you run out of turns, it is a draw.

Borders have a massive effect in your game. If you have borders, you have only two points of access into a state. If you have borders, you want to get to these passes before your enemy can block them. If you have no border (which you can't have in historical mode) you don't have to worry about access points, which means that you can go anywhere.

You buy generals, troops and artillary at forts. Troops are cheap, artillery is pricey, but generals are expensive. You can only buy three generals, and only once every 14 turns.

Sea power. The sea does not come into effect during this game. As a matter of fact, this is a purely land war game. The Sea has nothing to do with it, which helps you by not forcing you to worry about the sea also.

Another major thing is railroads. They cross several states and have two train stations. If you can capture both stations of a railroad, you can transport troops to where they are needed. However, if you only capture one, you cannot transport your troops by rail, but your enemy can't either.

Last but not least, territory. Every piece of territory that you capture places money in your bank. Every turn, you are given money for every territory you have. The more you have, the more money you have. The less you have, the less you get.

My Score: Out of 1-10, I give it an 8. This game has it's drawbacks, such as, you are only limited to three generals, and you cannot name armies and such. But, it is a worthwhile game. It is very easy to play and does not need a genuis to use. I certainly enjoy playing it.