المراجعات

• gamedeal user

  Dec 9, 2021

  I have been playing American Civil War games since I was 12 (I'm now almost 40). I've always longed for a game that allowed me to control one side throughout the civil war - plan my strategy, move my armies and fight on the battlefield, and whilst there's been some good games in the genre, there was nothing that gave that amount of control. UNTIL NOW. This game is superb. I can set my economic and foreign policy direction (without loads of micro), organise my armies (down to individual brigades, from their uniform, to their weapons to their leader), assign leaders, reward excellence, punish failure (or blame my failure on an unlucky general) and execute battles as commander in chief. The game is easy to understand after a few hours and once you get your head around the generals have their own styles derived from various traits it answers questions such as 'why isn't that general moving to attack that hill like I bloody ordered him to? Oh he's a cautious inexperienced general - that makes sense'. Battles can take place over a number of days which is very engaging and I cannot stress enough how well this represents actual civil war battles. On day one it might be a mad scramble to take objectives or wrestle control of a hill from the enemy. Over night both sides prepare their defences and plan their strategy for the next day. Perhaps I can shell the enemy defences (a la a successful Picketts Charge) and overwhelm the position before they receive reinforcements marching in from the East. Or maybe I can hold onto the high ground long enough to wear the enemy down and pluck a tactical victory from the jaws of impending defeat. This is also the first civil war game where the casualty rates feel 'right'. In addition morale just makes sense and allows me to think more like a general of the time. Crossing open fields under cannon and volley fire is deadly and will rattle the men so maybe I need to send in waves of attack (like they did in real battles and made their tactics make more sense to me). Of course I could try to flank through those forests and streams to the West, but my units become disorganised and the men tired and I won't be able to bring up my artillery quickly and who knows if they can get in position with much daylight left - by which point the enemy may have altered or reinforced their position. Simply put the game makes you think like a civil war general. The game can be played from the map during battles or on the 3D terrain which is great and feels very immersive. In addition the game was recently updated to include 3D sprites which are superb. On the topic of updates, the Dev has demonstrated to be very responsive to not only squashing bugs (within a day often) but in the short time since it has been out the game has been significantly improved and added to. I look forward to seeing what more they do with it. If you like playing games about the American Civil War and want a holistic and immersive experience, I literally cannot recommend any other Civil War game more than this one. For me it's the type of game I've been waiting decades for and I was very prepared to be supremely let down. But I am pleased to report the game has lived up to its claims and aims (one of the few that do) and it is superb. If you're reading this, stop, just buy the game already.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 14, 2022

  You rarely see such an ambitious game actually pan out, but Grand Tactician really has delivered. From a detailed campaign layer to a detailed battle layer, this game has really out performed my expectations. Plus, the game has a great deal of historical flavor which is just icing on the cake at this point. I bought the game expecting I would have to dedicate a tremendous amount of time just to learn how to play. It's not an easy game, but the learning curve was lesser than expected. Plus, these days it's so easy to pick up gaming tips off YouTube, it really helps make things manageable. The battle AI is pretty good too. There are times when it gets involved in an epic traffic jam, but those instances are pretty rare. Overall, it works pretty darn well. The strategic AI is also surprisingly good. It really knows how to keep you on your toes, but it does have problems getting there firstest with the mostest. If it could work on local superiority a little more, I wouldn't have much room to complain. Overall, if your a fan of grand strategy games or American Civil War games, this game is a must buy. The developer is working on the rough edges very quickly at this point. I have great faith we will see most of the major game issues addressed in the next couple of months.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 26, 2022

  This is the first review I've written for a game. This game has a lot of potential, and is a lot better then it was in early access when I originally bought it. However, its current flaws stop me from being able to enjoy it. There are 3 main flaws with this game. 1: Armies and units in those armies retreat stupidly. If you are a union force that loses a battle in Virginia, prepare for your army to run to Richmond in retreat.... somehow. 2: its impossible to pin an army down. That army you just had run into Virginia? If the Confederate AI sends an army after it, it might retreat into North Carolina, then through Tennessee, then into Kentucky. It will do all of this over the span of a couple weeks, without supplies for the most part. There is no chance of the confederates to pin your army down to destroy it, nor is there anyway for you to tell you army what to do. 3: The way an army disengages from another does not make any sense. If I am Robert E Lee at Antietam i would have simply clicked the withdraw button. This button gives you a timer, based on size and shape of your army, that after is up you "withdraw" from the battlefield with any unit that has not surrendered. If your entire army is surrounded 3 to 1, but the magical withdraw timer runs out? all of your remaining men will teleport out of the encirclement and live to fight another day..... or forever with point 2 these 3 flaws are game breaking, because there is no way to actually achieve victory without exploiting the really buggy AI Some good things: There are still pretty regular updates, and the devs listen to the players sometimes. The actual fighting and immersion is generally pretty good. The policy system is fine, and it allows for some alt history which is needed for any good grand strategy game. However the game is too buggy for me to continue to play it without massive updates
• gamedeal user

  May 24, 2022

  This but set during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars would be legendary. I can't wait for Grand Tactician: Napoleon!
• gamedeal user

  Jun 9, 2022

  (8/7/22) My advice is to come back in six to twelve months. This is one of the most broken games I've ever played. When it works, it's brilliant. When it doesn't, you'll be hurling curses at your computer. This is not a casual game, it has a learning cliff rather than a curve and that's fine. Games you can master within a few hours are tedious but the tedium here comes from the extremely vague 'field guide' that isn't particularly articulate and leaves you to figure out huge swathes of the game by yourself. Being confronted with walls of data regarding the economy will quickly have you selecting 'Automanage'. Combat is where the real issues are found. The AI thinks nothing of marching straight at you, even if that means through a chokepoint covered by multiple gun batteries and brigades with a suicidal abandon I haven't seen since Empire: Total War. This also applies to naval combat with Confederate fleets throwing themselves at the Union and getting themselves utterly wiped out. The display showing your units field of fire is orange, blending almost seamlessly with the terrain, making it extremely difficult to site artillery. You also quickly become aware that Fog of War doesn't apply to the AI; they always know where you are. This means that the AI will sometimes use its head to bypass prepared defences even if it means circling the whole map and also can't be surprised with a flanking move, such as if a second army arrives to reinforce you. More than once if that second army is smaller, I've seen the entire enemy army break off to attack that smaller force the moment it appeared resulting in my main army chasing the enemy army across the map to ultimately sandwich them. It may give you a victory but the ridiculousness of it will frustrate you. Similar behaviour can be found on the campaign map with large enemy armies charging away to attack your smaller armies, leaving you free to attack what they've left undefended or to lure that enemy into battle with several of your converging forces. Artillery has a mind of its own, sometimes possessing great range despite the display saying it doesn't, other times refusing to fire even at point blank. Batteries must never be ordered to attack, otherwise they'll reposition themselves and march straight into the enemy army to do it. Trying to determine the elevation of ground is a nightmare, and once again takes me back to Empire: Total War. Cavalry is useless. While this may be close to historical reality given the setting, it's extremely frustrating when you want to scout and the scout detachment refuses to go more than eight feet from its parent brigade which happens nine times out of ten. In the event of a cavalry charge, your horsemen will engage a broken, fleeing unit... And promptly panic and break themselves for no apparent reason. This applies also to infantry. An infantry unit that outnumbers an enemy brigade four to one, that has high morale while the enemy has been shot to pieces and is wavering, will suddenly panic and flee once you send them in to rout the enemy with a bayonet charge. Experience has nothing to do it with either as I've discovered; a completely inexperienced unit is just as likely to rout in this situation as a four star unit. This is even more true during retreats. You will likely lose more men during a pursuit than the actual battle as retreating units suddenly gain laser-precision, gunning down pursuing units by the dozen while still fleeing. Attempts to engage the enemy in melee and take prisoners once again result in your units breaking and fleeing. That's if they even engage with the enemy. Normal action during a pursuit is for them to clash with the retreating enemy, and stop. This is extremely frustrating with cavalry, watching them charge into a fleeing gun battery and just... Dead stop. And with order delay, telling them to engage again can take a few minutes and then they clash again... And stop. This game has a lot of potential but at the moment, it's pure chaos. Perhaps the most frustrating is that the game has the graphics of something from ten or even fifteen years ago and yet it's so poorly optimised, lag will kick in and the program will stop responding for as long as a minute before recovering. This isn't just my opinion; I've seen the same point raised in other player reviews and in official reviews. All the issues could be forgiven if it was still Early Access but this game is supposedly ready to play. Update 49 hours of play: I've encountered many more bugs since my initial review. Some have been addressed by the developers such as the habit of your units panicking for no good reason and playing the Development version has mostly fixed this issue. I said before that cavalry was useless for this reason, and they still are, refusing to stay engaged with a unit in melee and instead rooting themselves to the spot, requiring constant orders. With the morale issue fixed, it's perfectly normal to watch the AI charge a cavalry brigade against one of your entrenched artillery units, regardless of the infantry protecting them. This will inevitably rout your artillery before the cavalry takes sufficient mauling to rout themselves. I say the issue is mostly fixed because wavering enemy units who decide to flee straight through one of your brigades still have a high chance of routing your unit in melee. This perhaps is the most infuriating part of combat. You may totally envelop an enemy force and you cannot stop them escaping because they will flee straight through your forces who do nothing but watch them go. Units can be told to attack a fleeing unit in melee, but they will stop dead once they reach them rather than fight and take prisoners. They will not shoot at them either. I once caught a small Union army in a river bend, outnumbering them three to one and blocking their only escape across a ford. They all fled straight through the ford, through the three brigades defending that ford (7000 men) who let them all pass unhindered. The game oddly has an option for you to surrender your whole army but the AI will never take this option even when literally backed into a corner. Battles therefore become entirely about inflicting as many casualties as possible before a unit breaks and flees and becomes functionally immortal. I've been told recently that many of the issues I've encountered are the result of me not making a new save when I'm done. It seems that overwriting your saves will cause all manner of issues. I've been overwriting my saves since I began my gaming life in the 90s; there is no excuse for this being a serious problem for the game's integrity. Playing as the Union, I watched the Confederate Hampton Division fleeing south of Fredericksburg to Richmond, only to teleport and reappear north of Fredericksburg and continue their retreat THROUGH my army and on to Richmond. I have a screenshot of two Confederate armies walking on water along the Middle River to escape encirclement at Staunton. Your own forces will become stuck trying to cross a river (with a bridge or ferry...) draining their readiness into uselessness despite having full control of the crossing. On the battlefield, the enemy will cross rivers at points without fords so often you'll want to pull your hair out. I've actually started to learn exactly which points on the Manassas Junction battlefield have this bug to counter it. Particularly aggravating for me has been the bugs in the weapon orders. The game tells me the order is being executed, e.g. 10,000 Hall Rifles arriving in 106 days. When I next check in, the order has changed to 1000 in 64.8 days and that timer never changes. Meanwhile, it's put in an order for 128 howitzers... I find myself with no rifles except what I take off the enemy, and dozens of artillery pieces I never asked for. I've abandoned the order delay system out of frustration with the couriers getting lost or stuck on terrain.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 15, 2022

  great game getting better with every patch. its a perfect fusion between grand strategy, economic management and fantastic real time battles. everything that the total war games once promised to become. i really love the way you build armies. would highly recommend. (if any of the developers read this then please do a Napoleonic game next)
• gamedeal user

  Sep 13, 2022

  You know. I was enjoying this game. A lot. Really digging it. Complicated, but I played Crusader Kings 1, and play Crusader Kings 2 (haven't gotten 3 yet). I like learning complicated games with multiple in-depth, interesting systems. Anyway, I'm chugging along, I get into a battle, I have my infantry unit melee an artillery unit (that never gets a single shot off on my men, I timed my rush to go specifically as they were reloading). 2,900-ish-strong infantry unit (which was in reserve, had full morale, and hadn't been in any fighting at all in that battle) shatters and breaks like glass a rock has been chucked into. Against 35 men in an artillery unit. 35. I apparently ran into the 300 Spartans, reborn in the form of 35 artillerymen. I don't get it. My guys could've picked them up and crowdsurfed them into the ocean. They could've stepped on them, all the way to the next engagement. 35 guys who never got a single shot off against any of my 2,900 seasoned infantry, and they gave like a wet paper bag. It destroyed my immersion and my desire to play the game any further. If you like a game that's really complicated but rewarding, this is the game for you. But that level of... Janky weirdness with the AI right there that I just described totally shot my desire to play it any further, personally. I hope you have better luck, General. o7
• Colton

  Nov 21, 2022

  MOST PURE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR GAME THERE IS!!!
• Director56

  Dec 20, 2022

  Six tries on easiest level all come down to 100,000 Confederates running wild in July of 1861. Absolutely impossible to move troops by railroad or river. 25,000 Union troops unable to do anything because Confederates are attacking a fort.,.. while Wheeling, captured after a month, is recaptured in a day by 25,00 Confederates zooming around on railroads. This is ridiculous and while it might oneday be playable is so unpleasant and ahistorical I don't know if I'll ever come back.
• [SIN7] Sharpshooter089

  Dec 25, 2022

  So where to begin... I have over 200 hrs in playing and winning as both sides. I saw a review that summarized this game impeccably with a very short sentence: "A Flawed Masterpiece." But, if you're like me, you're hoping for a little more juice when you squeeze. So I'll break the game down as best I can. Also, as a disclaimer, I am hoping the devs read some of the feedback in this to try and implement some easy changes. GT:CW implements several systems that will make you feel like this game is Paradox inspired. From hardcore economy (which I will get into shortly), to creating entire armies that you can individually rename, recolor, change uniforms and weapons down to the single unit (brigade) level. This adds an incredible amount of immersion for those willing to take the time to try and RP from an armchair general standpoint. The battles are well done and they feel particularly tense at times. Unit morale is a fickle thing, particularly early war. As you begin raising your armies, your units will incur a "1st Battle" penalty to morale and stability when they go into combat for the first time. As they fight, they gain more experience to where they can eventually unlock a particular perk, which can lead to VERY strong, but not necessarily OP units on the battlefield. Much like in real life, these units you will want to be the staple of your most vulnerable or important areas of the battlefield to which other units can rally around and either defend or attack. Economy. My goodness. The biggest flaw (and potentially a hugely fun aspect) is the economic system that is in place. The developer has created a very dense, very complex economy system that has almost zero UI or supporting documentation to help and try to understand how it works. There is basic information, but most of the economic explanation comes from YouTubers like GreatScots that posts in the Reddit page that has spent dozens of mulligan hours trying different things to see what makes it work or doesn't. Even then, seems to have little affect. What the economy really needs is simply a UI update that has a thorough explanation how the flow of goods, infrastructure, and an overlay showing very specifically where investment needs to be made. You are reminded all the time of what trade goods are low or need beefed up, but not where you can fix it. The economy, albeit has depth, clearly doesn't prevent you from winning the campaign. So it's a 50/50 thing for me. Ultimately, the game as a ton of bugs. Some have made entire campaigns of mine worthless or I have to save where I'm at and reload the save to fix whatever glitch has come in. But for $45 dollars and over 200 hours of gameplay, I would say I got my money's worth. I continue to look forward to more content to beef up the campaign even more.