Act out history or rewrite it – with AGEOD's American Civil War
Category: Historical Strategy
Developed by: Ageod
Published by: Ascaron Entertainment (UK)
Distributed by: Ascaron Entertainment (UK)
Website: www.ageod.com
Release date: 15th September 2007
SRP: £19.99
PEGI: 3+
Platform: PC CD-ROM
AGEOD's American Civil War is a historical operational strategy game built on a simultaneous turn-based engine (WEGO system). Players are placed at the head of the Union or Confederate armies during the American Civil War (1861-1865).
Control one of the major contenders in the campaign to achieve military (and political) victory according to scenario conditions. The game covers all of the USA, from the Eastern seaboard to Kansas, from 1861 to 1865. The Game map is divided into more than 1500 regions, each being hand-drawn in 'green' and 'winter' mode, for a staggering 120 million pixel surface (handled dynamically by a caching technique), with a great diversity of terrain and climate as well as development and infrastructure items and levels. It includes the ability to use most of the major navigable rivers, which played a crucial role during the Civil War.
Game turns correspond from one fortnight ("15 days") to one month of historical time (depending on the scenario or campaign in play). Scenarios vary from a few months to almost 5 years with players primarily controlling the military action of their nation, which includes drafting forces, building forts and depots, sieges and blockades, raiding enemy cities, supply lines and rail network, building ironclads, raiding commerce, escaping blockade, and battles, both on land and at sea.
Troops are depicted down to the individual regiment and battery level and can be arranged into brigades, divisions, corps and armies, handled by a realistic yet easy to understand Command Chain rule. Naval units come in the form of warship squadrons and flotillas. You can also manage supply lines and wagons, water transport, forts and depots. Wide diversity of troop types is implemented, including: light infantry; sharpshooters, engineers, railroad and medics units, balloons, coastal and siege artillery; Rangers (Texan or not!) and irregulars; marines; militias; monitors and ironclads, ships of the line; frigates and transport flotillas, timberclads and cottonclads. There are more than 250 different models of units in all. All are rated for various aspects such as offensive and defensive strength, morale, experience, cohesion, troop quality, geographical origin and movement type.
Over 300 historical leaders are included, and may feature a selection of over 50 unique abilities based on their historical performance, including Charismatic, Hated Occupier, Stealthy, Expert Seaman...
The game offers special historical events throughout the various scenarios. These are varied and cover local uprisings, foreign intervention, grand and petty diplomacy, acts of war, fate, luck and usually a wide range of random events that made it to the history books. With a unique set of options, players will be able to play the game they want, from a strictly historical play to very open "what if" situations, such as the British siding with the Confederates, or Napoleon III lending a hand from nearby Mexico.
A large set of game filters is accessible easily via the TAB key, allowing the player to see all the information he needs without leaving the map, such as political influence, territorial control, fog of war, strategic cities and objectives, supply lines, and weather. Several report windows are available so that the player can inspect everything from the details of the previous turns to the list of his units, the political status in effect or the balance of victory.
Ageod's American Civil War goes on sale 15th September 2007, for the PC.
About Ascaron Entertainment
From Day One in 1989 Ascaron Entertainment has become one of the leading European "boutique" developers and Publishers of games for the PC, with many successful titles including Patrician, Port Royale, DarkStar One and SACRED.
Ascaron maintains development studios in Berlin, Gutersloh and Aachen (Germany), as well as an international department in Birmingham (UK). Ascaron currently markets its products in more than 40 countries and over 15 languages.
Ascaron Entertainment (UK) is an independent office and is highly regarded on a domestic and global scale. With a professional reputation, full-service product management, and a wealth of experience in the games industry, the UK operation manages the international releases of Ascaron's entire catalogue, whilst also providing a bespoke publishing, sales, PR and marketing function to selected affiliate label partners. Ascaron Entertainment (UK) continues to be responsible for successfully launching titles into the UK market from developers and publishers worldwide. Titles include the popular UFO, Panzers, Cossacks and Blitzkrieg series of games, as well as critically acclaimed hits such as Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle and TrackMania United.
About AGEOD
AGEOD is an established independent French publishing company, founded in 2005 by a few French games industry veterans (including Philippe THIBAUT, designer of historical strategy award-winning games Europa Universalis, Pax Romana , Great Invasions, Birth of America and American Civil War), based in Meylan, France (in the French Alps). Voted Developer of the Year by players on the Wargamer website in 2006 for our Birth of America game. Several new projects are under preparation for the coming months, and we expect most to be as successful as our last two titles, Birth of America and American Civil War. AGEOD also offers an outlet for small independent studios and producers that are less fortunate in the marketing of their own games. AGEOD's first emphasis is placed on historical strategy games with original and innovative features. For more information, visit the AGEOD website at www.ageod.com