Forge of Freedom: The American Civil War 1861-1865

For Immediate Release

Staten Island, NY, April 16th, 2009 – Matrix Games ( www.matrixgames.com) and Western Civilization Software ( www.west-civ.com) are pleased to announce the release of the comprehensive 1.12.2 update for their acclaimed Civil War strategy game, Forge of Freedom! The update comes with a sizeable amount of fixes, rule changes, improvements, and new features and further polishes the gameplay of Forge of Freedom based on player feedback and ongoing game reports.

Specifically for fixes, VPs are now properly assigned only for decisive battles and the National Will bug for capturing empty cities is now fixed. There are also many other improvements and tweaks with detailed battles, especially with the AI and with reinforcements now adding to the Will to Fight. In addition, the US will now lose one additional National Will point if it loses a decisive battle in a US province and the CSA will gain one NW point in the same situation. New features include 10 new special abilities for units, improvements to generals’ statistics, new generals’ biographies (now 300 in total), and much more.

David Heath, Director of Operations at Matrix Games, said “Forge of Freedom has proven to be an enduring classic in the American Civil War strategy genre. Anyone looking for an authentic wargame that truly captures the rich strategic and tactical problems facing a commander of that time period should absolutely give Forge of Freedom a try. Western Civilization Software has polished this gem to a mirror finish with their excellent post-release updates.”

More than seven-score years have passed since the start of this conflict that pitted state against state, brother against brother and broke the chains of slavery. Forge of Freedom gives you a chance to relive history from either side in a work of grand strategy.

As the leader of the Union or the Confederacy, you will be faced with historical decisions on the military, economic and diplomatic strategies to pursue. The diplomatic and economic systems have been streamlined and improved since Crown of Glory to be more user-friendly and also suited to the period. Rather than multiple minor nations, each state has its own Governor and they will make demands on you and shift their attitudes according to events. In addition, you will have to manage diplomacy with the European powers to try to sway them towards or against intervention. Over 1,000 historical generals are included along with an option to know their abilities ahead of time or have to find out the hard way, as happened historically. Railroads, rivers and cities all play important roles, as do elections which occur at both state and national levels. Every effort has been made to bring you as thorough a simulation of the American Civil War as is possible, from 1861 to 1865, from the skirmishes and raids in the West to the pitched in the East and the Naval blockade.

This update is comprehensive and will bring any previous version of Forge of Freedom to version 1.12.2. Get more information on Forge of Freedom from its official product page.

ABOUT MATRIX GAMES

Matrix Games produces, markets and publishes historical wargames as well as other computer gaming products. Since 2000, Matrix Games has published over three dozen titles and several award-winning games, including War in the Pacific, Conquest of the Aegean, Gary Grigsby's World At War: A World Divided, Crown of Glory, Battles In Normandy, Harpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare, Starshatter: The Gathering Storm and The Operational Art of War III. Matrix Games is based in Staten Island, New York. For more information, visit the Matrix Games website at www.matrixgames.com.

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Box Art:

http://www.matrixgames.com/images/3dbox/100x100/FOF-3Dbox-100x100.gif

http://www.matrixgames.com/images/3dbox/170x220/FOF-3Dbox-170x220.gif

(Additional box art and other art assets, including flat and 300+ dpi box images, are available from the Matrix Games Press Media Area “Media” section)

Update File:

ftp://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/ForgeofFreedom/Forge%20of%20Freedom-UpdateDR-v1122.zip

Press Contact:

Matrix Games

press@matrixgames.com