Forge of Freedom: The American Civil War 1861-1865, developed by Western Civilization Software and published by Matrix Games. The Good: Highly customizable rules greatly lessens the learning curve, appropriate portions of the game are automated or simplified without reducing depth, potential minutiae overload due to the large map area is offset by limited city locations, realistic unit. 'Forge of Freedomis the best and most complete game of the American Civil War on the market. By elevating economic, political and infrastructure consideration to the same level as military operations, the designers correctly portray this conflict as a prototype of total war. The solid AI guarantees a challenging game.'

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• Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge was established to create and build an understanding of the spirit and philosophy of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. We aim to cultivate among all Americans—but particularly the rising generation—appreciation for the history, ideals, and continuing relevance of these charters of freedom.

Forge of Freedom: The American Civil War is a computer wargame,^[1][2][3] combining both a strategic level and a tactical level by means of letting the player(s) raise, equip and move armies and then fight out battles on a randomized map when encountering the enemy. This game was made by Western Civilization Software, whose headquarters is located just outside Ann Arbor, Michigan, and uses the same game engine as the company's 2005 release, 'Crown of Glory: Europe in the Age of Napoleon' and 2009 expansion 'Crown of Glory: Emperor's Edition,' which likewise features a combination of grand strategy and tactics.

Basic Facts[edit]

There are two playable factions available in this game, the Confederacy and the Union (although foreign intervention is a possibility). The campaign map for the strategic level stretches from Minnesota to Texas and from Maine to Florida. Battle maps for the tactical level are made of terrain hexes which correspond to how far a unit can move. Battles are fought at the brigade-level, and the player gets to customize his brigades by purchasing weapons and 'brigade attributes' (e.g., brigade cavalry, scouts, sharpshooters, Zouaves). There are more than 1000 Civil War generals in the game, with the most famous (and infamous) having a 100% chance to appear each game, while the less famous ones have a much smaller chance of entering the game. As part of an ongoing project, some players of 'Forge of Freedom' have been volunteering to write biographies of each general that is included in the game, adding an educational dimension to the game. The game also features economics, European diplomacy, trade, and politics (in the form of state governors), which are all important for success.

Scenarios[edit]

There are no scenarios starting after 1861. The simplistic nature of the economic system provided with the game does not easily map to real life events and statistics.

Notes[edit]

1. ^'Wargamer.com Readers' Choice Awards - Game of the Year - Bronze'. Archived from the original on 2008-05-11. Retrieved 2008-05-10.
2. ^'Wargamer.com The Readers' Choice Awards - Wargame - Bronze'. Archived from the original on 2008-05-09. Retrieved 2008-05-10.
3. ^Gamesquad.com Editors' Choice Award

References[edit]

Reviews[edit]

Interview with Developers[edit]

Tutorial Video[edit]

Failed Basic: Steep learning curve

Forge of Freedom is a gaming rarity in two respects. First, games focused on the American Civil War tend to be few and far between. Second, the selection of games in general for a serious wargamer interested in the 'Grand Strategy' scale is rather slim. Removing 4x games such as the Civilization games, which are not exactly of the grognard variety, someone looking for grand strategy games is oftentimes stuck in the 1930s to 1940s with few notable exceptions. It is this list of notable exceptions that Forge of Freedom can be added to.

Boasting a manual of over 200 pages, Forge of Freedom should keep the most detail oriented, realism-demanding, wargamer happy. The developers have put together a tremendous amount of research to provide a historically detailed game that takes into account a massive scope covering technology, economy, generals, governors, cities, specific weapons, and of course, tactics.

To help in the task of getting a grasp around this mountain of features and data, Forge of Freedom comes with flash tutorials that guide players through the basics of the complex interface and introduce some of the basics of play. This is enough to give an idea of where to find the important controls, but ultimately it’s still an extremely complex game with a steep learning curve.

Forge Of Freedom Mod

To attempt to mitigate some of this, the player is able to slowly add rules to increase the complexity across games. This provides the advantage of allowing a new player to ease into the game on the whole to some degree, along with allowing for a more experienced player to remove rules they do not necessarily enjoy, or that they want to disable for the sake of experimentation. For example, what differences occur when allowing the North and South to engage Europe in diplomatic talks versus leaving them out of the picture completely? Or how much better does the CSA fare when low population affects are reduced?

Unfortunately, despite some attempts to ease a person into the game, this will remain a title for the hardcore gamers who are happy to spend a month’s learning the ins and outs of a game system. Those who do stick with the game to learn all of its nuances and features will be rewarded with a game of great depth and detail.

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