History Channel Civil War: The Battle of Bull Run review:4 stars (Good but not polished) - Civil War Bull Run is a game that draws its inspiration from Sid Meier's 1997 game Gettysburg. In that title, players commanded individual regiments (or used their brigade commanders to issue large-scale orders) to flank and engage enemies for control of crucuial battleground sites.

Bull Run follows this style alarmingly closely. Skirmish, column, and line formations from Sid Meier's game are all here and work in similar fashion (You have only 4 choices of difficulty, as opposed to Gettysburg's more fleshed-out options of "Prudence," etc). Graphics are decent but extremely blurry close up - also the 3D map glitches occassionaly over long distances. As best I can tell there is only one major difference in this game from Gettysburg - whereas in Gettysburg the player could command all brigades in a scenario, effectively making him an army commander, Bull Run divides its 10 scenarios into Brigade, Division, and Army commands.

In Brigade mode, the player has no control over reinforcements or other units around the battlefield. This in theory allows you to focus on your goal without too much micromanagement. The problem is that, very often, other AI-controlled commanders will act like idiots. If your left flank is exposed for 10 minutes, and your allies can simply run up and protect you at any time, it is certainly possible that you'll be left hanging until you are destroyed.

In Division mode this is less of a problem. In Army mode, micromanagement really detracts from the fun and some on the official game forums call it "unplayable."

However, there are only 5 or 6 scenarios for Brigade and Division modes, so you aren't getting many pre-fab scenarios. The game offers two other options:

1. Open Play - which allows you to set the time, map (with the patch you have 3 or 4 options here), difficulty, and command position before heading into battle. This, according to the intimations of the game's developers, is sort of a half-baked feature, and I completely agree with them (they say they'll focus on it more in their next game). In short, you'll spend maybe 10-15 minutes of real time simply marching a goal and then either crush bone-headed AI opposition or, even worse, simply encounter no resistance (this is especially a problem if you play for "1 hour" time limit).

2. Custom scenarios - which, unless you want to spend hours downloading and making your own scenarios, includes only 2 or 3 scenarios. One is the full Battle of Bull Run that you can play at any level of command, which is definitely interesting but very boring if you play only an infantry commander. Again, playing in a more important role is strategically interesting but takes hours of micromanagement. Gettysburg's system of linked campaigns (that, incidentally, Bull Run's designers say they will rip off in their next game) worked better.

In conclusion Bull Run needs some work. Its only truly useful mode is the handful of historical scenarios, but these are interesting. For example, in the Evans scenario, the player must scramble to protect a hill against overwhelming odds until reinforcements arrive. It's a rush being outnumbered 5:1, like Evans was historically, and trying to figure out a strategy to delay the enemy. Usually it will involve deploying skirmishers or even a daring flanking attempt. You'll also get to find out how Jackson was nicknamed "Stonewall" as you hold a hill against the Union at the expense of your AI-controlled allies down the hill.

Multi-player is not provided, LAN or internet. The designers should add that and an option for total player control over other brigades for this game to be more competitive. More scenarios wouldn't hurt either.5 stars (WINNER) - IT IS WORTH EVREY DOLLAR I GOT IT TODAY I CAN NOT STOP PLAYING IT5 stars (Why did I paint all this wargame figures?... XXIth arrived!) - Well, my wargame figures have given me a lot of pleasure this past 25 years... now they belong to a nice exposition on my drawing roon...
I never thought PC games will catch me that way... (after all my eldest son is an engineer in computers...)... and we ever argued about the pros and cons of PC games...
OK I INCONDITIONALLY SURRENDER...
After playing half the tutorials (my smaller son wich is 19 and learning to be a doctor in medicine... quickly outranked me in a few sessions... but you know how it is... they were born to it... I had to adapt to...).
This game is ABSOLUTLY FANTASTIC... and that from one who has had the ACW as one of his favorite periods in HISTORY since I saw "The Horse Soldiers" in my local cinema...
EASY TO LEARN (EVEN FOR US THE FIFTY + -SLOW HANDS- and I do not mean Clapton...), even if on one of my first tries I got lost in the landscape with my exhausted regiment! (how we all laughed at that!)... but been serious... I CAN ONLY RECOMMEND IT.
History Channel Civil War: The Battle of Bull Run Features:
Computer software (programs)
Education (Educational)
Reference
History (Historical)
Computer Games
Action
Adventure
Military (Tactics)
CD
4 accurately depicted battlefield maps
Experience the intensity of the first battle of the American Civil War
Deploy troops at Bull Run with 14 different battle scenarios
3 modes of game play include open play, bull run, and custom battles
Control generals, infantry, cavalry, supply wagons, and weapons

History Channel Civil War- The Battle of Bull Run is the CD-ROM version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around 19.99USD.