Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865)

So much potential, but it has been abandoned. AI is terrible, controls are bad and battles un-fun. Waste of money.

Best Civil War game ive ever played. Still don't understand how to play completely LOL but 100% most depth i've ever experienced.

A fantastic game.

love the game worth the price needs some more updates though

Slaying rebels like its going out of style, can't recommend this game enough.

I absolutely love this game, honestly I cannot recommend it enough and I love how it focuses and gives you total control over whichever side you choose. I heard some other reviews talk about bugs, but honestly I have never experienced any, so I'm not certain what they're on about.

One of the things I like the most is the actual build up to the battles and then the battle itself, the careful movements and maneuvering here and there. Also, a big thing I like is being able to outfit my troops in different uniforms for each unit and giving them more "specialized equipment".

All in all, I'd give this game a solid 9/10 if not a 10/10, far superior to any of the total war games I've play thus far.

This game has so much potential. save for the fact you cannot control naval engagement and the unit scales are all wrong. all in all a bit of a let down. but as i said, it has potential

Garbage

Absolutely love this game. A few bugs here and there but overall it has my 9/10!

Unit controls are frustrating i want to fight the enemy not fight my own units just to move them where i want them.

I don't know what was wrong, but the game kept resetting my key binds to literally nothing. I had to add my key binds back every single time I played.

I have done multiple playthroughs and won but my patience has worn thin with this game. It does have potential but the bugs are not likely to be fixed at this point and the economy systems is too big and complicated to be fun or worth investing time into. It really gets to me the poor response from the AI with positioning and carrying out orders. Don't waste your money even on a sale.

This game is special. In every way. For who made it and the circumstances it was made in it really is an incredible game. Filled with lots of bugs and goofs and mishaps, and yet through it all delivers a much more fullfilling xperience than any other War game out there. From the insane depth of the economy, to the grand scale of battle, this game really does the best of any game I've ever seen at creating a Civil War game in which you are the creator of your own destiny.
I got this game on sale, probably, I dont actually remember but I never pay full price for games. Anyway, assuming I got at 50% off, $20 or so, absolutely worth every penny.
If you have the money and need a good war game that has depth, and meaning behind it (and are also ok with muskets rather than submachine guns) then this game is the best you could get in the modern day. But more importantly, by playing this game, and providing your feedback to the devs (who are working on the next game), we can make sure the next iteration from these guys (please be a 7-years war game that would be SO cool) is not only better, but the single best war game made to date

For a long time I debated whether or not I would recommend this game. I decided to - but be warned: this game is for a very niche audience. This game focuses much more on the lead up to battle than the battle itself. It can get tedious at times, and graphics are not very good (at least coming from combat from games like total war). But this game has the scale and the depth that games like total war can only dream of. 8/10. Would stop the Confederacy again.

I recommend this game along with its DLC Whiskey & Lemons. Lets talk about the positives. This game has a massive map spanning from Texas to Maine just about which for some could be a positive or negative as it could be overwhelming. This is a large game and by that standard yes the whole game could be for players who are newer to Grand Strategy games. You have ultimate control over EVERYTHING. From building up your navy to naming the individual regiments within the game. For any total war players out there its a mix between a total war game and Hearts of Iron. Playing real time 3D battles is pretty fun and can be challenging no matter what side you decide to play as. As the Union you can't go into a campaign expecting to steam roll the rebels but as the CSA you can't underestimate the power and might of the Union Army and Navy. In this game your actions have consequences. If you decide to auto-resolve a battle it could be the difference between winning the war or losing it just like real life. It has a good research system and even with about 1,000 hours I still don't know exactly how the economy works. I do love getting to decide what rifles I want to give to who etc. It's pretty much Ultimate General Civil War, HOI4, and Total war. The Whiskey & Lemons DLC is very very fun. Getting to start out as a officer of a small regiment and climbing your way through the ranks is very enjoyable. Your actions can negatively affect the way your men look at you and it adds more a bit more to the game... Do i think you should buy this full price???? No. Wait to get it on sale and get the DLC with it trust me you'll save a More money that way.

Now onto the negatives. This game is one of those trial and error kind-of-games. It takes a lot just to do one campaign. The enemy and friendly AI can be, well, brain dead. But in other times you'll find yourselves scrambling to do something about the enemy force. This game is also complicated. If you're a veteran of these games you'll have a better time than someone who wants to throw themselves in the deep-end. There are bugs which I haven't came across but am aware about and recently the developers have decided to move on from this game so take that as you will. If you have further questions let me know in the comments and I'll gladly respond.

its a good game, probably one of the most complex linear warfare games rivaling total war and only made by 3 people part time. the game has some bugs but its honestly not much. its fun, a little steep in price but give it a try. the game isnt receiving any more updates at this point as the devs went full time to focus on another project. so price may drop but so long its on sale its a fun game to play.

Garbage dev team. Release game in semi-finished state to avoid accusations of rug pulling, then utterly abandon the game. Brilliant!

Get it if they ever fix it, or if it goes on sale for $2.99

This game has so much potential that its current state hurts me. I can not recommend it as it is not finished. A function so basic as an attack order does not work properly; units will not chase or engage routing enemies when ordered, instead moving to where the fleeing unit was when the order was given, only to then stop and do nothing.

The unique command system is excellent in that it adds realism and imposes extra challenges for the player; in an era before radios or even field telephones, we must now wait for someone to carry our orders to our units before they can respond - we must now rely upon the initiative of our commanders, who have their own AI, to respond to changing situations. As part of this system, when issuing orders, a small menu is meant to appear that allows the player to add modifiers to this order, such as telling units to wait for a signal or a designated time, so that attacks are coordinated to launch together rather than in a piecemeal fashion. Unfortunately, this menu often simply does not appear.

The UI is workable, though not optimal; for example, I would like the OOB to appear in a side-window so that I can use it to select formations and issue orders, without having to open and close a pop-up window that blocks the center of the screen.

Genuinely the best game I've ever played, besides WOR

It's a solid real-time tactics battle and campaign map strategy game but be willing to deal with some bugs and not the greatest AI. This might not appeal to you if you aren't already into the American Civil War. Buy it on sale if you are interested.

lots of fun but make the AI better

Abandon the game in its current state tells me this dev will never see any money from me. You don't half complete a game then move on to a new one. Barely 3 years and they abandon it, what an absolute joke of a company only interested in milking more money. This is the road map to bankruptcy.

Thoroughly, briefly and intensely addicted. It's a game with a LOT of weirdness and not a ton of information online, but once you figure it out it's a blast. I enjoyed the delayed orders system and although it was a pain in the ass that made me lose battles I should have won, is a unique mechanic that I loved for RP's sake. The battalion AI is janky but whatever. I leaned into the jank because it's a wonderfully complex game made by 3 dudes in their spare time in their basement. A+ for effort and execution. I wish them lots of future success and hope they can get some money and a good team to back them up.

good game

Possible great game here, just can't recommend in it's current state. Still needs polish.

Abandoned game

Terrific game, very complex economy, political, and military systems. It possesses strategic, operational, and tactical levels of military campaigns. One improvement I would want to make is the promotion of and assignment of officers to military units. Otherwise it is a great challenge!

They're recent dev post sounded great but at the very end they said they would no longer be working on the civil war and only other games in the gun powder era, kinda thought that energy was going to be put into this game but ya know, im not trying to trap devs into a lane but I could hope

I cannot in good conscious recommend this game anymore. They've recently announced they are abandoning this game and moving forward with a new game in their "Grand Tactician" series. This game had so much potential and yet they're already moving on.

Was this game fun at times?
Absolutely

Unfortunately, this game still has too many issues and clunkiness.

I hope their future games can finally achieve their potential but sadly this one never did and isn't really worth playing at this point. Especially for $45.

While not a perfect game by any means, I DO have to say that this game and it's DLC brought me great joy and entertainment and I clock in well over 300 hours with about 3 campaigns I have finished.

And while the game has been sometimes a bit janky and confusing at times and I encountered a few bugs here or there, it has vastly been a complete blast!

One shouldnt forget that while the game isnt the only American Civil War Game out there, it's INCREDIBLY ambitious, it's scope, scale and detail UNMATCHED by most if not ALL the games that are out there so far.

While I have played like Sid Meier's Gettysburg back in the day, or Ultimate General: The American Civil War in recent years (a game this one is often compared to), I have to say that Grand Tactician gets it right more often than not.

It is a game not for everyone, but it is a game for American Civil War enthusiasts, Strategy Game connaisseurs and any ambitious Armchair Generals out there.

While other Games provide you with campaigns where you fight battle for battle but no matter how good you perform you have no impact on the overall conduct of the war, this is vastly different with Grand Tactician.

Want to lock down the War in the East as the Confederates and instead opt for a Grand Advance in the Mid-West, heading to Chicago and then drive east? Hard but doable!

Want to take it slow and steady as the Union, build up your forces and then collapse in on the filthy Rebels from all sides, while Anacondaing their Commerce? Also completely doable!

And then there are various policies, buildings, approaches, even the weaponry of the individual Units - not to mention that you can change and adjust various modifiers and aspects at the start of a Campaign that change the initial situation of the War and that have long-lasting effects!

You can even add new Officers to the Game, I did that with a few friends and a couple of guys from my Gaming Community and my boys were happy when they read my AARs and read about their alter ego's exploits!

Then there's the battles themselves, morale, line of sight, terrain and the other staples of the genre that are to be expected -
However Grand Tactician brings something new to the table: Order delays!
Think it makes sense that you always have 100% a clue what is going on at any given time on the battlefield and that you 'beam' your orders right to your commanders?
Me neither! Instead Units have to be either close to your Generals in order to receive Orders swiftly, Bugles can convey basic orders, but more detailed ones need to be delivered with couriers - and they can only go as fast as a fast horse can ride under the best circumstances.
So now you have to take into account the terrain, roads, forests, swamps and plan your battlelines accordingly.

You WILL have situations where your enemy will make crucial mistakes, where you can SEE how you can win the battle in one fell swoop... but then you might also realize that it's risky and that your window of opportunity is closing fast!
Act now and you MIGHT be able to decide the battle here and then - but if your men take too long to execute your orders, it might be too late. However if you DONT give the order the opportunity will pass for certain.

There will also be battles where you KNOW you can win, if you stand and hold your ground a little longer, but you might be left without much of a fighting force afterwards. Some victories will be phyrric and mostly just to keep the Nation's Morale and Fighting Spirit high. Other times you are just trying to hold out long enough to retreat in good order under the cover of Night, well aware that anything else might spell disaster.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mention: The AI. The AI is both impressive (due to the sheer size, scope and scale of the game) and it's greatest achilles Heel. At times the AI will conduct vicious and agressive warfare against you, hounding you like a Dog and keeping you on your toes (more so if you play as the Confederates than as the Union due to the material and industrial superiority of the latter of course) and even in battle the enemy can be fairly competent and give you a hard time - although admittably I've rarely seen WELL coordinated, large scale, multi-pronged attacks.
And sadly, more often than not the AI will sometimes range from negligent, mildly incompetent to borderline retarded. However I could never figure out wheter this was due to the stats and personalities of the respective generals in charge of those Armies and Corps or due to the AI in general. Often times the AI will be slow to respond to a changing situation, be sluggish at best, hesitant or almost unresponsive and at other times be rather blunt with a 'head through the wall' approach. And at other times do some SERIOUS blunders.
However to anyone familiar with the History of the American Civil War, WILL KNOW that this is actually rather on point and there were plenty of blunders on both sides (though arguably way more early on done by the Union) and many high officers were not really cut out for leadership at all.

In short: The game has a LOT of potential and when it works as intended it's damn Amazing!

So while far from perfect and with a considerable price tag as it is right now (November 2024), I'd say the game is well worth is and most enjoyable! (my personal rating? 84%! Damn fine game!)

I personally would say that if it was some 10-20 bucks cheaper I'd give it a glowing recommendation and would recommend it to all my friends.

I certainly hope the developers will be encouraged and once they leave this project behind eventually they might embark on another great project or two - who knows? Maybe the Napoleonic Wars? Or the Franco Prussian War? There's definetly a lot of options and possibilities!

Very ambitious, has SOVL

It's super fun, even though it's impossible to win.

i've tried this game too many times. strategic portion good, good brigade building system, good perk and evolution, very good system of national support and possible actions. fantastic politic system, very convoluted and difficult to comprehend economics that are ok left on automagement.
tactical portion of the game? i started over so many campaigns trying to make it work. brigades are utterly incompetent to react on tactical situations, delayed orders are a mess, the AI will slip 5 brigades behind your lines while your reaction force adjacent to your hq will start to move 5 minutes after the enemy already started to open fire from the positions your reaction force were positioned to prevent. charges on routed enemies are pointed to the ground were the enemy was making charges an infuriating exercise.
if this game had the simple mechanics of ultimate general civil war in the tactical portion it would be a wonderful game.
But like this?

Game plays well. The battlefield mechanics are very good. The big miss for me his the LOS or field of vision. If your unit is on top a tall hill or ridge line, it can't see any farther than on flat ground. The Sid Meyer games were much better at prtraying this.
The economics are obscure at best. It is extremely difficult to predict the impact of building infrastructure other than rail. More battlefields need to be added or better yet, an engine to translate the geographic location into a terrain map.

There is something here, so ballacheingly close to a really great game in a time period seldom explored, but the clunky controls and UI just holds it back.

I get why the controls and the UI is the way that it is i really do, but i think the over emphasis on realism and sheer delay from issuing an order, to waiting for everyone to get that order, to waiting for every unit to get into formation, to finally moving every time you want to make a move with more than one unit is just so...... ehh

I get that's its all about the Order of Battle and maintenance of chain of command. and that's cool, but goddamn does it shoot the fun in the foot.

Loosen the controls a bit, embrace a slight move away from realism and you'll have a bloody good formula here.

Just started... the learning curve is tough but the U Tube videos help. If you're into the Acw, this one's for you... pretty definitive!

Cold steel is worth bad AI all day, eryday, each and all the times

It's a hard game to learn, but it is fun and realistic. Great strategy war game for this era.

Both the base version of the game & DLC are good. There are some changes which I'd prefer but overall good.

Worst controls i seen in strategy games in my life.

The game is full of bugs, lag and crashes. From what i see not a single patch has come out to fix issues with the game since the whisky and lemon dlc came out. It takes for ever to learn how to play the game since there is a lot of game mechanics that are not intuitive. Which makes it even more frustrating when bugs and crashes sprinkle your gaming time. Plain and simple dont buy the game its not worth your money unless it drops to $5.00 than i would say go for it. If the game gets patched and fixed than i would change that comment but since it does not look like they will be patching the game any time soon my review stands.

It was fun at first. But then the developers abandoned it after releasing a DLC which, after purchasing, broke the game. A year later and not a single patch. Not an honest way to do business and they should've sold the game to someone else who takes things seriously.

I wouldn't bother, the premise is amazing but the execution is poor. Game has so much promise, but the AI is truly a detriment to any in-game experience. You can see that throughout the discussion boards here.

A personal example I have is when doing a Union captain run with the W&L DLC, I was recently promoted to BG and my AI Union general decided to retreat to the middle of North Carolina after a minor defeat in Virginia (AI red flag). And in this same march of retreat we get caught, where for some reason the objective in this battle is that the Union division is forced to attack the 'defending' CSA division. What? We're supposed to be retreating.

However even more examples of the AI is that in this same battle, I decided to take my brigade south to flank utilizing the road system for easier maneuverability. While the other 2 BGs decided to march their brigades straight to the enemy through multiple swamps. That didn't end well.

Honestly, if the AI was improved and some other tweaks made for easier understanding of 'why' things are happening (again see the discussion boards) this would be a great ACW game. So my recommendation is that if you have an itch for the American Civil War, look towards the Ultimate General series or get a mod for Empire/Napoleon Total War.

To start things off, I wish I could give this game a 'Neutral' review, rather then a binary Yes or No.

Grand Tactician does a lot of things I like, it has incredibly complicated economics, I love creating and managing the OOB, and I like the combination of the Strategic and Tactical Layers. With that said,

I find it lacking. The AI cheats, and is very hit or miss. Sometimes it's brilliant, sometimes it eats rocks and wonders why it's teeth hurts.

On the Strategic Map, I'll constantly find myself defending a position, but then on the tactical map be forced to be the one to attack the opponent.

Despite this, when you see this review, I'll have almost certainly put some more hours into it, as despite everything, I do enjoy it.

This may have a few rough bits, but it has all the charm. A worthy addition for any US Civil War collector

Reaaaaaally wanted to like this game, but I don't.

I think my main problem with it is the financial system. For starters, it's a very thought out financial system. It's linked with alot of the gameplay. You decide how much to spend on for example military, diplomacy and economics. You can see how much various goods cost in the world and adapt accordingly. You can see what your nation is lacking and need to import, and build accordingly. Depending on how much you spend, you can, after some time, activate different projects which gives you various bonuses. The cost of these projects varies on how good this project is. Some cost a few hundred thousand, others millions. With that in mind you also decide on policies which in turn also can affect your economy in various ways. And all of these have synergies if you play your cards right. This is what sold me to this game. Building a strong economy and crush my adversary.

In similar games I like to consolidate my finances as much as possible before going to war. I read somewhere that this game is focused on the financial aspects of war, as one of the developers really dig it. So as I started my first game as the Union my long term plan was to build an economic powerhouse and hold the line, slowly starving the Confederate. I did my usual rodeo in Grand strategy - built a bunch of economic stuff. This gave me a negative balance and bad credit rating. Fair enough I thought, the new buildings will give me more tax revenue so in the long run I will more than make it back AND it will improve my credit rating. After that - I will focus on the war effort.

Now the problem here is that the time span of the civil war is to short for the economics to kick in, basically making some of the financial system redundant? I'm doing a question mark here as I can't claim being an expert and perhaps the reading I have been doing online is wrong, but it's the conclusion I come to. The general tips online is - don't build anything. Now don't get me wrong, the game continues, you can still go to war with crippling debt. But the foundation for me, on how to play the game, felt like a rug pull. I can't build an economic powerhouse. It's all about choosing the right starting policies, building armies and doing the grand strategy element.

I understand that this game is all about realism during the civil war, so going into debt is almost inevitable (which is the case for all warring nations), but giving the player tons of options to expand on financials when the truth is.. you will be punished if you invest is odd to me. Then again, if the purpose is realism, I guess it is. The leaders of the nations did not know how long the war would drag on. BUT for a game to be very focused on an aspect which in the end doesn't help the player.. what is the point in implementing it? It's a circle argument.

Okok I get it you don't like the economics, what would you do instead?
There is no clear cut answer to this. But if economics is supposed to be a big part of the game (as it seems to be by design), then I would have the game start a few years earlier, giving the player more options on how to prepare for the war.
Then again, if the purpose of the game is to be true to history, my solution won't help. But that's what I would do.

Other than the financial system, I did enjoy the gameplay. It's a lot of buttons and things to learn. If you have played Paradox games in the past - it's similar. Steep curve, but not impossible to grasp the main parts. You will manage troops, brigades, divisions, whole armies, setting up logistics, fleets, keeping an eye out for which time of year it is (attrition is a killer!) and keeping an eye on spending.
I also enjoyed the policies which really made you think, adding a new (for me) flare to grand strategy. Not to mention the projects which also is a direct result of how you choose to spend money. All of this is a lot of gameplay so I wouldn't say this game isn't for anyone. It's just not for me.

Be aware some bugs are present. I encountered one where the speed buttons disappeared and shortcuts did not work so my first battle dragged on for a good hour or so.

There are so many bugs. I fought a 5 day battle, inspected the battle field and couldn't leave it because the button I needed to leave was gone.

Save your money. This feels clunky and unresponsive. You'll spend over an hour in the tutorial if you read everything and locate each menu item. That being said , good luck remembering where or what things are.

The "character creation" adds a slight element of rpg and the feel of control. For me, that's where it ended. Waiting for nearly 30 minutes real time or more for orders to come from the commander just to be able to move my regiment (since I didn't start with any prestige) isn't really my idea of fun.

Initially I thought this was perhaps an updated version of North and South that I used to enjoy in 1990-ish. Nope. Just a poor attempt at Crusader Kings with a United States Civil War twist.
I actually enjoy Crusader Kings. It captures my imagination and allows full control from the get go. Even though it also is basically just a map with story elements.

After 90 minutes and stuck half way through the tutorial. After 3 hr and fixing up some of the default interface options its a a fair bit better. If columns of troops spinning round on there centre axis under enemy fire getting slaughtered looks good to you....It is going to take 10s of hours to really get a handle on the interface or I suppose I could read the 297 page Manual. If you dont have that sort of patience and time to get over this initial hurdle its not for you.