The Newest Evolution of the Civil War Video Game
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For players of traditional Civil War wargames, the hexagonal battle map where they can move carefully researched units to gain tactical objectives will be very familiar. Now, however, a new game allows you to be in the center of the action. A Civil War first person shooter, online multiplayer game is now on the gaming scene.
The earliest Civil War video games were largely inspired by tabletop games that allowed players to strategically move troops on a hexagonal map. These games were usually grounded in historical research on the battles and campaigns and then let players explore different strategies and possibilities (both factual and counterfactual). Early games such as Decisive Battles of the Civil War and Gettysburg: The Turning Point used 2-D maps and unit statistics and placements based on research in the battles and Order of Battle for each engagement to allow the player to engage in exploring battlefield strategy. The “gold star” games in this category are probably the Battleground and Campaigns games developed by John Tiller (John Tiller Software currently has 14 games available). Each game contains over a hundred battle and campaign scenarios to play through and the player can control movement down to the battery and regimental level. These games are heavily researched and meant to be as historically accurate as possible, meaning they give the player an extremely accurate starting point and then the player takes control of the narrative from there.
As computer technology progressed, so did the options for Civil War games. Instead of turn-based strategy games wargames were able to offer real time gaming experiences. Sid Meier’s Gettysburg! and Sid Meier’s Antietam! broke the mold of turn-based hexagonal maps and offered real-time playing on a more seamless map and games such as Ultimate General: Gettysburg and Ultimate General: Civil War have continued to experiment with the game mechanics to give the players a more realistic experience. However, all of these games primarily focus on the wide-lens tactical, military, and strategic element of the war. Even games that attempt to combine military strategy with larger social, economic, and political elements (such as Forge of Freedom and Ironclads II: American Civil War) give the player the third person, above-the-map perspective where they can control all aspects of the game.
For the most part, first person shooter games have not been a core style in Civil War digital games. Until now. War of Rights was initially released in an early form in 2018 and is still in development by Campfire Games (can be played with early access). It is a first-person shooter, multiplayer online game that allows players to engage in combat with 150 players in a skirmish. The game currently centers on the 1862 Maryland Campaign with playable maps for Antietam, Harpers Ferry, and South Mountain. Players can join individually and find a server for a match or can organize “companies” that play together and are named after historically correct regiments and companies from the Civil War. The focus for the developers is immersion, which is why they chose the first-person shooter style. They wanted the player to feel like they were in the boots of a Union or Confederate soldier on the battlefield of one of these engagements. To create an accurate play experience the developers made the maps and environments as historically accurate as possible, as well as the uniforms, weapons, soldier character development, etc. Using historical scholarship and various primary sources, their goal was to create that accurate immersion into a Civil War landscape and battle scenario. Once gameplay begins, the narrative and outcome of the battle will possibly deviate from the historic reality (it needs to be a fun and playable game after all), but even within the gameplay the developers have included mechanics to encourage players to fight in a historically accurate way. The game rewards players who fight in formation and officers have the options to put visible guidelines down on the field to get their men into column or line formation. If players are fighting and die in formation, the penalty is not as big as if players were fighting on their own or not in formation with their comrades. In addition, there are special mechanics surrounding the flag and keeping that held in position.
The game is a unique one and it is already gaining quite a following, despite still being in early access. While many wargaming games focus on the Order of Battle, troop placement, strategy, and creating a historically accurate scenario for players to manipulate, War of Rights focuses on creating a detailed and accurate full environment for players to immerse themselves in AND play with a lot of other live people to simulate actually having to cooperate on the field of battle. It is a pretty neat game, and I am not usually one to enjoy watching gameplay of a first-person shooter (there are plenty of gameplay examples on YouTube if you want to scope out the game).
The developers are Danish and when I interviewed one of them for a bigger project I am working on, I had to ask about the title of the game, War of Rights. Of course, it brings up the usual discussion around the role of states’ rights in the Civil War. What he said was:
I've always been fascinated with how seemingly dead and dusted historical conflicts tends not to be if you examine them. It connects us to the past, for better and for worse and I like that as it helps to highlight the legacy of those who were before us, thus bringing us closer to history. We chose the name War of Rights because we wanted to poke at this notion (i.e. the discussion of whether or not the war was about state's rights) but just as much because our focus was on Antietam, the outcome of which would enable Lincoln to announce his emancipation proclamation, greatly changing, at least publicly, the face of the war to be about the freeing of the southern slaves - a war for the most basic of human rights, if you will.
The development team has put a lot of work into the accuracy and play environment of this game, and they are still adding more. So, if you are a Civil War gamer and you like the style of a historically accurate first-person shooter, this might be one to check out.
Thanks again to Mads Larsen of Campfire Games for doing an interview with me. This is definitely not a complete overview of all the Civil War games out there. A side note: Another one of the games that I looked at for the larger project ended up not being a pure Civil War game, more of an alternative history with the Civil War as a backdrop and battle robots. Ironclad Tactics is a deck-building/card strategy game and it looked like a fun little game to play if you are into that type of game. The rounds of game play are separated by a narrative comic and while the history is not all perfect (and it is meant to be counterfactual anyway) the storyline is fun. I enjoyed watching the game playthrough, so I figured I would also give it a shoutout here.
Dr. Kathleen Logothetis Thompson earned her PhD in Nineteenth Century/Civil War America from West Virginia University, and also holds a M.A. from WVU and a B.A. from Siena College. Her research is on mental trauma and coping among Union soldiers and she is currently working on her first book, tentatively titled War on the Mind. She currently teaches history at several colleges and university and leads tours of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. Kathleen was a seasonal interpreter at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park for several years and is the co-editor of Civil Discourse.