Battleground 9: Chickamauga

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Review: Battleground 9: Chickamauga

TalonSoft's highly regarded Battleground series has charted the conflict's bloody course in four detailed re-creations of the battles at Gettysburg, Shiloh, Antietam, and Bull Run. Now, with the company's surprise ninth installment in the series--BG8 was to be the last, and BG9 was created in response to consumer demand--its attention has turned to a lesser-known battle fought in the winter of 1863 along the western edge of the front in Tennessee.

The stage for Chickamauga was set on September 19, 1863, as a shell-shocked Rebel army retreated to the forest along Chickamauga Creek. The advancing Union force expected to complete a rout. But Braxton Braggs' Army of the Tennessee received reinforcements and pushed back the Army of the Cumberland in vicious hand-to-hand fighting.

While Chickamauga features striking new 32-bit graphics, the basics of the Battleground gaming system has barely changed since the release of Gettysburg. Any grognard familiar with the line won't even need to crack open Chickamauga's 70-page manual. The rules set and interface slip right on like old shoes.

For gamers who might not be familiar with the series, you're in for a genuine delight--as well as a massive learning curve.

The primary pleasure is a level of historical accuracy, realism, and complexity that few computer games attempt, much less accomplish. The design is modeled religiously on tabletop wargaming, as evidenced by the game's reliance upon die-rolling for just about every result. While the level of detail is adjustable, there's almost no point in playing the game without tackling the intricacies of formation, fatigue, supply, command radius, and morale. Properly advancing through each phase of a turn should take about half an hour.

StarCraft it ain't.

The major new addition to gameplay is a deployment option that allows any unit with more than 100 troops to extend its zone of control by sending out skirmishers. This accurately reflects the nature of this war, in which Johnny Reb and his Yankee foe often met face to face in the forest while foraging just ahead of their units' positions. For the height of realism, try the Extreme Fog of War option, which denies you knowledge of an enemy unit's identity or strength. Nothing is scarier than encountering an enemy unit's skirmish line and being told the force consists of "3?? Troops"--meaning at least three hundred, and God knows how many more.

Ranged combat quickly proves almost useless even in the best battlefield conditions. Chickamauga is all about melee, a frightening maelstrom of hand-to-hand fighting and thrusting bayonets. It's murderous attrition as both sides seek to establish favorable combat modifiers to their melee attacks. The losses mount with horrifying speed. It's a riveting battle.

Modem play, play- by- email, and hotseat head-to-head multiplay options will keep Battleground buffs humming happily at their battle stations. The scenario editor is a welcome utility--it allows you to shape the terrain and battle elements for limitless variations of the fight. And the "What if?" scenarios with their detailed hypothetical variants will appeal to Civil War aficionados. Bobby Horton's authentic re-creations of Civil War songs fuel the music track. And the added battle of Murfreesboro, a bitter duel along the Stones River outside Nashville, completes the package.

TalonSoft can keep pumping these out forever--they'll get no complaints from wargamers.-- Dan Morris / GamePro