The Sharp End Gaming

Ultimate General Gettysburg is the most accessible wargame I own and therefore a must have game in my opinion for anyone wanting a dose of history, battle and strategy without a deep set of rules. It's a great game to break open when you have just minutes or hours to play. UGG (unfortunate acronym) is a statistics heavy version of Total War with a incredibly detailed set of battlefield maps and a easy to use movement system:  you can easily send your men into battle with the drag of a mouse or turn to face a horde of Confederate soldiers with the slightest compression of your mouse wheel. This game is priced at $14.99 and can be downloaded on Steam . It has dozens of scenario variants, keeps track of all the relevant battle statistics and gives you an in depth treatment of Gettysburg that leaves you wanting these designers to break out the next title in their series (I hope it is a series).  They are also one of the hardest working teams of designers out there (ri...

This is the early version of Ultimate General: Gettysburg available for $10 on Steam.  I am replaying the intro scenario "Arriving at Gettysburg"so I can take a look at the changes in the second patch for the game.  A big change was the addition of contour lines and elevation markers.  This was a popular request and a big improvement imo.  You can also toggle elevation on and off. Reynolds 1st Corps arrives on the field for the Union army. I've decided to form a second line closer to the town of Gettysburg while Buford engages the Confederates further west of town. I've pushed Cutler's brigade from Reynolds Corps forward to cover the withdrawal of Buford's dismounted skirmishers.  the arrows represent actual movement.  You can also see their range. Pettigrew's brigade of North Carolinians are pushing forward against the Iron Brigade. An overview of the battlefield. The Confederate artillery has formed a "Grand Battery" Napol...

Beginning my defense of the Round Tops and Cemetery Ridge. So far, (10 minutes in) this has been an ebb and flow kind of battle where I am barely holding on.  I am dependent on each new wave of reinforcements to hold back the Confederate tide. On a related note, the timely arrival of the various Union Corps and the concentration of Union forces which was overseen by George Meade was a critical part of the success of the Union army. More to follow...

First I want to thank Phil at Sim-Deck for his post about this game . I had just read a series of negative comments in the Steam Forums about the speed of this game (a worry I had from watching the pre-release gameplay footage) when I read his post and decided to pay the $10 to play the early access version of this game. It is worth it. I played to a draw in the introduction scenario last night and then started up the second scenario and I am currently fighting for my life.  The hour flew by as the game is very engrossing. Reynolds Corps arrives to reinforce Buford's men on the eastern slope of McPherson's Ridge. I played against a "balanced" AI that was very competent.  Only a few times did I feel like it had the upper-hand on the battlefield and that usually coincided with the AI receiving a new reinforcement.  The Iron Brigade was an incredible brigade for me.  It held the extreme left flank with Gamble's Videttes and made a number of flanking move...

I've not purchased the early access game yet so I can't speak to the speed issue directly yet.  I did vote to greenlight this game however because I had hopes it would be a more polished version of Scourge of War. Already though there is quite a bit of discussion about the speed of the game. You can read the comments in the Steam game forum here .  Many players feel the game progresses too quickly, units break too quickly, lacks immersion because of the speed issues, etc. I still plan on purchasing the game for myself today or tomorrow and will blog about it here. If you are considering the game I encourage you to read about it in the forums.