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Wargame developers love the American Civil War, with its romantic notions of 'brother against brother' and the development of warfare from line battles to quasi-trench warfare slugfests. It probably also helps that a lot of war game designers are American.

Speaking of Gettysburg, it’s impossible to list off the best American Civil War games without mentioning a game about Gettysburg at least once. Gettysburg marked the high-water mark of the Confederacy during the war, and The Tide Turns is a beautiful display of well, how the tide turned.

There are plenty to choose from over the years, so here’s some of Wargamer’s favorite American Civil War digital strategy games to make your choice easier.

What are the best American Civil War Games?

• Grand Tactician (Early Access)
• Victory and Glory: The American Civil War
• Ultimate General: Civil War
• Gettysburg: The Tide Turns
• Civil War: 1863
• Civil War II
• Scourge of War: Chancellorsville
• Brother against Brother
• The Operational Art of War 4 (Specific Scenarios)
• War of Rights (Early Access)

There's a couple of more suggestions right at the bottom of the article as well.

Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865) (Early Access)

Publisher: Oliver Keppelmüller
Tags: Strategic, Tactical Battles, Real-time strategy, Grand Strategy
Available from:Steam

We're putting Grand Tactician front and centre because at the moment we feel it's going to become one of the most important ACW releases in recent times, although other recent games like Victory and Glory below were also pretty solid. Grand Tactician is proving to be quite ambitious in what it wants to do, and of Mr. Keppelmuller manages to pull it off then this game will easily take the crown.

As things stand though, there's some big caveats you should be aware of. It's in Early Access, for starters, which essentially means this is a beta - warts and all. You can read our hands-on impressions that Bill did. He was definitely blown away and while he's always tended to focus on positives over negatives he does mention problems ranging from dodgy AI behaviour to off casualty figures. Read around and you'll see other people struggling with other rough edges this game still has. With any luck these will all be ironed out over time, but know that even though this game sits at the top of our ACW list, it's not yet in the state it needs to be in to earn that spot.

Victory and Glory: The American Civil War

Publisher: Lock'n Load Publishing
Tags: Strategic, Tactical Battles, Turn-Based Strategy, Board Game, Card Driven Gameplay
Available from:Steam

One of Lock'n Load's three digital releases in 2020, Victory & Glory's American Civil War outing is an excellent board-game style experience featuring an area-control style strategy layer, card mechanics and a tactical battle interface. You can play out the entire conflict as either the Union or the Confederacy in a campaign that's highly replayable. Naval warfare is highly abstracted, but the land war is well represented. Apart from some documentation issues around concepts like supply and some bugs, this is actually a pretty decent ACW strategy game and an excellent showing from Lock'n Load. You should check out our full review for more.

Ultimate General: Civil War

Developer: Game-Labs LLC
Tags: Real-Time, Tactical, Brigade/Division/Corps/Army, American Civil War, 3D
Available from:Steam

Ultimate General: Civil War is a wonderful follow-up to Game-Labs LLC’s already wonderful Ultimate General: Gettysburg. Civil War puts the player in command of either Confederate or Union armies throughout the entirety of the war, allowing the player to build their army composition, from unit size to weaponry of individual units. The title brings Total War-style tactics (the lead on this game did make several mods for Total War games) to the well-known battlefields of Antietam and Gettysburg, as well as battles with less coverage in games, such as Gaines’ Mill and Chickamauga.

The ability to follow individual brigades and their officers throughout the war is one I learned to miss after playing this game. Seeing a unit you created during the first year of the war get utterly dissolved by enemy canister rounds is heartbreaking, but following an officer’s career path from lowly Captain to Major General brings pride I rarely get from playing games. It’s easy to connect with your army on a personal level, as you can name each unit in addition to being able to manage their training and outfitting.

Gettysburg: The Tide Turns

Developer: Shenandoah
Tags: Turn-Based, Tactical, Strategy, 2D, IGOUGO, Brigade/Division
Available from:Direct, Steam

Speaking of Gettysburg, it’s impossible to list off the best American Civil War games without mentioning a game about Gettysburg at least once. Gettysburg marked the high-water mark of the Confederacy during the war, and The Tide Turns is a beautiful display of… well, how the tide turned. The map is wonderful, drawing inspiration from old Engineer Corps maps, with unit markers distinctly popping out against the backdrop.

What makes The Tide Turns such an interesting game is the turn system. Units have their turn order decided by the random drawing of “lots” from the total amount of units on the field. This leads to an uncertainty of combat that is not present in IGOUGO or WEGO type games, but is certainly more representative of the chaos of Gettysburg.

Civil War: 1863

Developer: HexWar
Tags: Turn-based, Tactical, Hex, Brigade/Division/Corps, American Civil War, IGOUGO
Available from:Steam, Direct

HexWar’s charming Civil War: 186x series made the jump to PC from Android and iOS, bringing what our reviewer Jeff Renaud called a “quick hit” wargame. It’s easy to jump into a scenario pulled from the many different battles of 1863 (or any of the other years of the war, there are companion games featuring all of them!), with combat frequently beginning on the first turn. A single scenario can take less than an hour, but the brevity of the games can’t be mistaken for easiness. The AI can be downright painful to play against on the higher difficulties, which is a refreshing change of pace from other “quick hit” wargames. Read our review for more.

Civil War II

Developer: AGEOD
Tags: Turn-based, Operational, Strategy, Division/Corps/Army, American Civil War, WEGO
Available from:Steam, Direct

Ageod’s Civil War II (note: not about an upcoming second civil war) pulls back from the close, action-oriented look of many other American Civil War titles. The player is instead put into the boots of president / commander-in-chief of the operational aspects of the war. The WEGO style of play makes running into the enemy challenging and frequently surprising, forcing you to plan well in advance for future offensives.

The chain-of-command in armies can be customized by the player, allowing obsessive micromanagers to truly fine-tune their army. Decisions don’t stop with merely military matters; determining how much money should be printed or placing embargos also fall into the rhythm of gameplay. Wargamers with a taste for grand strategy could comfortably find themselves at home with Civil War II.

Scourge of War: Chancellorsville

Developer: NorbSoftDev
Tags: Real-Time, Tactical, American Civil War, Brigade/Division/Corps, Strategy
Available from:Direct

The Scourge of War series feature some of the most realistic depictions of generalship of the 19^th century, and Chancellorsville is no exception. The player can take command of different units within either the Union or Confederate forces; from commanding a lone Brigade to commanding the entire army. Orders given and received are a nice touch, as virtual couriers will arrive with and send out letters you can pen yourself. Units can be directed to form into specific formations and have several different movement options, including instructions to travel via road and to form into a certain formation type upon arrival. These options are necessary to success, as the AI may have read ahead in the history book, and will prove to be a fierce opponent.

Chancellorsville was an important prelude to Gettysburg, but is not as frequently covered as the latter. However, if you are looking to get your fix of Chamberlains and Picketts, you may also be interested in Scourge of War: Gettysburg.

Brother against Brother

Developer: Western Civilization Software
Tags: Turn-Based, Tactical, Hex, Company/Brigade, IGOUGO
Available from:Direct

Brother against Brother has a great nostalgic feel to it. The sprites and the maps are reminiscent of wargames a generation or two ago, but the game packs several unique features that make it worth mentioning. The first is the inclusion of Wilson’s Creek, a battle in the Western Theatre of the war. Any battle not on the east coast is normally glossed over, so kudos to Western Civilization Software for broadening our collective horizons.

The title also packs an “active ability” feature that generals can use on their units to encourage them to fight harder, à la the more recent Total War offerings. This coupled with a novel movement system, where units can sometimes refuse to move in a representation of orders being jumbled and lost, brings a refreshing yet familiar take on some less covered battles of the war.

The Operational Art of War 4

Developer: Talonsoft
Tags: Turn-Based, Operational, Strategy, IGOUGO, Hex, American Civil War
Available from:Steam, Direct

Before you all storm to the comments to yell at us for TOAW4 not being an American Civil War game, we know the whole game is not about the American Civil War. However, there are several great scenarios to choose from that take place during the war, using TOAW4’s excellent systems to simulate battles such as Antietam, as well as whole campaigning seasons, particularly highlighting the Chancellorsville/ Gettysburg campaign.

Should you not be in the mood for the several scenarios TOAW4 has to offer, there are community scenarios available for download, as well as a scenario editor, so you can finally simulate a brawl at Appomattox Court House. Read our review of TOAW4 for an idea of how the game as whole plays.

Reinforcements! Promising Games in Development:

War of Rights

Developer: Campfire Games
Tags: First-Person Shooter, American Civil War
Available from:Steam

War of Rights is an Early Access FPS that looks quite impressive so far. 150 players can duke it out on the battlefield, which so far includes Antietam and Harper’s Ferry. The gameplay looks and feels solid, like a cross of Mount & Blade and Holdfast’s combat style, while bringing a more realistic visual fidelity to the fight. A chain-of-command system is currently under development, so far with higher ranking officers passing down orders to their subordinates, who can in turn order their men to follow their lead. The game is primarily multiplayer, so the experience does depend on other players, but players do tend to actually work together. War of Rights has a development roadmap laid out, and it looks to have a promising future ahead.

More American Civil War Game Recommendations

John Tiller Software did a series called Civil War Battles, which cover specific battles and campaigns during the American Civil War. They're old-school hex-and-counter affairs, but they're currently being remastered by Wargame Design Studio with new graphics and engines updates. We're looking into these now and as we evaluate them, we'll add them to the main list. We've put this here though so that you're aware they also exist, and are considered pretty good ACW war games for what they are.

As was pointed out in the comments, we'd also be remiss not to mention Sid Meier'sGettysburg! & Antietam! games from the late 90's. Gettysburg! especially was considered one of the best strategy/war games of the time, and is a bench mark for many ACW and Gettysburg-themed games that have come out in the decades since. We haven't listed it below, mainly because they are fairly old now and there's no official support for them although you can find a digital copy via Abandonware websites. If you're interested in exploring one of the gold standards of digital ACW wargames, you'll want to check it out.

Something to watch out for on the horizon is Victory at Sea: Ironclad, which is a naval RTS strategy game set during this conflict, from the same people who created Victory at Sea: Pacific. It's set to combine both a real-time tactical layer AND a real-time strategic layer.

What are your favourite ACW games? Let us know in the comments!

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