Spotlight On - Gettysburg: Armored Warfare

Before stepping onto the battlefield, we took a brief look at some of the outlandish unit types we could expect to command in the game. What we saw included Confederate soldiers decked out with miniguns, union army battle tanks, and massive zeppelin airships firing on each other in midair combat. The entire series had a very steampunk vibe, with an amusing blend of futuristic technology and Civil War-era style. The game itself was all about massive multiplayer battles that could scale up to include 32 players on either side. Each battle had a point total assigned to it, which was divided up evenly among all players on each side. Individual players then spent their allocation of points on groups of soldiers, tanks, or other units.

One player on each side was also chosen to be the general for that battle. The general had a bird's-eye view of the battlefield and could issue orders to the other players on where to move and whom to attack. The other players were given the incentive to follow their general's orders because they would be rewarded with a small experience bonus. And if the general turned out to be a complete buffoon who repeatedly ordered a squad to redeploy at the bottom of a lake, he could be voted out of office by his teammates. Green is hoping to launch the game with four maps and roughly the same number of game modes. The Gettysburg map, for instance, was set up as a command point control map where players would have to capture and hold certain strategic points across the map to win. Other game variants included a ticker counter mode where the counter ticks down each time someone on your team respawned one of his squads, as well as Capture the Flag and Escort modes.

When ordering your troops around the battlefield, the game was played from the top-down perspective, like any given real-time strategy game. Once all of your units are on the move, you can highlight any unit you want to take command of. One moment you might be mowing down enemies with a massive minigun, and the next, you might be dropping bombs from your zeppelin high above the battlefield. With its fantastical setting and hybrid of genres, Gettysburg: Armored Warfare looks like a uniquely fun and entertaining game. Green hopes to let players get their hands on a beta version of the game in a few months.