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Sid Meier's Gettysburg (1997)
Sid had always wanted to do a game on the American Civil War and had originally planned to do a turn-based strategic game with individual battles played out in real time. Problem was, you'd get so involved in the battles that you'd forget where you were in the overall picture. So, years later, when Sid moved to Firaxis, he decided to focus in detail on the most famous of all Civil War battles - Gettysburg.
Design: Sid Meier with Brian Reynolds
Publisher: Firaxis/EA
Genre: Real-Time Wargame
Difficulty: Easy
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Now, Sid's view of 19th-century combat might not be as painstakingly accurate as TalonSoft's Battleground games, but it delivers a potent Civil War punch. In Gettysburg, you really do feel as if you're in the shoes of Robert E. Lee or George Meade because you are faced with the same challenges. Unlike most real-time games, for example, you can't simply erect a base and start cranking out thousands of Rebels from Devil's Den. Once your precious troops are gone, they're gone, which puts events such as Pickett's fateful charge into perspective.
 | "I've played a lot of Civil War games, but this is, in my imagination, what the Civil War is like."
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Everything contributes to the period flavor, from the strains of martial music to the panoramic sweep of the formations, as they move toward famous objectives such as Little Round Top. You even find yourself listening for trumpet calls to give a clue concerning enemy maneuvers.
The tutorials are among the best you'll find in any genre, and the random maps and multiplayer options ensure that this is one game that really will play until Johnny comes marching home. The AI (always a Sid strength) can perform complex maneuvers - such as attacking enemy flanks - in ways that are beyond the capabilities of other real-time strategy games. Gettysburg was Sid's first C++ coded game, and it also sported improved graphics compared with other Sid designs. Suffice it to say that Gettysburg is proof that the old master can still teach the industry new tricks.
Next: Sid on the State of the Game Industry 
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