Tilted Mill’s Mosby’s Confederacy is a combination strategic/tactical wargame (my favorite kind – thus my enjoyment of the Total War series). This game, however, is fairly simplistic compared to epics like Total War – it reminds me of the great classics by W.R. Hutsell (e.g. VGA Civil War Strategy). The game map covers only a relatively small area consisting of several towns and the surrounding areas in which Mosby actually traveled/fought/raided. At the strategic level one each turn gets to “develop” ones character (John Singleton Mosby) in a somewhat RPG element. Depending on the attribute you choose to enhance will effect how your character performs and what options for character development will be available on the next turn. At the town level you can upgrade a number of facets by using the reputation you earn in each battle. This can be utilized to increase support by the locals (increasing the radius in which they will fight for you), increase the size of stables, weapons cache storage, or hospitals, drill the soldiers in that town, upgrade your hospital, or upgrade the weaponry of your soldiers.

Each turn several missions are available. These missions revolve around several themes: destruction of enemy troops or capture of enemy munitions, horses, or officers – sometimes a combination of these. There are also special “star” missions which indicate a historically important endeavor Mosby undertook.

When one chooses a mission one can choose from the soldiers within reach of that location to participate in the battle. Each soldier receives experience as he enters into and successfully survives combat. Soldiers also develop characteristics – but this occurs automatically, rather than selectively as in the case of Mosby. Soldiers find a variety of specialties including sharpshooter, ranger, cavalry, and scout. You can provide the soldiers with horses if you have them available and must have enough munitions for your men (the more experienced men consume more ammunition).

Finally you are ready for battle. This is a real-time environment similar to that found in Sid Meier‘s Gettysburg or many standard RTS games (e.g. the popular Commando series) – though it is on a small-scale compared to say Gettysburg. At the most you will have twenty men under your command. The battle ensues at a somewhat slow pace, one attempts to capture the various objectives and receives reputation points based on a number of factors (in addition to any munitions or horses captured in battle) – how many enemy troops were killed, how many surrendered, what objectives were accomplished, how many men died from your troop, etc. You are taken back to the main screen and can then use these reputation points, assign a new skill to Mosby, choose a new mission and so on.

Overall – the game is very enjoyable. I do have a few small complaints:

• You cannot save your game while in tactical battles. This is probably purposed to increase the difficulty of the game (no saving a certain point in the battle and trying over and over to obtain better results) but is annoying if you need to stop the game and work on something else for a while in the midst of a battle (you have to start the battle all over).
• I have a fairly powerful computer that runs games well – but I experienced a slow decrease in performance during tactical battles the longer I played Mosby’s Confederacy. I suspect some sort of memory leak. I found that this seemed to occur most frequently if I increased the time speed in tactical battles. At regular speed it did fine, but speeding the time progression caused the units to move faster at first but eventually (after 10-45 mins.) the graphics would become choppy, the interface non-responsive, and even playing at the slower speed could be painful.
• The documentation for the game consists of perhaps four or five pages – this is very disappointing. There is little information on the various attributes of soldiers, whether terrain/cover affects combat (I would hope so), and what the effects of putting a sharpshooter on a mount is or what having a cavalryman walk on foot is. Additionally I did not see any documentation on how to wisely utilize swords or bayonets – though both are available.
• For most gamers outside of war strategy games this game probably has tons of playability – but for individuals who are used to the weeks and weeks (or months) to beat strategy games – Mosby’s Confederacy is so short, nor does it offer significant incentive for repeating the game again after completion (and fairly abruptly ends with a statement of your stats but little indication of how you did compared to the absolutely best possible).

This said, I’m more than satisfied with my purchase (I think it was $2.50 or $5) – I probably wouldn’t spend $13 on it (but I’m a cheapskate, I usually wait a year or two after a game comes out before purchasing it – except for Battlefront/Fury Software’s Strategic Command 2). If you have a hankering for Civil War combat – its a worthwhile purchase…I’m hoping that Tilted Mill will take the opportunity to make similar games using the same engine. It seems that with refinement this engine could even be used to create a grand strategy of the civil war – but I’d be especially interested in seeing more games similar to Mosby – perhaps focusing on the war west of the mississippi (arkansas, kansas, california) or Stonewall Jackson‘s campaign in the valley.

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As a youngster I was fascinated by the American Civil War. My bookshelves still reflect this fact. I have Freeman’s classic series Lee’s Lieutenants, Catton’s three volumes on the Army of the Potomac, and Foote’s three volume series, once considered definitive, on the war. As I grew older my interest waned a bit. As a youngster I was a fanatic in this one area, as I grew my interests spread and while I still enjoy studying the Civil War it is only one amongst many arenas of study.

One area that has grown in interest for me over the years is the American Revolution. The Revolution is extremely fascinating for a number of reasons. I find it interesting in light of the religious right’s vehement defense of the war[1. I grew up in the religious right. I have long identified with the Republican party but at this time can no longer identify with any party. I appreciate the social emphasis of the democrats, I appreciate the moral emphasis of the Republicans and I find both lacking in too many ways. I am a follower of Christ but at this time have not found a label to adequately describe the fusion of my spiritual beliefs and politics. I do not agree with many who suggest the two do not need to be nor are interrelated. In my mind life is defined by beliefs. To suggest we can divorce our spiritual beliefs from our political beliefs is to encourage a certain dichotomy of character which is best represented by mental illness.]. I find it interesting in light of the commonalities and contrasts and political background created between the American Revolution and the American Civil War[2. I wish there was time to debark down this long and wondrous path, but alas, I leave you to your own studies.]. I find it interesting because across the landscape it seems common to look at this generation of men and women as the epitomy of American character[3. Whether for good or bad I do not pretend to know at this time.].

In any case, a set of novels I have enjoyed most thoroughly on this topic are Jeff Shaara’s Rise to Rebellion and The Glorious Cause. Michael Shaara was Jeff’s father and wrote the now classic Killer Angels describing the Battle of Gettysburg (which was made into the film Gettysburg). Michael died before writing any additional volumes but Jeff has followed in his footsteps proficiently. He is probably best known for his series on the Civil War (though he has written about the Mexican-American War, World War I, World War II, etc.)  – including Gods & Generals which was made as an unsuccessful sequel to Gettysburg[4. It was tamed for family audiences, but this alone could be overlooked. The real issue was the attempt to squash two years of an epic war into two hours. Gettysburg, covering one battle clocked in around four hours.]

Jeff took the time to read original journals and letters by the characters he portrays and attempts to faithfully depict the events that took place in the founding of this country. His writing is vivid, exciting, and will raise controversy for its crude depiction of some characters. But, it is two volumes well worth reading[5. The profanity within the volumes is somewhat heavy, reader consider yourself forewarned.].

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