An enjoyable wargame, and definitely one of the more enjoyable Civil War games available.

In 1997 Sid Meier and the newly formed Firaxis Games released Gettysburg!, a real time wargame of the battle of the same name. Although it was in real time it was not a Close Combat conversion set in the U.S. Civil War, but rather a traditional wargame without turns. Hailed by many as the 1997 wargame of the year and amassing a strong fan base, a sequel seemed to be mandatory. Well, we all know how well wargames do on the mass market, even wargames with Sid's name on them. Sales were not strong enough to warrant a major publishing event like Gettysburg! and so two years later we now have Antietam!, self-published and available only through the Firaxis website.

Antietam!, developed by Breakaway Games, is largely nothing more than an improved Gettysburg!, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Fans of the original game will find nothing to complain about, and will definitely enjoy many of the improvements. If you didn't like the first game Antietam! offers very little to change your mind.

Focusing on the single bloodiest day in American history Antietam! allows you to fight the battle in individual scenarios, or if you're feeling up to the challenge, fight the entire battle in one sitting. If you remember in Gettysburg! this was not an option. There are also several variant scenarios and an option to randomly generate a scenario.

General gameplay is pretty much the same as the first game, and for the most part, has been made even more intuitive. A few tutorials are offered to help new players learn the ropes. There are several new additions to the interface, which greatly ease the burden of leading your troops to victory, most notably in the retooled command bars. Brigade commanders now have one-click retreat and fall back commands. Infantry have both a halt and a volley button, with the volley button being a one-click affair unlike the two-click affair of Gettysburg! Artillery units can be commanded to hold their fire until the enemy is very near and then unleash with only canister ammo.

Speaking of artillery, there are now eight types of artillery modeled, giving the player a wide range of tactical possibilities. Knowing how to effectively use the various types of artillery goes hand in hand with achieving victory.

Another improvement is the use of "fire arrows" during combat and no, your troops don't carry bows. When a unit is engaged in combat an arrow (the "fire arrow") is drawn from the firing unit to the targeted unit. The thicker and brighter the arrow the more effective the fire. Since Antietam! is a real time game using symbolic units (in other words every single participant is not literally represented on the battlefield) and the number crunching is all behind the scenes, the inclusion of the fire arrows is extremely helpful in telling how an engagement is faring at a glance.

Antietam! features quite a few graphical changes from Gettysburg!, some of which are merely cosmetic while others have a bearing on play. On the cosmetic side the combatants' uniforms are now realistically depicted, so the Southerners are not simply represented by men in gray, but use a wide variety of uniform types. Terrain graphics, which do have a bearing on play, are borrowed from Gettysburg! with a few exceptions. The Sunken Road, a shortcut that earned its name because travelers had used it so much the road had literally sunk beneath the surrounding land, is present and like in the real battle makes a great defensive location. Antietam Creek and the Potomac River also are represented, the latter having little impact on the game while the former plays an important role. Troops can only cross the creek at the bridges or fords. The fords are not clearly marked, and when you do cross a ford or bridge you must travel in the very vulnerable column formation, all of which makes the simple act of crossing the creek a challenging task.

You'll find the AI in Antietam! to be just as good as it was in Gettysburg!, and there's always the option to play other live opponents in multiplayer. Thanks to the real time nature of the game scenarios are winnable using real-world tactics, and not following a certain formula for success, as found in many other wargames.

There's not a great deal to complain about but one issue does stand out: the graphics engine, which has remained unchanged. In 1997 the stiff animation and rough graphics could be overlooked but two years later these same problems are present. In fact, if you were to have two computers running both games side by side it's doubtful a passerby could tell what game was developed in 1997 and what game was developed in 1999. Of course the game does have very modest system requirements so fans with older computers can still enjoy Antietam! while those of us with newer systems can simply grit our teeth and hope they create a new engine for any follow up titles.

Antietam! is an enjoyable wargame, and definitely one of the more enjoyable Civil War games available. It straddles the fence between fun and realism, but does so in such a way that both novices and the hard-core crowd will enjoy Antietam!

Reviewed by Scott R Krol, PC Gameworld.