What's Good	What's Bad	1.0 out of 5.0
Historical information is provided Non-toxic and not harmful to small children and animals	Nearly impossible to use command structure Unrealistic combat results Historical inaccuracies Poor maps and graphic details Poor performance Frustrating map editor

If the maps were intended to be fictional locations they would be acceptable. The terrain is somewhat jagged making elevation changes obvious but confined to hexagonal shapes. I do not have any problem with this in general, but in this application the maps come up short. These maps are supposed to depict actual locations that are well known and well mapped. While I am completely familiar with the field at Gettysburg, Antietam, and some of the other locations the game offers, I simply could not recognize them based on the maps provided. The three bridges in the Antietam scenario give a hint of which battle is being depicted but that is all I could find. The creeks, woods, and hills may be there, but they are unrecognizable as the locations they claim to depict. Other graphic features such as the soldiers and battle sequences are acceptable, but glaring historical problems exist. The most obvious one broadcasts a lack or historical research and accuracy in the game. The Confederate army flags are all rectangular battle flags. This style of flag never appeared at Gettysburg, Antietam, or on any other Eastern Theater battlefield. Other problems include soldiers shown having hand to hand combat with empty air and entire units dropping dead when routing from a battle. In addition, the limbered artillery also looks more like an ox cart than artillery being transported.

The basic style of the game involves using command "impulses" to control your army. This results in the ability to only move portions of your army on any one turn. I suppose the goal was to create the command and control aspect of battles that was so critical at the time. The result, however, is much different. It takes a long time to determine which units you can command at any given time. Much time is wasted clicking around from unit to unit trying to get someone, ANYONE, to respond to an order. If this control style created a more realistic flow of the battles then I would learn to deal with it, but when you do finally start figuring out how this works the results are highly unrealistic and uncoordinated movements of the army. There is a very short tutorial in the manual covering ONE side of ONE turn that does not begin to make this system clear.

The playability of the game suffers further from unexpected and unrealistic events. A unit with low moral will sometimes rout when ordered to fire on the enemy flank! Not move and fire mind you, just fire! If this routed unit is fired on as it runs away the entire unit drops dead! A flank attack is the golden opportunity that no infantryman of the time would have ever turned down. This would almost always cause great damage to the enemy and cause them to fall back, or just throw down their guns. The net result is that you order an action that should crush your enemy and instead your entire unit drops dead. Equally frustrating are the times your turn ends rather unexpectedly inviting all kinds of problems. One unit can not pass through another so a routed unit or an artillery unit blocks the movement of fresh units trying to reach the front. The list of disappointments goes on and on.

In an effort to uncover something more positive to report I tried to use the map editor to create my own scenario. I recoiled almost immediately when I had to specify information for the two "teams". Teams? I must have been absent when the lecture on "The Civil War as a sport" was presented in school. Beyond that the editor was so difficult to figure out I finally hit the frustration limit and sounded the retreat.

As a final blow the game is slow to load and sometimes slow to respond to the mouse. My system configuration slightly exceeds the minimum desired so despite the published requirements, a Pentium 200 should be the minimum system with something larger recommended.

There is very little to report on the positive side for this game but it does come with a fairly complete manual and some very interesting historical information is provided online. Once you can figure out the command structure you can play a game that appears to be between the Confederate and Union armies...and the Invisible Army of the Air.

If North vs. South was trying to impart an idea of what it must feel like to issue orders and have them all completely ignored, they have succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. If it is trying to create the look and feel of a Civil War battle, they have missed not only the boat, but also the dock and the entire harbor.