Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865) Reviews

I want to like this game, but it is such a mess of bugs, opaque mechanics and lack of description that it's impossible to do so. I could not complete the tutorial because it was bugged, forcing me to experiment and feel out how the game worked. Tooltips are often bugged, having information from other parts of the game, or don't exist at all, where they might provide some amount of information. I've so far only played the Whiskey and Lemons dlc, which was the reason for me getting the game, so all gameplay complaints are related to that. The AI in the campaign is terrible, making seemingly the worst decisions possible at all times, unless you play on the very easiest difficulty. The game seems scripted to give the union a loss at first by having the ai split their army on different sides of the Potomac and not trying to help the half in confederate territory when they get attacked by an overwhelmingly larger force. In battle, even commanding a single unit, it often will not listen to you, outright ignoring orders. Repeated attempts to get artillery to limber and move are rejected by the unit first refusing to limber and trying to wheel their cannons a mile down the road, then followed by them rejecting that as well and returning to firing at will. I've lost multiple artillery batteries because they wouldn't move when we had time to do so before the enemy was close enough to be a threat, leading to the unit being overrun. Orders can't be given too close to your unit's current position, making it almost impossible to fine-tune your location for effective fields of fire or cover. I'll probably try more in the future and hope that maybe I've just had an unusually poor experience, but at the moment, it seems like I can't really recommend this to anyone else.

Start as Regimental Commander Fight a couple of battles and then get promoted to Brigade Command. End up stuck in a 2-month siege north of Fredericksburg. Win the Siege. My Division splits from the rest of the Army under General Lee with 8000 men Ends up in Western Maryland throwing ourselves against Little Mac with 14000 men 10/10

This game is truly amazing! For a civil war nut like myself this is a dream come true. The amount of historical detail they placed in this game is what makes it for me. I do wish the AI was a tad better, but I understand this is a small team that made this. They should be proud of what they have made and I am always going to buy whatever they release. They earned it.

Grand Tactician offers an experience most strategy games do not, and that is access to the full uncensored and historic version of the Civil War. In this game, you can strategize differently and change the course of history, in a way we haven't seen before. This game uses real life generals, with real statistics and debuffs and modifiers, many things that affect the performance of your generals. Fantastic game, truly the best Civil War Strategy game out there.

I like the economy and political system of the game, but the amounts of bugs in the combat system make this unplayable. You can entrench your armies and instead of the ai fighting your unit they will spam engagement notifications forcing you to attack, withdraw or keep clicking the deploy to defend.

I don't play the base game much, but the Whiskey and Lemons is good fun. Definitely watch some tutorials on YouTube and figure out how the basics work. I've enjoyed it more than I thought I would, once I figured it out. 8/10. Developers are working on a new game with updated physics and tweaks that should only make it better.

I love RTS games alot and this is one of them it rough around the edges and their currently rebuilding it up from the ground but i like the ability to research, manage the economy, the army and navy, as well diplomacy and politics, i am excited to see how their complete rebuild turns out to be as well

tried to fight my first battle in the game's own tutorial as the Union. Robert E Lee pops up and tells me shit about Ewell and to select Jackson and a dozen other things I can't do. Tells me to wait til 1900, I started this NON confederate battle at 0600 so its 20x while I walk across an empty map because the wait obj script refuses to let my enemy spawn. Finally get to the next day after ages of waiting and set my army up to repulse an attack, 25000 rebs walk in behind me while Robert E Lee tells me that "Thank god Ewells here" 10/10, dont bother in the slightest aom mod makes it slightly better but this game in general is just a massive bother to play

Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865), developed by Oliver Keppelmüller and his small indie team, is an ambitious, richly detailed grand strategy game that attempts to simulate the full scope of the American Civil War. Blending large-scale strategic planning with real-time tactical battles, the game offers an intricate experience that few historical strategy titles dare to tackle at this level of complexity. Released on Steam after a long early access period, Grand Tactician is not a polished mainstream product, but rather a labor of love aimed squarely at history enthusiasts and strategy purists. Its steep learning curve, overwhelming scope, and occasional rough edges are all part of the experience, but so too are moments of incredible immersion and rewarding depth. The game is divided into two interlinked layers: a grand strategy campaign map and a real-time tactical battle system. On the strategic level, players choose to lead either the Union or the Confederacy through one of several campaign scenarios, beginning at different stages of the war. From there, they must manage the political, economic, and military machinery of a divided nation. This involves everything from appointing generals and organizing armies to managing infrastructure, passing legislation, and navigating foreign diplomacy. The level of historical fidelity is impressive—key figures from the era are represented, and the strategic decisions available to the player reflect the political realities of the time. Whether managing the industrial juggernaut of the North or the resource-starved Southern Confederacy, players must constantly adapt to shifting conditions and long-term consequences. Where Grand Tactician truly distinguishes itself is in how the strategic and tactical layers interact. Army movement on the campaign map is realistic, with units needing time to muster, move, and engage. When armies clash, the game transitions into a full-fledged real-time tactical battle that can last several in-game days. These battles are where the game’s strengths and weaknesses both come into sharp relief. Players are given command of thousands of troops across expansive, historically accurate maps. Terrain, fatigue, morale, and command structure all play crucial roles in determining the outcome of engagements. The command delay mechanic—where orders take time to reach subordinate units—adds a level of realism that makes battlefield control feel authentic and challenging. Battles unfold slowly and require foresight, patience, and discipline, rewarding players who embrace the tempo of 19th-century warfare rather than trying to micro-manage every regiment like in a traditional RTS. Visually, the game is functional rather than flashy. The campaign map is beautifully illustrated, capturing the look of 19th-century cartography with muted earth tones, hand-drawn elements, and period-accurate styling. Tactical battles use a more utilitarian 3D engine that, while not cutting-edge, serves its purpose. Units are represented with historically correct uniforms, flags, and formations, and the environments—ranging from dense forests to rolling farmlands and river crossings—are rendered with enough detail to support strategic positioning and maneuvering. The UI, while sometimes clunky and unintuitive, provides a wealth of information, from unit stats and supply lines to detailed reports on national morale and political trends. However, new players may find themselves overwhelmed without external guides or significant trial and error. The historical atmosphere is further reinforced by a stirring original soundtrack composed by Wasyl Dvorak, which features period-appropriate arrangements of traditional American folk songs and military marches. These tracks, along with newspaper headlines, speeches, and changing political climates, help immerse players in the cultural and emotional context of the war. Whether you’re watching Maryland teeter toward secession or dealing with an army crippled by desertion and hunger, the game excels at making you feel the weight of command. The AI, though inconsistent at times, can be competent and occasionally surprising—especially in longer campaigns where it adapts to your strategies and economic decisions. Grand Tactician is not without flaws. The complexity that defines its appeal can also be a barrier to entry. The tutorial is sparse, the interface sometimes cumbersome, and bugs, while fewer than in early access, still crop up in longer campaigns or larger battles. Some mechanics—such as supply systems and naval warfare—lack clarity and can feel underdeveloped compared to the land-based military simulation. Additionally, the game demands significant time investment, not just for a full campaign (which can take dozens of hours), but for learning how its many interwoven systems work together. For those expecting the accessibility of a Total War title, this may come as a shock. However, for players willing to immerse themselves, there are few strategy games that reward attention to detail and historical roleplay to this extent. Despite its limitations, Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865) succeeds remarkably well in what it sets out to do: simulate the complexity, chaos, and high stakes of the American Civil War in a way that respects both historical accuracy and player agency. It offers a rare blend of operational-level strategy and real-time battlefield command that allows players to relive one of the most defining conflicts in American history from both the map table and the front lines. It may not be a game for everyone, but for those with a passion for Civil War history and deep strategic planning, it is an unforgettable experience—one of the most ambitious and evocative Civil War games ever created. Rating: 7/10

Potential.... This is one of those games. It 'nearly is', it's an 'almost', it's a 'Work In Progress' etc. There's lots to like about this game and at times, lots of fun to be had. From the historical setting to the grand scale strategy to the enormous battles there's a lot to get into. However.... Like many have said in other reviews I really would like to love this game but in it's current state I can't as it gets too frustrating, too easily, too often. From the schizophrenic and at times ludicrous AI campaign behaviour to the atrocious AI battle behaviour you will increasingly find that there's parts of the game that just don't work and/or are unfinished. Battles... In battles the AI can't handle BASIC movement orders. Eg; Tell a Div commander to move his Div of 3 brigades down the road, a simple movement order. It can't actually organise a straight-forward marching order and all the brigades will try and get on the road at once, getting in each other's way, slowing the Div down and also blocking the road for everyone behind them. They can take AGES to do this. Artillery units are the absolute worst for this, being a bit slower they get in each other's way (and everyone else's ) ALL THE TIME, block roads and can slow down everything behind them to an absolute crawl. The AI simply cannot handle putting units onto a road, one after the other in a simple, spaced out column. It can get horrendous at times. The path-finding for units is absolutely awful. The behaviour of infantry brigades is also absolutely awful. Trying to get one brigade to change position , just a little bit results in them trying to turn in a half-circle, in line formation, excruciatingly S L O W, all while getting shot at and then they just run away because they have been shot in the flank by artillery and infantry for an hour. You cannot trust the battle AI to do anything really, it's so badly programmed it will do the most moronic thing imaginable, every battle without exception. Also, the units will just stop for no reason, refuse to do anything, a lot of the time you have to tell a unit 3, 4, or 5+ times to do something and even then it may still just NOT do it... for no reason. Strange design decisions... Then there's the very puzzling design choice to NOT have ammunition-carrying wagons in the battles??? So when a brigade runs out of ammo, it's useless until nightfall which is the only time they can be re-supplied for some inexplicable reason. When the battles are all-day affairs and there's 50,000 men+ in your army, ammo re-supply is a MUST because you WILL run out of ammo but.... you can't because , no reason you just can't. You HAVE to wait until nightfall. The Navy's ships DO NOT support battles (except during attacks on forts, sort of) at all, even if the battle is on the edge of the coast/river with the ships right next to it. (Even Total War Shogun 2 did this!) The Navy cannot help supply your land units on the coast/rivers either as for some reason there are no supply ships?? 'Learning curve'... It's one of those games that seems to have lots of info in it (via the manual, tooltips etc) but tells you nothing useful at times. From why you can't place telegraph stations ( I worked this out myself eventually) to why navy ships refuse to resupply provisions and coal, even though they're in a large port,next to a depot, railways etc there's no info telling you why/how it isn't happening. You can TRY and work it out yourself by tracing where the coal and provisions are produced etc but it doesn't tell you WHY these aren't going to the port for the ships. (The armies have orange lines showing you where the provisions are coming from but the ships don't, for some unknown reason) Some things should be obvious but the game doesn't work logically at times and you will start and re-start games many times because it's the only real way to learn anything. And even then you will still be baffled by things that won't make sense. 'Difficulty' settings... This is a bit of a misnomer as it's not about 'difficulty' it's about giving the AI cheats and turning it into roid-raged schizo. I changed the 'difficulty' and 'aggression' settings to 'mediocre' (ie: 'Medium') and the AI went mental and was doing the most insane and moronic things that defy explanation and the 'rules', like readiness, supply etc doesn't apply to it and the AI was doing things that YOU cannot do , especially at the beginning of the war. These settings are broken and unbalance the game to an unplayable degree. Conclusion.... I would recommend this game ONLY if it's on sale (it's not worth nearly £40! AT ALL) and if you a looking for a grand-scale, American Civil War game with lots of potential and lots of flaws. It's incomplete, needs work and WILL frustrate you a lot but it does have potential and can scratch that ACW itch that you have for a while. If you are considering buying it, DO NOT pay full prices as it's not worth it and it's unfinished. I would not recommend it in it's current state except for the reasons above. I hope the devs actually finish this game as it has the potential to be great. :-)