Version 1.13.0. A first battle in eight short lessons.
Choose an action on the title sheet — McPherson's Ridge is the best first battle: two brigades of Union cavalry on foot against Heth's leading brigades, with the Iron Brigade on the road. Pick your command (Union, Confederate, both at one screen, or watch the machines), tick Fog of war if you want to see only what your troops can see, and press Take the field.
| Mouse / touch | Click or tap a counter to select it; click a pale hex to march there; click a red-ringed enemy to fire; drag to pan; wheel or pinch to zoom; click the overview map to jump there. |
|---|---|
| Keyboard | P march planner · O battle briefing · S saved battles · R command report · N next regiment (Shift+N previous) · F fire planner · H hold/resume · J reinforcements · K recovery / command · I sight inspector · Y army highlights · [/] previous/next highlight · C charge planner · L line/column · Q/E face · U limber · M mount · B brigade march planner · V brigade volley planner · T enemy fire zones · Z undo march · Enter end turn (inspect while using I) · Esc deselect · arrows pan · +/−/0 zoom. |
The left panel informs (overview, selected piece, Casualty Return, victory, brigade return, the ground, dispatches); the right panel orders (end turn, orders, map, battle, machine commands).
Choose Army highlights under Map, or press Y to cycle the views (Shift+Y cycles back). Matching friendly regiments and batteries receive outlines and letter badges on the main map, plus rings on the overview. The legend shows the count and badge meanings. Other counters retain their normal visibility.
| View | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Movement remaining · M | Combat units eligible for manual movement with MP left. Held and machine-commanded units are excluded. This does not guarantee a reachable hex or count unused fire orders. |
| Morale trouble · D / R | Disordered or routed troops. Press K for recovery guidance. |
| Low ammunition · L / E | Low or empty cartridges, or batteries with two or fewer long-range missions. E on a battery means canister only. Ammunition replenishes overnight. |
| Out of command · C | Regiments outside their current command coverage. Press K to inspect their commanders. |
| Selected brigade · B | The fielded regiments belonging to the selected friendly regiment or brigadier. |
Use ] or Next under the selector to locate a match; [ or Previous goes back. Navigation follows map column, row and unit ID, wraps around, and selects and centers the unit without issuing orders. It exits any existing planning mode. Non-movement views include units under machine command and remain available after battle.
Highlights use only friendly information, refresh as conditions change and pause during machine execution. A fixed player command keeps its own army; hot-seat and Watch use the side to move. The view is saved as a browser preference. Select Off to remove highlights.
Press R or select Find units / review orders in the left panel. Search by unit, brigade, division or corps; filter to orders left, visible fire targets, disordered/routed troops, low ammunition or units out of command. Select an entry to center the map on that regiment or battery. Only your own army is listed; hidden enemies never add to the attack counts. Orders left includes movement points that terrain may prevent you from spending. Machine-commanded corps are excluded from unfinished-order totals.
Click an objective in the Victory panel to jump to it. Tab moves between controls; Escape closes a report. Before ending a human turn, a review warns if units still have movement or visible attacks. You can inspect the units, continue playing, or end the turn anyway. Turn this off with Review unfinished orders under Battle.
Press O or choose Battle briefing / objectives under Victory. The header shows the scenario, final turn and current score after scenario par. Victory is assessed after both sides complete the final turn.
In Objectives & planner, change planned owners to compare victory-point outcomes. The result shows Union and Confederate points, the net swing for your army, and additional net points needed for marginal (6), substantive (16) and decisive (32) victory beyond par. Capturing an enemy objective generally changes the margin by twice its value: the opponent loses its points and you gain them. Objective restrictions are respected. All non-objective scoring remains fixed; this does not forecast combat or enemy responses. Reset to actual control clears the plan, and closing the briefing discards it. No orders, dice or saves are changed.
Each objective shows its actual owner, control radius and closest non-routed friendly combat unit. Select the objective name to inspect it on the map. Distances are straight-line hex distances; terrain and enemy zones determine your route. Non-routed combat units claim uncontested areas, including artillery. Empty or contested areas retain their last owner. Leaders and horse-holders do not claim objectives.
Army readiness summarizes only your on-map corps, with men, guns, morale, ammunition, command and orders. Horse-holders are counted separately and pending reinforcements are excluded. Review opens the selected corps in the command report. Hot-seat and Watch modes show the side to move. Battle course displays the charts and expandable turn totals after both sides finish a turn; current actions can be newer than the latest record.
With one of your regiments or batteries selected, press F to compare visible fire targets. The planner shows expected direct casualties, the range across all 36 dice outcomes, distance and combat modifiers. Select Fire this volley to attack or Locate target to inspect the position. The forecast does not consume a roll or ammunition and excludes additional effects from morale, unit collapse and leader losses. Direct map-click fire remains available; press V to plan a brigade volley.
Press J for your army's reinforcement schedule. Expand a formation to see its remaining units, commanders, nominal men and guns; select Locate entry area to view its route. Units already deployed or lost are excluded. Arrival times are scheduled times: traffic or enemy control can delay entry until a later friendly half-turn.
Press H to mark the selected unit as Holding this turn. This is a reminder that you have finished giving it orders: it removes the unit from Next regiment and unfinished-order warnings without spending movement or disabling defensive fire. Press H again to resume orders. New orders, changed unit conditions or the next half-turn expire the marker. Use the command report's Holding position filter to find these units.
A game turn is twenty minutes. Each side takes a half-turn in which it may move, fire and charge with every piece in any order, then ends its turn. At the start of a half-turn disordered regiments try to recover, routed ones try to rally or keep running, reinforcements arrive by their roads, and objectives change hands. Between the days comes night: the armies rally, refill their cartridge boxes and dig breastworks.
Select a regiment: pale hexes are where it can march, brighter ones where it could still fire afterwards. Infantry in line moves 5, in column 7 and at half cost on roads; mounted cavalry 12; limbered guns 8. Woods cost 2, boulders 3, climbing a contour +1, crossing a stream +1. Marching into a hex beside the enemy halts the march — and draws defensive fire from up to two enemy pieces. With a regiment selected, B then a click opens a review of its brigade march before you commit it. Before you march into the open, press T: the red shading shows where the enemy can already fire, and how hard.
Select a movable regiment or battery and press P, or choose Plan march in Orders. The map prompt stays visible while planning. Hover over the ground to see a route and select a destination to inspect its movement cost, remaining points, final facing, firing eligibility and known defensive-fire candidates. Expand Route and movement costs for step-by-step costs.
March to this hex issues the order. Choose another destination returns to the map in planning mode. Cancel planner or P exits while keeping the selected unit. Selecting an enemy in planning mode never automatically fires or charges. Ordinary direct map-click orders still work outside planning mode. Leaders and horse-holders use direct movement.
With fog enabled, both the plan and movement overlay use currently known positions. Hidden troops can block or change the route, halt movement or fire on arrival. The actual legal march is checked when you commit it. Defensive fire is resolved at the destination under the current rules, with up to two eligible nearby enemies firing. Arrival statistics are shown before reactions; the preview does not simulate casualties, morale or encounters, and it never rolls dice.
Z undoes an uneventful last march, including restoring objective control and the previous move marker. A march involving defensive fire, an enemy leader or enemy horse-holders cannot be undone.
Select a friendly regiment, battery or leader and press I, or choose Inspect sight line. Enter a target column and row, or choose a hex on the map. Distances use the game’s 120-yard hex scale. The dashed sight trace marks terrain obstructions with circles; known troops masking fire receive crosses. The map prompt summarizes the result. Click a hex or press Enter to open its report without issuing an order.
The report checks terrain sight, spotting coverage, weapon range, facing, readiness and known fire lanes separately. Expand the terrain trace for each intervening hex’s elevation and obstruction height. Clear sight does not guarantee a shot: troops can mask fire, the target can be outside range or arc, or your regiment may have finished firing.
Non-routed troops and leaders spot combat units within two hexes even through terrain, or within sixteen hexes with a clear sight line. Other friendly observers may spot the target. This coverage does not predict the separate rules for spotting enemy leaders or horse-holders. Leaders inspect terrain but do not fire; routed regiments supply no spotting.
Fog of war: hidden troops never appear as occupants or fire-lane obstructions. They can still block a real shot. Inspection consumes no dice, ammunition or movement. Center inspected hex moves only the camera. Press I or Finish inspection to resume normal map orders. Escape closes a report; a second Escape exits and deselects.
Press K or choose Recovery / command. Select a friendly regiment or battery to inspect its daytime recovery threshold and the passing outcomes across all 36 dice pairs. The report uses the same calculation as the engine. These are conditional chances at the current position; intervening orders can change them. Routed units rally to Disordered first, and cannot rally within two hexes of a non-routed enemy. A failed or blocked rally within five hexes triggers a three-hex retreat attempt.
Leader support within two hexes supplies only the highest effective rating. Leaders in the unit’s chain and army commanders give full rating; other friendly leaders give half, rounded down. Command coverage is separate: brigadiers cover four hexes for infantry or six for cavalry; division and corps commanders cover three. Army leaders can help rallies but do not supply ordinary command coverage. Batteries do not need a nearby commander for command status. Select an available leader’s name to locate it.
The report identifies the next own half-turn and whether nightfall comes first. Nightfall guidance follows the existing sequential overnight rules at current known positions, including recovery, breastworks and wrecked brigades. Under fog, hidden troops may worsen recovery; the report never reveals them. Reading and locating issue no orders and consume no dice.
No daytime resupply order exists. Infantry and cavalry refill ammunition at nightfall. Artillery replenishes long-range stocks to at least 30 Union or 15 Confederate missions; canister does not use that stock. Some scenarios end before another overnight phase, which the report identifies. Refresh the report after conditions change.
Select a regiment or its brigadier and press B, then choose the center of the intended line. The map outline uses known positions and shows the intended formation, not guaranteed destinations. The review projects each regiment’s actual endpoint, route, movement and facing cost, remaining MP, final facing and firing eligibility under the existing movement rules. The brigadier’s projected movement is listed separately.
Regiments can stop short because of terrain, congestion or movement limits. Routed, exhausted and already-charged units are listed with their limitations. Hold position markers do not exempt units from this brigade order; the review identifies marked units.
Known defensive-fire candidates are listed for each arrival. The same defender may appear more than once, but earlier fire can remove its later eligibility. The forecast omits actual fire, morale, leader encounters and new sightings. Hidden troops can change the formation, routes, facing and endpoints. The real order recalculates movement on the battlefield.
March brigade commits the order once; brigade marches cannot be undone. Choose another center or Escape returns to planning. Cancel planner or B exits while retaining the selected unit. Reviewing and cancelling use no movement, ammunition or dice. A changed battlefield requires a new review.
Select a regiment or its brigadier and press V. Plan brigade volley lists fielded regiments in firing order. Choose a visible target or Hold fire for this volley for each. Each target includes an individual casualty estimate, dice range and expandable shot factors. The summary shows planned shots and concentration by target.
Suggested targets use the brigade’s existing targeting preference and respect Hold position markers. Hold all fire clears the targets; Restore suggested targets restores the initial suggestions. Holding fire here applies only to this volley. You can explicitly order a held unit to fire, which expires its hold marker normally.
Fire planned volleys commits the reviewed orders once, in roster order. Each shot is checked again after earlier fire. Destroyed, hidden or no-longer-legal targets are skipped; that regiment keeps its ammunition and firing order. It does not automatically attack a different enemy. A retreating target remains selected if it is still visible and legal. Estimates are for the opening position and cannot simply be added when several regiments shoot at one target.
The Brigade volley return explains which regiments fired, held or skipped. Expand a fired volley to see its actual dice, modifiers, morale ruling and events. Direct casualties exclude further losses from morale or collapse. Keep planning / close and Escape issue no shots. Locating a chosen target centers the map without changing your choices; close the review to inspect it. Closing discards the plan.
Select a regiment and press C or choose Plan charge. Select an adjacent visible enemy to inspect every friendly regiment that will join, the men committed, effective strengths, terrain factors and the current odds column. Eligible supporting regiments join automatically even from delegated corps; all participants spend their remaining movement and charge order, even if the attack falters.
The defender may fire a closing volley. The preview shows average direct casualties and the dice range, including the reduced second volley after earlier defensive fire. The lead regiment must then pass its charge morale check. The conditional melee table counts all 36 equally likely dice pairs at current strengths. These are not overall success chances: closing fire, morale and leader effects can change the column or stop the attack. A routed defender uses the top odds column.
Commit this charge orders the real attack once. Keep planning / close, Escape and Locate target issue no attack. Map clicks that would automatically charge also open the review. Changed plans must be reviewed again. Previewing does not spend ammunition, movement or dice. Units in delegated corps remain inspectable but cannot receive direct manual orders until their corps is returned to human command.
Fire: a regiment that has moved no more than half its allowance fires once at an enemy in its front arc, in range and in sight. The Casualty Return shows the ruling: men × the weapon's factor at the range, every modifier (woods, stone walls, breastworks, enfilade, formation), the two dice, and the casualties; heavy loss forces a morale test. Charge: a regiment in good order in line beside the enemy may charge (C); every one of your regiments able to strike the same position goes in with it. An eligible defender fires a closing volley, the attackers must find the will to close, and the melee is read on an odds column. Morale: a narrow failure disorders a regiment, a bad one routs it — and a rout shakes the regiments beside it. A brigade that has lost 40% of its men is wrecked and will not go forward again that day.
Scoring: one point for every hundred enemy casualties, one per gun captured, two to fifteen for each general struck down, and the value of every objective (★) you hold at the end.
At the last turn the margin (Confederate points minus Union points) is read against the scenario's par, measured from many battles between the machine generals. Beat par by six or more and you win — marginal, substantive or decisive as the margin grows.
Fall six or more points short of par and the battle is lost. There is no sudden death: an army can be driven from the field and still fight to the last turn, and a wrecked brigade can still hold ground and fire. Lose your guns, your generals and your objectives and the verdict will say so.
Press S or choose Saved battles in the Battle panel or on the title sheet. Each card shows its scenario, turn, command, fog setting and save time. Autosave updates after every half-turn and when a battle starts. Save now updates it immediately.
Use any of the three named checkpoints to keep a position. Choose Save here, enter a name such as “Before the charge”, and select Save checkpoint. Replacing or deleting a checkpoint asks you to review that slot first. Checkpoints remain intact when autosave updates or a new battle starts.
Choose Load checkpoint or Load autosave, review the battle details, then select Load this battle. Loading or starting a new battle replaces your current position and autosave, so save a checkpoint first if you want to keep the current position. Checkpoints preserve the battlefield, orders, hold markers and dice sequence. Camera position and last-march undo are not saved.
Saving and loading are available once machine orders have finished. In Watch mode, press Pause and wait for the half-turn to finish. A damaged save is marked unreadable and left untouched. If storage is unavailable or full, the game reports the failure and keeps existing saves. Saves belong to this browser and site; clearing site data removes them.