Oh, this definitely grabbed my attention when checking out new iPad apps this morning. It’s a new turn-based strategy game for the iPad called Civil War: 1863. I’m a huge fan of this type of game and grew up playing strategic board games against my younger (but unfortunately far smarter) brother.

Here’s a bit of the game’s App Store description:

Relive iconic battles of the American Civil War. Take command of both the Union and Confederate forces in this exciting turn-based strategy game from the developers behind the international top-selling Tank Battle: 1944.
Key Features:
● 8 Mission ‘First Strike’ Campaign.
● 8 Mission ‘Hoorah’ Campaign.
● Includes battles based on historic events.
● Features both Union and Confederate forces.
● 7 different unit types with unique gameplay.
● Changeable unit formations and tactics.
● Generals can attach to units to increase morale.
● More capable Veteran units and unreliable raw units.
● 3 difficulty settings.
● Game Center Achievements and Leaderboards.
● Universal App (Works on iPhone & iPad)!
● High Definition graphics (including retina for the new iPad).
● 5 Pass & Play two player scenarios.
● Hours of Gameplay!
● Download extra campaigns.

I’ve tried out this publisher’s Tank Battle: 1944 and thought it was pretty good. This Civil War themed game looks very promising too. I installed it earlier this morning and I’ve only had time to play through a couple of the basic learn how to play scenarios, but I’m looking forward to playing it lots more this evening.

Here’s an App Store link for Civil War: 1863. The game is on sale at a ‘special introductory price’ of $1.99 right now – which is 50% off.

Are any of you fans of turn-based strategy games? If so, which ones have you enjoyed on the iPad?

Shenandoah Studio are an iPad game development house with a mission that’s very close to my heart – they are:

a group of veteran game designers and developers who have come together to publish top quality strategy games on the iPad, in the spirit of classic board games. Collectively, we have over 160 years of game design and development experience.

I grew up playing and loving many of those classic strategy board games and last weekend I posted about Shenandoah’s Kickstarter project to get funding for the first of their iPad titles – Battle of the Bulge. This weekend there’s a double-dose of very good news from Shenandoah Studio. First off, they have reached their $20,000 funding target with 22 days still to go in their project. Congratulations to them on that.

The second bit of great news, equally as exciting as the first, is that there is already a follow-up game for the iPad in the works. It’s called El Alamein and is described thusly:

We are pleased to announce that the first sequel to Battle of the Bulge, Mark Herman’s El Alamein. Mark is a veteran game designer with many game designs to his credit and he is a member of the Game Design Hall of Fame. Mark’s game takes the new Crisis in Command series of games to North Africa and one of the great turning points of World War Two: El Alamein.

That’s the splash screen for the newly-announced title shown at the top of this post.

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Battle of the Bulge: the Simulation Game for the iPad is, easily, my favorite Kickstarter project ever. I’m a huge fan of Kickstarter and I’ve been heavily impressed with a number of the iPad related projects on it – but this is a no contest type situation.

One of my favorite things growing up was playing strategic war games – board games like Blitzkrieg, Gettysburg, Afrika Korps and many many others by companies like Avalon Hill and SPI. Some of my fondest memories are of playing these games against my brother – who was younger than me and far, far better than me at all of these strategy games.

This Battle of the Bulge iPad game will bring that great tradition of strategic war games to the iPad, and I honestly can’t wait to see it – and play it!

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