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Ultimate General: Gettysburg is a Real-Time Strategy game depicting the Battle of Gettysburg developed and published by Game-Labs.

Released on June 12, 2014, its players are free to more or less follow the actual occurrences of the battle or make tactical and strategic decisions against the historical record while playing either side of the Union forces or the Confederates. Units are made available to utilize or fight against as how they actually marched onto the battlefield in July 1863 and the in-game map is a recreation of Gettyburg’s terrain and houses gathered from research on historical maps and satellite imagery.

The main gameplay consists of going through individual real-time combats portraying the three days of the battle, with the additions of being able to play singular maps from the battle and other battles against the computer or for multiplayer matches.

Total War players will definitely notice similarities from that series to this game’s focus on real-time tactics and morale, which isn’t all that surprising considering its lead designer was Nick Thomadis, the creator of the popular “DarthMod” series of mods for Total War games.

The game was followed by Ultimate General: Civil War three years later, adding an army management layer for an overarching campaign.


This game provides examples of:

  • Acceptable Breaks from Reality: The game streamlines ammunition and fatigue together as “Condition”. Condition (and therefore, units’ ammunition) is also automatically restored while standing still out of combat.
  • All-or-Nothing Reloads: An Averted Trope with units’ “Reload” gauge, which represents the percentage of individuals in the brigade that have loaded their weapons. A brigade can fire at the enemy, have their full firepower being interrupted by other orders which can leave the successful shooters able to reload, and then fire off the remainder of the unit’s ready arms again before requiring the unit to totally reload before the next volley.
  • A.I. Roulette: A downplayed example as a potential setting - the actual AI personalities were actively programmed to be display a certain amount of ability and aggression at the game based off the nine kinds, but a player liking the potential for sheer unpredictability can have a personality chosen for them at random without their knowledge to which got chosen.
  • Anti-Frustration Features: Rather than letting units pointlessly stack upon onto a location unable to get a clear line of fire toward the enemy while making themselves an easier target to the enemy, units too close together will spread out enough to be able to fire unhindered while enemies are nearby...though this may cause units to let themselves out of concealment and reveal themselves to the enemy prematurely.
  • Artificial Brilliance: The AI will hide its units behind hills up until it can spring a large assault somewhere on your lines to achieve force concentration in the area, and units will automatically try to readjust to being attacked in its flanks or rear (which also automatically cancels any orders to hold its position and facing) rather than dumbly standing around getting shot in the back until they get sick of it and run.
  • Bottomless Magazines: Averted, brigades have a Reload gauge which represents the percentage of individuals in a brigade having to reload before firing again. Brigades can also be interrupted while firing (such as being ordered to turn around while in the middle of shooting or getting engaged in melee while shooting), causing less of the brigade to have to reload again before fully-firing. Shooting will reduce a unit’s Condition, a measured conflation of ammunition and fatigue.
  • Close-Range Combatant: The Confederates, whose has more experienced units and more inspiring leaders to make them superior in melee and aggressive, concentrated attacks.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: But at least it’s an setting you have to turn on! The Boost AI option for starting a new battle gives your computer enemy continuous condition replenishment, makes them more accurate while shooting at long-range, and gives them a higher charge bonus. Otherwise
  • Easy Logistics: Players won’t have to worry about supplying their units with ammunition – making them leave combat at times to restore their Condition which also represents their ammunition and maybe also put a general nearby them, yes, but not actually bringing and supplying them with ammunition.
  • Fog of War: Areas of the map that none of your units are able to look into are darkened, and clicking on a single unit shows a detailed version of their sight lines by darkening everything that they can’t look at. A mode for showing the detailed topography of the map (the Elevation button, mapped to the M key) can also be turned on to clearly indicate higher ground.
  • Foregone Conclusion: As the game can follow the troop deployments and reinforcements of the actual Battle of Gettysburg quite closely, players with enough knowledge of the actual battle can predict when enemy or allied reinforcements will arrive pretty well and play around that.
  • Geo Effects: Houses and terrain features (such as trees) can provide more cover for your units, and high ground emboldens units and gives them better sight lines from above them, or can block the enemy from seeing them if higher ground is between them and the enemy.
  • Guide Dang It!: While logical, the game doesn’t actually tell you that units firing their guns closer to the enemy is far more accurate and thereby far more damaging.
  • Hero Unit: Generals automatically restore morale and condition to units within their circular command radius. They are also unkillable, incapable of harming the enemy, and automatically run away from enemy units
  • Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: The game presents nine “difficulty” levels that represents the AI’s general skill and its tendency for aggressiveness. From least aggressive to most:
    • Cautious, Opportunistic, and Risky are the easiest difficulties.
    • Defensive, Balanced and Offensive are the medium difficulties.
    • Cunning, Dynamic and Determined are the highest difficulties.
  • In the Back: Units hit in their rear take more damage and lose morale a lot quicker.
  • Kick Them While They Are Down: Units who are hit from behind take a lot more damage, and routing units will inherently be running away from their enemies. Since units need to take a fair amount of losses before shattering (which only happens when reduced to 30% of their starting numbers) and can rally fairly fast while away from enemy contact, routing enemies should be chased and attacked as much as one can spare.
  • Long-Range Fighter: The Union, whose higher numbers, similarly-ranked units reloading faster as well as more cannons make them best at shooting the enemy over time.
  • Morale Mechanic: Units have a morale gauge that is increased by killing the enemy, standing on high ground, and being nearby a commander, and is decreased by taking losses, especially from the flanks or rear. Units with exhausted Condition are also lose morale much quicker.
  • No Range Like Point-Blank Range: Units’ reliance on accuracy to hit their enemies goes down as they get closer to enemies – this can cause decently-numbered infantry units standing just outside of melee range with an enemy unit’s back to shoot a lethal volley that will rout just about any unit immediately.
  • Sound-Coded for Your Convenience: A distinctive trumpeting accompanied by war cries happens whenever a unit charges at another unit, making it helpful for realizing your troops are being charged at while you were expecting to be just trading fire with the enemy.
  • Suspiciously Small Army: Averted, the game's units are directly taken from the actual brigades and their numbers that appeared in the real Battle of Gettysburg.
  • Take Cover!: In a Company of Heroes-esque manner, all units inherently Take Cover! automatically to where they stand on the battlefield based on the terrain features around them with the protection it provides them infers by a "Cover" gauge — a unit in a heavy forest or within the town of Gettysburg itself will be well covered from all forms of ranged attacks, but even on fairly open ground, it will be quite rare that units see their Cover gauge be absolutely zero. Smaller units will also proportionately be better able to take cover in terrain, with small skirmisher units being able to gain a maximum cover benefit from smaller forests while larger infantry brigades will require the densest forests in the game to be as well protected.
  • Veteran Unit: Subverted Trope — experienced units in the game, represented by having up to three stars on their profile, simply are so from previous battle experience and cannot be mechanically improved within the game. There are no in-game methods to make an inexperienced unit become a Veteran Unit, and these stars are an indicator of the unit's quality from now to the end of the battle.

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