Tags
American Revolutionary War, Darthmod, England, New England, Rise of Liberty, The Seven Years War, Ultimate Admiral, Ultimate Admiral: Age of Sail, Ultimate General: American Revolution
My struggle to find love within my heart for The Seven Years War got me hankering for the land portion of Ultimate Admiral: Age of Sail. Loading the game back up again, I see that a number of improvements have entered the game as it continues its time in Early Access.
![](https://ettubluto.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/bunker2.jpg?w=1024)
Last time around I had completed the English campaign, which is billed as the entry-level for newer players. At this point, a third campaign has been added (the second American campaign). In addition, there is now the ability to create custom battles (although quite obviously still under construction) and more pre-made historical battles, including some placeholders that showcase the cavalry units (a recent addition to the game). After a little bit of poking around, I picked up where I left off, launching the American revolutionary campaign and took the “land” choice for the Battle of Bunker Hill. I figured this would scratch my itch.
Although we’ve now moved, once again, to a different war, the compare and contrast between these two game engines is too tempting to pass up. The Ultimate General UI*, which I fawned over in its Gettysburg iteration, is like a beautiful breath of fresh air after struggling with The Seven Years War and its quirkiness. Everything is a little easier to navigate, much easier to enter commands, and overall looks soooo much better. Although it is what we would call “eye candy,” Ultimate Admiral has made an effort to provide good looking unit animations during movement and combat. Units move from column to line, change facing, and engage in combat all using animations that are a pleasure to behold. Note, for example, the below screenshot, depicting the first assault – against Bunker Hill proper. I’ve brought up some reinforcements to fill in the gaps in my prepared positions. You can see the moving units getting into position while the entrenched units are depicted in solid lines. Ultimately, it conveys less information that the multitude of status bars in The Seven Years War, but it provides immediate and visceral feedback.
![](https://ettubluto.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/bunker1.jpg?w=1024)
That Don’t Tread On Me campaign, as I said, quickly takes you to the Battle of Bunker Hill in its second scenario. I’m playing on the easiest settings and so I probably couldn’t help but “beat” my real-life patriot counterparts. I was impressed to see that the battle appears to be modeled in a one-to-one ratio for the actual forces engaged on that day. This in an area I expected Ultimate Admiral to fall short but, as far as my superficial counting can manage, numerically-accurate orders of battle are present and accounted for.
There are a few areas where Ultimate Admiral does come up a bit short, particularly in comparison to The Seven Years War. For example, note that the units are ungrouped (except where I have made my own, RTS-style). That is, there is no command structure built into the order of battle. I don’t yet understand how The Seven Years War models that command structure, but it does seem to translate into a command delay. The Ultimate Admiral interface doesn’t have that. It is perfectly allowable to micromanage every single unit, no matter where they go and what they do, coordinating a fairly-immediate response across the battlefield.
Now, Ultimate Admiral obviously has its limitations as a revolutionary war (or Napoleonic war) land-battle simulator. It is clearly designed to focus on the naval activities, even if many of the scenarios involve some combination of land and navy. This all gets me very excited about Ultimate General: American Revolution, apparently under development. Could this one be the ideal horse and musket era tactical game? The screenshots certainly show a heck of a lot of promise. One also might imagine that the initial choice of the American Revolutionary War is a way to ease in to the pre-Napoleonic period in a way that foreshadows a European version of the game coming in the future.
Once more to change the subject.
As I find myself tinkering with Bunker Hill, I dug out one other independent game – one that I’ve sat on for quite a while after purchasing. The game Rise of Liberty has been on Steam (for only $8) for a couple of years now. It garners a “very positive” rating, although one should be clear it’s being judged on what it is, not objectively against Steam’s triple-A titles. This is a single-player, first-person shooter set during the American revolution. The player is free to go anywhere on the battlefield, interact with different weapons, and even gather a small group of one’s fellows to fight on one side or the other of a handful of randomly-generated or semi-historical battles.
![](https://ettubluto.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/bunker3.jpg?w=1024)
The screenshot, above, is taken from the random-battle generator, but uses the Bunker Hill map and setup as its basis. When you “respawn,” you show up as a infantryman with a musket and 20 rounds. Waves of assaulting infantry and cavalry come at your lines which, on this map, consists of fortified positions on top of a hill. Points are awarded for control of victory locations and, after you’ve run around shooting for a bit, a victor is declared in the fight.
The first impression, and much discussion, is provoked by the low-fidelity 3D graphics. This appears to be the answer to all those wargamers who want developers to focus on making a better game rather than better graphics. It also is an attempt to maximize the number of men that will simultaneous engage on the virtual battlefield. It is definitely true that, when playing the game, the blocky graphics don’t seem so important as they do in a screenshot or video. Beyond that, this is by no means an accurate period simulator. While the AI-controlled soldiers do tend to form up in lines of battle, there isn’t really much in the way of tactics. Although the weapons of the day are slow to reload and use, they feel unrealistically lethal. The best way I could describe this game, to someone who has never played it, is a simplified version of the battle portion of Mount & Blade. It’s not exactly the game I’d been asking for but it does fill a niche and the price is right.
Rise of Liberty is a fun little game if you just want to shoot redcoats for a few minutes without really investing much mental energy. Yet, I think much of the love also comes from the potential that the concept offers. One wonders if the developer had in his mind a more-developed tactical layer. The game, in its current state, almost seems like a proof-of-concept to put realistic numbers of soldiers in realistic formations. More work to enforce formations and tactics combined with a command layer that allows you to control a few companies would make for a very interesting period game indeed. How many of us are supporting this game in its current state because we’re actually engaged by this potential?
Maybe its time for me to quit dreaming about what might happen someday and get back to some games that are actually finished.
*The Ultimate Admiral: Age of Sail UI is not the same as was present for Gettysburg. What I don’t know is if this is an intended divergence of the two products or if we might end up seeing some of the Ultimate General stuff make it into Ultimate Admiral: Age of Sail before release.