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1800-luku oli muutoksen aikaa sodissa. Aseet paranivat koko ajan, mutta edelleen sotilaat etenivät tiukassa muodostelmassa kohti vihollista. Aivan kuten heidän isoisänsäkin olivat tehneet. Tämän tuloksena taistelut olivat erittäin verisiä ja tuhoisia.

Age Of Rifles keskittyy juuri tähän aikakauteen, kun taktiikat olivat jo menneisyyttä aseistukseen verrattuna. Peli kattaa ajanjakson 1846 - 1905 ja mukana on kymmeniä kansallisuuksia. Mukana muun muassa sellaisia suurvaltoja kuten Ansar, Kolumbia ja Chile. Toki pelistä löytyy myös perinteiset maat jotka yleensä yhdistetään tähän aikakauteen, kuten Englanti, Preussi ja Yhdysvaltain sisällissodan osapuolet.

Pelintekijät ovat nähneet valtavan työn saadakseen aikakauden aseistuksen peliin mukaan. Erilaisia tykkejä ja kivääreitä löytyy lukemattomia ja niillä on erilaiset arvot taistelun kannalta. Myös historiallisten skenaarioiden tekeminen on varmasti ollut aikaa vievää, varsinkin hieman tuntemattomampien taisteluiden osalta. Miltäpä tuntuisi esimerkiksi komentaa Brittijoukkoja, Zulujen heimojoukkoja vastaan jotka ovat aseistautuneet keihäin ja kilvin? Taistelun tulos ei olekkaan niin yksinkertainen kuin voisi luulla...

Grafiikalla ei edelleenkään tänä päivänä ole mitään syytä hävetä. Se on yksityiskohtaista ja hienon näköistä. Myös yksiköt on tehty hienosti ja erilaisia yksityiskohtia on ihan kiitettävästi. Jos tämä peli tehtäisiin nyt uudelleen, niin paranneltavaa ei tältä osin olisi hirveästi. Käytännössä vain pientä pintakiillotusta tarvittaisiin. Äänimaailma on myös onnistunut ja luo hyvin tunteen siitä, että olet kaaosmaisella taistelukentällä jossa musketit ja tykit paukkuvat, hevoset hirnuvat ja miehet huutavat. Ehkä jonkinlaista taustamelua olisi ollut hyvä lisätä, mutta menetteleehän tämä näinkin.

Pelattavuus on kohdallaan ja peli aiheuttaa hetkessä riippuvuuden tyyliin: 'kokeilenpa vielä kerran saisinko murrettua Unionin linjan tuon kukkulan päällä'. Pelaaminen sujuu hiirellä ja näppäimistöön ei tarvitse koskea ollenkaan. Lisäksi pelattavaa on hirveä määrä ja jos se joskus loppuu, niin internetistä löytää pelaajien itse tekemiä skenaarioita runsaasti lisää. Pelissä on siis myös kattava editori, joka SSI:n tyyliin on yksityiskohtainen ja sillä pystyy tekemään minkälaisia taisteluita tahansa. Editorissa voi määritellä asiat aina yksikön univormusta ja aseistuksesta lähtien ja päätyen mihin divisioonaan yksikkö kuuluu.

Jos jotain negatiivista pitäisi löytää, niin se on se, että pelissä on aavistuksen verran liian monta taistelua Yhdysvaltain sisällissodasta. Toki tämä sota oli aikakauden merkittävin, mutta samat taistelut on tullut tahkottua monessa muussakin pelissä. Lisäksi tästä sodasta on mukana niin pieniä ja merkityksettömiä kahakoita, että olisi luullut pelintekijöiden korvaavan nämä muilla taisteluilla joita kuitenkin käytiin muuallakin maailmassa.

Age of Rifles is the best in SSI's Wargame Construction set series and a very fine strategy game indeed. It let's you take command of the armies in the 19th century and fight in many historic campaigns, like the Franco-Prussian war, the Mexican-American war, the Russo-Japanese war or the (entire, I may add) American civil war. Mark my words, you have a lot of playing ahead, my friend. :)

The game itself is very easy to learn and each turn in this wonderful TBS is easy to plan and execute. It isn't Command and Conquer-easy though. You're actually forced to think tactically and plan your moves. Human waves and cavalery rushes (sorry, tanks didn't exist in th 1800's) will lead your forces to a quick a and humiliating death. I personally like this and would like to congratulate the developers on having created a game that's very easy to play but still very tactically challenging.

Game play great, and the graphics are very good for this type of game. The sounds, while functional, aren't that good in my humble opinion. Heavy gun fire, explosions and screams and that's it. When repeated a million times it gets a little boring however.

The final score would be 4/5 stars. It's a very good game that gives you a lot of fun for the credits. The only thing that could be better would be an upgrade of WGCS2. I honeslty would preffer a game with the time span 1918-1991. Fighting the battles of WWI, WWII, Korea, Israel and her neighbhours, Vietnam and the Gulf War would be GOLD. Or wouldn't it be fun to change history by crushing S.Korea or kicking the Yank's out of Iraq in a tactical strategy with good GFX and a flexible game play? Until I see that game, Age of Rifle's will entertain me for many months to come.

This game is one of the best turn-based strategy games about the wars in the 19th century and undoubtably the most covering. Even though there have been many strategy games concerning the American civil war, I personally haven't ever commanded armies of Ansar or Zulu nation in any game.
As the name implies, the time scale is about the second half of 19th century and all the major (and some of the minor) battles and skirmishes have been atleast mentioned in the game.
The game includes lots of small campaigns. Some of the campaigns have also been tied together (like English colonial battles in India South-Africa and Afghanistan), so you can either play in India alone, or play all the battles where England has been in the 19th century (which is plenty...). Naturally there is also the grand campaign, which consists all the battles in the game, such as civil wars in North- and South-America and the Russo-Japanese war of 1905.
In fact that is the last war in the game, because after that the techonology and the battle-tactics have changed so much, that the age rifles was over.
The gameplay is clear (point and click, no keyboard required), the graphics beautiful (even when compared to games nowadays and the sounds give a nice athmosphere as you can hear all the needed sounds of battle (men shouting, horns blowing and of course the guns and cannons). The ground troops are the most important ones in the game even though you can have some ships in your command.
The editor deserves to be mentioned alone, because it is simply great. You can adjust just about everything including the cloths and names of the troops you create. Different jackets for example are in vast number, just as shoes, pants and hats. You can also give them weapons, which can be found even more than clothes and vary from spear and a bow to gatling or Maximilian machinegun, also known atleast in finnish as the lathe of death.
Altogether a game which with time passes in tremendous speed.

Warfare Constuction Set 3:
Age of Rifles 1846-1905
Jrevill

Short summary of the American Civil War:
To many, the American Civil War conflict was the struggle over slavery. In 1860 industrial revolution was in full swing in the North, with the factories of New England driving the economy. The economic might of the South, meanwhile, depended on the labor of the slaves to provide raw materials for their factories.

With the election of Abraham Lincoln who campaigned for an abolitionist platform. The South began to fan the flames of secession. The American Civil War could be described
as “Growing Pains”, since the United States was only 85 years old with a 72 year old constitution.

The dawn of the Age of Rifles can be linked to Alexander Forsyth, who perfected the percussion method of gunpowder ignition, in 1807. Within a few years, copper caps containing mercury fulminate came into use, reducing misfires due to wind and water.
Forsyth’s discovery was the most important advance in firearms since Roger Bacon’s gunpowder in 1249. Prior to the Napoleonic Wars, troops were armed with hand-to-hand weapons and smoothbore rifles. The basic rifle experienced a significant evolution, from the needle gun to the gas-operated machine gun, it forced changes in military strategy and tactics. By the end of the Age of Rifles, the art of warfare was dramatically transformed.

The Golden Age of the rifle began in the late 1860’s with the introduction of rapid-fire, breech-loading, and magazine-fed weapons. The lessons learned from previous terrible conflicts eventually led to the development of modern tactics, giving rise to today’s battlefields, but that is the subject of another game.

The game:
Age of Rifles is a turn-based game, it is not only about the civil war between the Union and the Confederacy, other wars like Russo-Japanese war and Crimean War, etc., is featured in this game. I only emphasized the American Civil War because it was in this war that the rifle evolved from the smoothbore muskets to the breech-loading weapons.

You will see your units mounted on round or square sort of platforms, you can easily identify the various units: rifle, machine gun, food wagon, artillery, cavalry, etc. The game employs the drag-and-drop method: you click and hold the mouse pointer
on a unit, the cursor will change to a small flag, if it’s green, then you can drag that unit to a point in the map, and releasing it will move that unit to the designated point. If it’s red then you cannot move that unit. If it’s near an enemy unit it will engage it automatically, or you can command it to fire at the opponent if the cursor changes to a crosshair. A combat report will popup to tell you the stats of the encounter, it will say this or that unit has been routed or has retreated or eliminated, it will also show a list of casualties and wounded on both sides.

The Map window is the main area of activity for an Age of Rifles scenario. Within the Map window, terrain features such as built-up areas, supply points, fortifications, roads,
trenches, forests, rivers, and streams are represented. Elevation is represented using contour lines where elevation changes to form slopes or escarpments. Victory objectives are displayed as a flag of the appropriate nation which changes based on the last unit to control that hex. Supply points appear as encampments and also change status based on
occupation unless on the map edge

The map will usually be an open field, but you can edit it with the built-in editor, like add more hills and trees, you can even edit the strength of the wind during the battle. Wind is important in battles like this because it can affect the accuracy of the projectiles or bullets.

You can choose scenarios, based on true battle records, but it’s up to you to alter the outcome of the battle, e.g. if it’s a confederate victory and you want it to become a union victory, you can force the outcome of the battle. Or you can start a campaign, but then you cannot change the scenarios. You can choose a sea battle scenario between iron-clads and steam battleships of the time.

It’s a good game if you like historical battles, gameplay is turn-based so it’s actually up to you, sound is limited to gunfire and the sound of hoofbeats. There’s no actual animation of the characters, it’s just like moving markers on tactical battlefield map.

jrevill