Previous Next

I've never met the original Johnny Reb, but its successor is a good, interesting game of minor tactics in the American Civil War, for one or two players.

The scenario offered is of a small Union force (numbers and sizes are not given, but it seems to be about eight regiments) defending a bridge and two fords against considerably larger forces of Confederates (either another player or the computer) while reinforcements come to their rescue.

The terrain and forces are pre-programmed, but the Union player can add further field defences and upgrade the morale and weapons of his force. (He cannot, however, downgrade the enemy - the designer thought of that one!)

Unfortunately, this defence-strengthening, which takes up a large part of the program, isn't really needed as the Union forces can win against the computer as they stand.

The computerised Confederates always attack in the same three places one unit at a time, rather than employing sensible tactics.

If there was surplus memory available, it should have gone into correcting this, which for serious players really makes Johnny Reb II a two-player game only.

The playing mechanism is a very straightforward icon-based system, each to use at high speed. The game can be set for real-time, in which it genuinely takes the infantry of both sides about half a minute to load and fire their muzzle-loading muskets.

The graphics, which are very impressive, actually show this happening, allowing the player to judge the state of his troops.

The morale system seems simple, but responds very well to recreating the behaviour of Civil War troops in running, rallying and coming back to fight several times.

A player needs patience, persistance, and a determination not to be defeated in getting his men to stand before the enemy - all good qualities for a general.

Occasional oddities in the equipment of both sides can be traced to a remarkable error in the instruction booklet, "the Confederate Army had a better industrial base than the Union force". This is a bit like saying that in Vietnam the Viet Cong had a better industrial base than the Americans!