Reviewed: August 7, 2006
Reviewed by: Jeff Gedgaud
Publisher
Strategy First
Developer
Ageod
Released: June 12, 2006
Genre: Turn-Based Strategy
Players: 1-2
ESRB: Everyone
7
7
6
8
7.0
System Requirements
Recommended System
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Fighting to conquer the new lands of the Americas or protecting your investment of the far off colonies can be easy and fun in Birth of America, Strategy First's new historical turn-based strategy game. You fight as either side of the conflicts of the historic French & Indian war of 1755-1763 or the American War of Independence of 1775-1783 with units like American militia, British Dragoons, artillery and naval ships.
Birth of America features:
- 18th century North American Map that covers 700 provinces, with diversity of terrain, climates and civilization levels.
- Dozens of unit models from the era
- Simple and intuitive handling
- Over 150 historical characters included
- 11 scenarios and 3 grand campaigns
- A very reactive AI
- Play by email option
- Downloadable through STEAM
Birth of America is a simultaneous turn based strategy game that has you decide what moves to make and then both sides get their moves played out over a one-month period of time. To play at any shorter interval than a month per turn would be pretty boring as well as hectic and any longer you would loose control of important events. Most movements from town to town take at least a week so the month turn is a good choice.
Units vary from individuals like real Generals and Admirals to American militia, British Dragoons or French soldiers. You play either the French and Indian War or the American War of Independence on either the French, British or American side. Gameplay is rather easy but the strategy and winning individual campaigns or whole wars is rather difficult. Using simple point and click of the mouse moves units or keyboard commands will change their posture from defend to assault or other types of readiness.
The units are clearly identifiable with a good portion of the map being seen when you zoom out or you can see a smaller area like a couple of towns and the units there. You start out any conflict by picking the period and side of the battles to play on and then start your movements and strategy. Towns with troops in them are marked by little numbers by the town and clicking the town will bring up the units there. You then click and hold the unit to move them to another town or spot on the map to have them march when you’re done with your turn.
You can also build forts or upgrade town defenses in your turn and supply units in the field. You have several choices during your turn and you have to plan for what the AI will do. Some games are as short as four turns like various individual battles or you can play either war in its entirety. There are several controls for the AI’s aggressiveness and difficulty levels to make Birth of America harder, easier or faster for you.
In each conflict or fight the AI decides who wins and loses according to things like troop strengths, commanders and supplies but also adds things like morale to the decision to make it fair for you. It assigns points to the winner of each conflict and this is how the victor is decided at the end of each scenario if neither side wins by accomplishing the objectives.
You are given campaign objectives like taking over certain towns and holding them and have to finish these by the end of the scenario. The computer AI is also given the objectives for its side and must do these or neither side will win. Then the points of the battles come into play for a victor of the scenario to see who did better.
Movement across the land can be helped by roads or hindered by terrain such as forests or mountains as well as bad weather. Birth of America uses the map with symbols like little trees for forests and shows the features of the eastern area of America well.
The symbols used for hills, mountains and forests are easy to identify and you know to use these features when planning your moves and turns. Birth of America has some low system requirements due to the nature of a turn based strategy game but does well with the maps, unit identification and overall feel of the game.
The menus and features of the screens are all themed around the historic period and look nice. With a turn based game of this nature there is not much to graphics or sound but Birth of America made sure it was easy to play and get information that you need for units or gameplay.
Sounds in this type of game are also of very little importance when playing as long as they are not annoying. Birth of America has some background music and sounds themed to the period with some battle sounds and marches playing when the computer is playing the turns out. Other than this the game has little in the way of sound and what there is plays fine.
Birth of America is a really good value for a turn based strategy game. You can choose to play very short campaigns like individual battles of either war or the whole war for over a hundred turns. The game ends when the turns are up but does not actually end there.
I noticed as others have that the game pops up a victory or defeat window that explains who won and why and then you can close this window and continue to play. The game will no longer reinforce troops automatically but you can continue to play with available troops and units and try your luck at conquering the rest of the country while you’re at it.
There are 2 scenarios and the full campaign for the French & Indian war and ten scenarios and the full Independence war to choose from for battles and scenarios in Birth of America. You can play against the computer or against another player over a LAN if you want even more of a challenge.
Birth of America is a good historic turn based strategy game that is not only fun to play but very educational. As with many historically based games this has all kinds of facts included along with the fun play.
For strategy lovers Birth of America is a well-made and easy to play game with plenty of challenging but very informative historic play.