Game by TalonSoft, released by Empire Interactive.

Having now played Battlegrounds Ardennes, Gettysburg and Waterloo I looked forward to playing Battleground Shiloh. Game options include modem play, null-modem play. play by e-mail and a two-player hot seat mode, all of which work as well as the solo play.

Upon starting the game you are given the usual excellent start, which we come to expect from TalonSoft, and are then into the scenario selection. You have various smaller scenarios (not necessarily to do with the Battle of Shiloh) at Prairie Grove, Wilson's Creek and Pittsburg Landing, and have various larger "What If" and Historical battles of Shiloh.

Selecting one of the smaller scenarios is always a wise move for beginners (I always like to do this with historical games when I am not to familiar with the battle) or newcomers to the Battleground series. Once the scenario has loaded (may take some time depending upon the specification of your PC) you are confronted with the usual AI questions - which side do you want to control, do you want to control the whole battle or just a regiment, brigade, division or corps, do you want Fog of War active (you cannot see the enemy forces unless you have line-of-site), and do you want to give one side the advantage over the other (this can be quite useful if your new to the game and want to make it easy for yourself).

The Game

On to the game, I selected a small Scenario to run through and chose to let the computer control all of my units except one. When you are running computer control of your units on the movement phase the computer asks you what your orders are for each of your manually controlled units (these are Attack or Defend Extreme, Attack or Defend normal or no orders). Following the movement phase is the enemy defensive fire phase, after which is the friendly fire phase, following this is the melee phase, then the enemy get their go.

For those of you who have played any of the Battleground series this will be all familiar to you, the developers at Talon Soft have come up with a very good formula which enables them to produce many games with few changes so the regular user does not have to spend time learning how to do something (this is a particular annoyance for me - I like to be able to get into a game without having to read too much). [I agree!]

During the game you can have the sound effects on, the video sequences showing re-enactments of the various parts of the battle (cannon firing, infantry firing, infantry melee, etc.), and background music from the period. All of this adds to the game and has been present in all of the Battleground games I have played up to now (I hope it remains as well).

AI, eh?

I enjoyed playing the game as I have the other three Battleground titles, the computer AI is very impressive although I have noticed that if I took various objectives in Battlegrounds Gettysburg and Shiloh the computer carried on with its orders regardless, and by taking key objectives and placing artillery on these objectives enabled me to decimate the computers units.

Obviously against a human opponent I would not be able to do this (hence the reason for not challenging Graham to a game), putting this aside its one of the toughest computer opponents you are likely to come up against.

If anybody can destroy one of the Union gunboats please let me know, I spent many an hour trying to destroy them with my field artillery. You may ask why, I don't know, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I would still like to see a victory scene other than the bland grey window telling me the Rebels got slaughtered again, I don't know, maybe its me, but I would like to see victorious units chasing the losers from the battlefield. This has been built into many other strategy games and I think it would add a final touch to an addictive excellent game.

One other thing, please can we have the scenario editor back, it was with Battleground Ardennes, but I haven't seen it since. It was an excellent inclusion for Ardennes because it allowed the player to build an enormous army or just have a skirmish with two opposing platoons. It was removed for Gettysburg and Waterloo, and to my disappointment was not included in Shiloh. Is this because of CD space or is there some other reason?.

I would recommend this game to anyone that has none, one or all of the Battleground series as it makes a fine addition to the set. Carry on the good work TalonSoft. {Wholeheartedly agree Glenn yet another gold star for TalonSoft for another great game and Antietam is already in the shops [Plus Flying Corps WWI Ariel Combat]- here we go again. The scenario editor in Ardennes was excellent and I personally can't see why it couldn't be included. Maybe Empire / TalonSoft will provide us with the answer. Are you reading this Ben /Alison? -Graham }.

More Computer Game Reviews

Computer Corner
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Age of Sail