THE OZARKS CAMPAIGN SIGN UP STARTING

Sign-up for THE OZARKS CAMPAIGN (WIA4) has started on the madminute games forum.  Madminute Games release Take Command Second Manassas and the forum is the gathering place for an online community that formed around the game. The game is a single player game, but some players developed a "command simulation" methodology to play the game as a group and form a sort of sub-community on the madminute games forum. The community is open and welcoming to new members.  Take Command Second Manassas (TC2M) is now somewhat dated compared to Scourge of War, a newer American Civil War game was developed after TC2M and has multiplayer games. The command simulation community still continues, however, and THE OZARKS CAMPAIGN is the next simulation to run. Sign up has started and will run up to September 20th. The simulation will start in October and run into January.

TC2M command simulations experience the "fog of war" as division, corps and army commanders, with some simulations going down to brigade level. The simulation is run through email, with only one person actually using the TC2M game. Others are provided with maps and issue orders to their subordinate commands, which are then implemented as best as possible in the game. Reports are then given and commanders communicate to each other to try to understand the situation across a given battlefield or campaign theatre and then issue new orders. Once a tactical battle is started, this cycle takes one week per "turn."

New players are welcome in the simulation are given division commands. Each division has three brigades and a battery of artillery. It will be part of a corps including one or two other divisions. The Corps Commander will receive instructions from the Army Commander to move to certain locations on the campaign map. Once the enemy is found, the Corps Commander will give orders to each Division Commander. As a Division Commander, the player will issue commands to each of his brigades and his battery, indicating where and how they should deploy on the map and then waits for reports on what happened. Once reports are in, he prepares a report for his division to the Corps Commander, who receives all the division reports and then reports up to the Army Commander.

It is not necessary to have the TC2M game to play in a command simulation. (Although it does help to get the sense of how things move and to be able to see the actual terrain in 3D instead of from a 2D map.) Some basic understanding of American Civil War tactics is helpful. New players are welcome to register on the madminute games forum and then go to a thread and ask questions and/or sign up. The guys there are friendly and always happy to welcome new players and answer any questions.