Average historical wargame
SSI is known in the industry as the pioneering publisher of classics like the original Dungeons and Dragons games, Panzer General and any number of serious historical wargames. Rebel Charge falls into this latter category and while it is a solid enough effort, it isn't quite the classic that other releases from the company are. The game itself is a historical wargame set in the time of the American Civil War and is set around the time of the South's final major offensive. The game makes use of SSI's Gettysburg engine and is played over a series of turns, with each turn representing two hours of two days during which the original battle was fought. Both sides can be controlled by either human players or the computer, and with points being calculated depending on objectives achieved and casualties taken. The game plays out via an overhead view of the map on which the battles take place, with various historically accurate units available for players to use. Rebel Charge is very much a standard old-school historical wargame which is similar to many other of SSI's releases like Battles of Napoleon but which is unfortunately not as good. It certainly won't appeal to fans of modern wargame like Steel Panthers thanks to its dated visuals and lack of options. However, there is still a reasonable amount of depth on display here and battles will take some strategy to win, so this might prove of interest to the dedicated military enthusiast. However, it does come across as simply a paler imitation of SSI's better games so try one of those out first.
