A hex-based Civil War wargame set around Petersburg and Richmond
Civil War: Battle of Petersburg is a turn-based tactics game about the fighting near Petersburg and Richmond in 1864, the final year of the American Civil War. You command infantry, cavalry, artillery and generals on a hex grid, moving formations with a limited number of movement and combat actions each turn. The core ideas are terrain, positioning, concentrated fire and flanking: attacking from behind gives a +40% flanking bonus, so breaking a line often means working around it rather than pushing straight through. The rules are simple to pick up, but each battlefield poses a different problem, and you have to weigh advancing against preserving your forces. The base game ships with four historical scenarios — Battle of the Crater, Bermuda Hundred, New Market Heights and Cold Harbor / Richmond — each with historically inspired formations, terrain and objectives, playable across multiple difficulty levels. Two optional Grand Campaign expansions add 15 missions each with persistent armies, headquarters management, supplies and new objectives, and they also unlock their official historical scenarios for single battle play.
Playing it with friends
The game supports several ways to play against other commanders: online versus, LAN, hotseat and Play by Email. You can host private matches with friends or open a public battle for others to join, and there is in-match communication, configurable turn timers, and AI takeover for abandoned battles so a long engagement does not stall when someone drops out. Remote Play Together is available, and the tags also cover local co-op and multiplayer. On top of the built-in battles, the Scenario Editor lets you design battlefields, place formations, define objectives and build scenarios with the same tactical systems as the official ones, then share them through Steam Workshop and browse what the community has made. Community scenarios can be played by anyone who owns the base game, with no extra DLC needed.
Before you start
Expect a fast turn-based flow rather than a slow simulation: battles are built to move quickly while keeping tactical depth, and the AI has been substantially reworked from the original 2017 release to use objectives, defensive terrain, artillery positioning, flanking, counterattacks, reserves and withdrawal instead of just marching at the nearest target. Higher difficulty levels push this further with stronger positioning and more aggressive decisions. You can switch at any time between Classic View, the tabletop-style perspective with upright formations, and Tactical View, a command-oriented layout for reading formations, terrain and objectives quickly. Steam achievements, leaderboards and cloud saves are included. The 2026 update rebuilt the game for modern systems with online multiplayer, 3D battlefield units, the improved AI and the Scenario Editor, while keeping the accessible hex warfare of the original.