The terrain on these maps is very similar from one mission to the next with lots of forests and fences you can use for cover. Maybe. I assume that cover has some effect, but it’s not clear if it does and to what extent. Slightly clearer are the attributes that soldiers can earn by completing a mission. Lone Wolfs make great scouts, Barrage gives neighboring riflemen a better firing rate, Quickdraws make their pistol shots count. The soldier icons are too tiny and portraits too generic for quick recognition of who is whom, but you do take these attributes into account in your planning.

This being war, soldiers will get wounded or die and, as previously noted, Mosby can earn an attribute that makes inexperienced troops free. So you can’t always stack the deck with your best guys, even if they are within striking range of your objective. As missions get tougher, you will need a deep bench to draw from. It would be nice if there was clearer information on the strengths of foot soldiers vis-à-vis cavalry (men on horse are faster and more intimidating, so is there ever a reason to stay on foot?).

Even with the real time combat/exploration noticeably weaker than the strategic layer, both components fit together quite tightly. Though there isn’t much variety in missions from one game to the next, seeing a veteran soldier go down because you foolishly asked him to charge the enemy – saber drawn – always elicits a small pang. With the frequent upgrades, Mosby himself becomes your most powerful soldier, but if he dies it’s game over. The tension of not knowing if you will have enough munitions to get through the winter is enough to hold your interest.

Mosby’s Confederacy does need more variety to really stand out. Your enemies are often happy to sit around and wait until you outnumber them before they start moving, and death is much more common than cowardice, something that should probably be tweaked on both sides. And it’s not a wargame or a simulation or anything that most hardcore Civil War nuts crave. It is a casual strategy game that mostly asks you whether or not you can count.

Surprisingly, that is enough. The theme is well chosen and there is just enough going on and just enough decisions to make for the game to be a pleasant diversion. With the similarly light but wholly original Hinterland, Tilted Mill has developed a business model that allows quick development of better than average games at low cost, for both them and their consumers. They won’t win a lot of prizes with these games, and Mosby’s Confederacy has many of the same problems that Hinterland has – some lack of clarity, repetitiveness, etc. But the strengths outweigh the weaknesses and Mosby’s is absolutely worth a close look.

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