North & South (computer game)

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North and South

Developer(s)	Atari Europe S.A.S.U.
Publisher(s)	Atari Europe S.A.S.U.
Release date(s)	1989
Genre(s)	strategy, action
Mode(s)	Single or two player
Platform(s)	Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, NES, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC

North & South is a combined strategy and action game for the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, NES, Amstrad CPC, MSX and ZX Spectrum. It was developed and published in 1989 by Infogrames/Atari Europe.

1 Plot
2 Gameplay
3 Humour
4 External links

[edit] Plot

North & South is an offshoot of the Belgian cartoon Les Tuniques Bleues (by Dupuis) which is based on the American Civil War. The player basically acts out the Civil War, choosing to play as either the North or the South. The player may choose to start the game year from 1861 (the year the Civil War erupted) to 1864. Each year has a different array of armies and states that each side starts with.

[edit] Gameplay

Taking an extremely simplified board interface, the game features a strategic map of the USA separated into states and territories, where army units are moved around. In each state which "owns" a railway station, there is a fort, the capture of which leads to the player overtaking the whole state. Otherwise, capturing a state involves simple movement, unless there is another army "on" the state. Armies can be reinforced in two ways. By turning on an option at the main menu the player controlling the state of North Carolina will get periodic reinforcements by ship. Also, railways generate money which in turn generate soldiers. Moving their army units, the player may expand westwards into unoccupied territory. If two antagonistic armies clash, it will result in a battle. There is an option on the main menu where the player can turn off in-game missions and battles to make it purely like a board game. Whenever opposing armies meet in board-game mode, the results of the battles are randomised, although the side with the largest army is more likely to win and either army may retreat from the battle. Whenever a side attempts to capture an enemy fort or rob a train, the result is also randomised.

The battle screen

The battle screen, one of the action elements in the game, is different from the strategic map. Each player starts on opposite sides of the screen and controls an army consisting of infantry, cavalry and cannons. A standard army consists of six infantry, three cavalry and one cannon. Armies can be increased by up to three times their standard size by merging them together. Each team can only have six infantry, three cavalry and three cannons on the battlefield at one time. A human player can only control one class of units at any one time. A computer-controlled opponent can move all three classes of units at once, but their infantry and cavalry are not very aggressive. All units in the same class move and fire simultaneously. The Infantry can move in any direction including backwards and have a short-range weapon. Cavalry are melee units that are much faster that infantry, but can not move backwards. Cavalry, will instead return to the battle field every time they reach the end of it after a few seconds. Cannons can only move vertically and not sideways. Each cannon can only be fired nine times in a battle before they automatically withdraw from battle. If an army wins after their cannons have withdrawn from battle, their cannons will be available for the next battle. If however, the rest of the army is killed after the cannons have withdrawn, the cannons will be also lost. In the middle of the battle map, there may be a river or a chasm, in which case a bridge serves as a choke point where the fighters are likely to meet. The bridge can be destroyed by cannons. One hit will leave a hole in the bridge where units can fall in and die instantly. Two hits on a bridge will destroy it. In every battlefield where there is either a river or canyon, there is a narrow, indestructible passage across. The cannons are long-range weapons, but aiming - or rather determining the exact range - is not always easy. Care has to be taken when firing cannons to avoid friendly fire. A battle usually is a deathmatch, although a player may retreat. If the attacking army retreats, they will return to the state that were in at the beginning of that turn. If the defending army decides to retreat, they will move to an adjacent state that is still under their control, surrendering that state the battle was on to their enemy. The defenders can not retreat if there are no adjacent states that they own. Retreating will result in the loss of any cannons that the army has. The army of the computer-controlled opponent will retreat if all of its cannons have been destroyed and its enemy has more than three times the units than it has.

On the states that have a train station, the player must do a short side-scrolling mission through a fort to capture that state. Here, the player controls a single soldier who runs towards the goal while meeting obstacles such as enemy soldiers, dynamite crates or dogs, with only the help of knives or punches that send enemies towards the sky, Asterix style. On occasions, the player also get the opportunity to capture an enemy train in a similar manner.

If an option is turned on, a storm cloud will sit on one states each turn. The cloud will move to an adjacent state twice each month, once before each player's turn. Any army on the state with the cloud will not be able to move on that turn.

If the option on the main menu is turned on, there will be two non-player sides that pose a threat to the player's armies. A Native American who lives to the west of the territory might hurl a giant tomahawk randomly at one of the westernmost states, decimating the army unfortunate enough to be garrisoned there. Similarly, a sombrero-clad Mexican living to the southwest might suddenly wake up from his siesta and toss a bomb into Texas, result being the same.

[edit] Humour

North and South contains a lot of humoristic elements. It features parodies of national anthems, which are accessible when the player selects one of the different languages supported by the game (English, French, Spanish, German or Italian). In addition, the game is filled with numerous comical situations and gags.

Although considerably limited when compared with other strategy titles of the time, the tongue-in-cheek tone and the simplicity of the approach made North and South extremely popular at the time of its release.^{[citation needed]}