North & South overview

This is another review that nobody asked for, for one my favorite games from my childhood, North & South!

North & South is a videogame that doesn't look like much these days, but it was quite especial when I first laid my eyes on it on 1989. It was the first Amstrad CPC game that I saw that took two tapes, the very first game I played that used icons, and also the first strategy game I saw that stressed being fun over historical accuracy.

Because yes, 8-bit players had strategy games. By usually they came in form of WWII battles, spartan graphics and hexagons. I'm talking about games like Desert Rats by CCS.

But not this time. Because North & South is inspired by some French comic series called Les Tuniques Blaves, which explains its numerous comic touches and that, well, it's not the deepest strategy game you'll see.



After choosing the period and the difficulty level, we'll be transported to the map screen. Here you plan your moves and move your troops accordingly. If you move troops to another of your states with troops, you'll create a bigger army.

But basically, in every turn you'll mirror the enemy's movements and avoid (for the time being) direct contact. You also need to keep into account that owning some states can trigger "events".

Occupying South Virginia (because obviously, you know where South Virginia is) will give you access to reinforcements. And placing troops too near of Indians (sorry, Native Americans) or Mexicans can result in them being attacked. Also, every state you occupy will pay taxes, which in turn will lead to the creation of new armies.

Finally, if weather events are on, armies under rain are inmovilized.

Eventually, though, two armies will collide and three different scenarios will play out.

The most usual scenario is a battle royale, where the two armies fight each other directly:



These are fast and frantic arcade style battles, so move quickly! In the lower difficulty settings, your first goal is to remove the enemy's artillery using your own. Then switch to yor cavalry or riflemen and use the scenario's choke points to get rid of the rest of enemy units. Make sure to know the controls beforehand!

If the state where the battle takes place has a railroad line, it's time for a train assault sequence:



In this case, the goal of the attacker is to reach the steam engine before the time is over (yes, it's a timed event), which makes the train to surrender. Depending on the circumstances, you'll have to attack or to defend the train with a limited force. Personally, I find defending harder than attacking.

And if the state where the battle takes place has a fort, it's a fort assault sequence:



This one plays similarly to the train assault mini-game. If you're assaulting, try to avoid enemies rather than fighting them and reach the flag. As with the train assault, time is of the essence. And if you're defending, try to stall the enemy as much as you can.

Naturally, to win the game you need to eliminate every enemy army. They can "retreat" from battle royale events, but eventually they'll have to fight.

And that's pretty much it. The game isn't particularly deep, but it's sure fun to play. Speaking of which, there are many versions of the game available. The pics in this guide come from the DOS version, which is OK but not the best.





The Atari ST and Amiga versions (pictured above) have better graphics, but the arcade mini-games play too damn fast for my taste.

So I'd recomend you to play either the Amstrad CPC or the Famicom / NES versions of the game. They might not be the best looking, but I think they're the ones that play better.