Cotton & Iron

The South bet on cotton: that Britain and France could not do without it. The North bet on iron: its factories, railroads and gunboats. Cotton & Iron is a turn-based grand strategy game of the American Civil War. Command the Union or the Confederacy month by month from April 1861, on a map of the real cities, railroads, rivers, coastline and 1861 state borders of the war.

TWO WARS IN ONE As the Union you must attack: take Richmond, Atlanta, Vicksburg and New Orleans, strangle the South with the blockade, and win before the Northern public tires of the war and votes Lincoln out in November 1864. As the Confederacy you need only survive: fight on good ground, bleed every Union offensive, court Britain and France, and wait for the North to lose heart.

NATIONAL WILL Each side's resolve is its true hit-point bar. Casualties, lost cities, defeats, inflation and war weariness drain it; victories and captured cities restore it. A ledger shows exactly where your Will went.

REAL COMMAND DECISIONS • Move armies by road and by rail, march into undefended regions, besiege forts and fight battles resolved over three rounds. • Infantry, cavalry and artillery each fight differently. Terrain, entrenchment and fortifications multiply a defender's strength. • Appoint historical generals rated for Attack, Defence and Initiative: Grant, Sherman, Lee, Jackson and dozens more arrive over the course of the war. • Keep your armies supplied. Cut-off conquests revert, and attrition in enemy country kills more men than battle. • Research rifled muskets, military railroads, ironclads, conscription and more. Answer historical events from the Trent Affair to the draft riots.

LEARN AS YOU PLAY Every attack shows its odds before you commit, moves take two clicks so nothing happens by accident, and period sound effects confirm every order, from the ledger's thump when you raise troops to the bugle after a victory. Click any region to see its terrain and exactly how much it helps a defender. A complete in-game guide explains every rule with the actual numbers. Lose, and the game tells you why and what to try next time.

FAIR AND REPLAYABLE Four difficulty levels, from Recruit to Historical. The balance was tuned over thousands of simulated games so that equal players win about 55% as the Union and 45% as the Confederacy.

NO ADS. NO ACCOUNTS. NO IN-APP PURCHASES. NO DATA COLLECTED. Your games are saved on your Mac and nowhere else.

A note on history: this game takes the strategic problem of the war seriously and does not celebrate the Confederacy's cause. Slavery, emancipation and the United States Colored Troops are part of the game, as they were part of the war.

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