The Russian developer Totem Games has announced a new naval war game, Ironclads: American Civil War.

The developers posit an alternate history where the Confederates secure help from Europe to develop a navy that can compete with the Union forces on the high seas.

If game process is under construction on exact conformity of history the plot of consecutive missions bases on the alternative assumption of more successful course of war for Confederation in the first 2 years of the conflict, a diplomatic recognition and creation of stronger balanced fleet on the European shipyards. For definition of an alternative part of structure of fleet and its condition factors of a real economic condition of the contradictory sides are considered. But also ordered, paid, but not received by Confederation because of diplomatic problems the ships.

Though I enjoyed Distant Guns: The Russo-Japanese War, and look forward to Storm Eagle’s upcoming Jutland game, naval warfare is one of those things that I find more interesting to read about than to actually play. The bathtub battleship thing is fine and all, but gun based sea battles are entirely a matter of jockeying for position on a flat battlefield. This sort of thing is fun for a while, but can get exhausting.

No release date has yet been announced for Ironclads.