Fort Sumter: Secession Crisis
Board
Ratings
Age
4+
Category
Board
Languages
English
Fri Dec 05 2025
Updated game performance.
Fort Sumter: The Secession Crisis is a digital strategy game based on the board game by Mark Herman. Players must use area control mechanics to navigate the events leading to the bombardment of Fort Sumter. Balance influence across Political, Secession, Public Opinion, and Armaments categories to outmaneuver your opponent and secure a historic victory for your cause.
Dinsun Expert Review
Our Expert Score
Fort Sumter: Secession Crisis is a brilliant example of how a complex historical event can be distilled into a 20-minute strategy game. As a fan of the original board game by Mark Herman, I was thrilled to see how well the 'Card Driven Game' (CDG) system works on a touchscreen. The game captures the political tightrope walk leading up to the Civil War, forcing you to manage four different 'crisis dimensions'—Political, Secession, Public Opinion, and Armaments.
The tension is palpable in every round. You only have a limited amount of 'Political Capital' to place or move, and the Final Crisis confrontation at the end of the third round can flip the entire game on its head. It’s educational without feeling like a lecture and strategic without being overwhelming. The inclusion of an AI opponent and asynchronous online play makes it a must-have for history buffs and strategy enthusiasts alike.
Features
Official Card-Driven Game (CDG) system
Historical setting with authentic events
A.I. opponent for offline solo play
Asynchronous and real-time online multiplayer
Tips & Walkthrough
During the third round, save at least one high-value card for the Final Crisis. This phase allows you to move capital into contested spaces, which often determines the winner of the entire match.
Gameplays
Don't ignore the 'Public Opinion' dimension. While 'Armaments' feels more direct, winning Public Opinion provides bonuses that make it easier to place capital in subsequent rounds.
Screenshot
Q&A
Political Capital is the resource used to control the board. You spend it to place cubes in different dimensions, representing your influence over that specific aspect of the crisis.
Ratings & Reviews
Solid digital version
Wed May 22 2019 MillicantThis is a smooth implementation of the excellent GMT board game. It plays well and has a fairly intuitive interface. No complaints, I’m enjoying it thoroughly!
Bug? Game log stops at final crisis.
Thu Jun 06 2019 MgddpubUpdate to review- thanks for the turn indicator. A new problem is the log stops at the final crisis (at least I've noticed it in my current game wherein the final crisis was triggered by cubes in 2nd turn.). There is, afaik, no way to tell what opponents previous cards were, nor what either of their or your cube moves were. It's really important to be able to see that. 5 star after that gets fixed. Good game but, afaik, there is no way to tell whose turn it is in a multiplayer game. When you play multiple games, it is extremely annoying to go through the games to find the one where is your turn. Also the AI is weaker than I'd have expected. A decent neural net should have been able to make a reasonable AI I'd think.
I wanted to like this game.
Thu Oct 26 2023 Dr. Zachary SmithI REALLY wanted to like this game. And my initial review would have been four or five stars. But now I’m giving this game just two stars. And I will delete it. Why? This game is way too dependent on luck. You might as well just roll two dice. High sum wins. Here’s what I mean. If you are, say, the Union player and you are dealt a run of Confederate 1 cards, just quit and start over. You will lose. And why is the Union player being dealt Confederate cards anyway? The Union player should be dealt only Union cards. And the Confederate player should be dealt only Confederate cards. This flaw ruins the game for me. Developer, please consider fixing this! And here’s one more thing. Each round, each player should pick his action card in secret. Just like with the Objective cards. This game could be so great. But as it is, no. On edit: I’ve played maybe 10 more games since this review. And my two-star review still stands. Get a run of opponent 1 cards, and the game is over. It doesn’t matter how clever you are. You lose. That’s ridiculous.
Great game - Needs slight UI work
Fri May 24 2019 JohnnySwagKLove the game and the implementation. Couple suggestions that would make it 5 stars: • Clear status symbols or text that says who’s turn it is for online play. Tough to decipher from the game lobby screen. • Dragging a Card to play on an iPhone X and above is difficult due to the “swipe up” gesture that closes the app. Cards need to be placed so it is easier to select. Every time you accidentally swipe up, the game has to reload, seems like this should have been caught during play testing.
Excellent
Wed May 22 2019 Thyme71The AI can be slow, but it is an excellent challenge. No game is a guaranteed win. Well done. Price is a bit high I think.
F S
Thu May 23 2019 Danbo1732Great game. Keep up the good work. You hit one out of the park.
Weak AI
Wed May 22 2019 ErehwebGood game, if a little abstract, but the AI is very weak.
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