The Operational Art of War: Century of Warfare - Software Review - Evaluation

Aerospace Power Journal, Spring, 2001 by J. P. Hunerwadel

The Operational Art of War: Century of Warfare. CD-ROM. TalonSoft (http://www.talonsoft.com), P.O. Box 632, Forest Hills, Maryland 21050, 1998-2000, $39.95. Minimum system requirements: Pentium 133 or higher, Windows 95/98, 16-bit High Color or SVGA graphics, 16 MB RAM (32 MB recommended), 4X CD-ROM drive, Microsoft-compatible mouse, Windows-compatible sound card.

Century of Warfare is the latest and most complete installment in a game series that began in 1998 with The Operational Art of War, Volume 1, 1939-1955, followed by several revisions and expansions. Volume 2, Modern Battles, carries the series up to the present. Century of Warfare further expands it with updates and scenarios covering World War I and the early twentieth century. I believe that this CD represents the finest example of commercial war gaming yet produced. Despite its faults, it provides the best mix of playability and serious simulation yet seen in a computer war game. Others who grew up playing the board games of now-defunct companies such as Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) and Avalon Hill will probably agree. To understand why this is so, we must examine the game's origins.

Back in the heyday of board war gaming, there were whole families of campaign-level games, ranging from simple-but-fun titles that could be played in an afternoon, like Jim Dunnigan's France 1940 (Avalon Hill, 1972), to pedantic monsters that could run a week to a turn, like Rich Berg's Campaign for North Africa (SPI, 1979). One found both great variety and great challenge--much to enjoy as both a game player and a historian. Then the paper-and-cardboard war-gaming industry died in the mid-eighties, killed by a combination of hostile takeovers, corporate mismanagement, and competition from the growing computer-gaming industry. A long hiatus followed, during which serious war gamers either fell back on old titles or drifted off into adventure-strategy computer games. Times were fairly lean until the mid-nineties, when a crowd of true war-game titles exploded onto the scene. The flash point of this explosion was Panzer General (Strategic Simulations, Inc. [SSI], 1995), which combined a remarkably intuitive use r interface with a game engine that had enough depth and "chrome" to attract even serious war gamers. Although several levels of abstraction away from a real model of warfare, it made players confront many of the choices actually faced by campaign commanders. It was so good at this, in fact, that Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) actually experimented with using a version of it (Pacific General) as a teaching tool in campaign-level planning.

Beyond this, the game was fun. It provoked a reaction within the gaming community akin to that of Jim Dunnigan's Panzer Blitz (Avalon Hill, 1970), whose popularity back in the early seventies helped create much of today's grognard community (a term that means "grumbler," formerly applied by Napoleon to his Old Guard and currently to hard-core war gamers), and John Hill's Squad Leader (Avalon Hill, 1977), which helped fuel the great board-war-game boom of the late seventies. The war-gaming hobby seems to need a fun, accessible hit every so often to attract new players, a few of whom eventually become interested in deeper simulations. Boiled down and rendered, they become grognards.

A number of excellent war-game series appeared in the year or so following the release of Panzer General. The renaissance was short-lived, however, as the large companies realized that demand for true war games came from a relatively small (if somewhat fanatical) community. Still, as the wave of war-game popularity washed over the industry, many tide pools of serious game development formed, a number of which remain today. One of these is TalonSoft, which offers The Operational Art of War (TOAW), the finest attempt yet seen at building a serious model of warfare in a playable format. Creator Norm Kroger, formerly with SSI, is known for his innovative designs and attention to detail. The two titles he produced prior to TOAW--Tanks! and Age of Rifles--are among the finest tactical simulations available. Many people have contributed scenarios or developmental aid to the TOAW system, including ACSC's Matt Caffrey and Chuck Kamps.

All TOAW games look like conventional board war games: a "God's-eye view" of a hex-based map grid, with unit counters (small squares) containing standard NATO functional symbols surrounded by status information. The player interacts with units and the game engine, either by directly clicking on unit counters or selecting from a variety of available menus. There is nothing remarkable here although the terrain presentation is more attractive than in most such games. (There is a cheesy attempt at rendering a three-dimensional play area, but most gamers will stick with the better-presented two-dimensional display.) The rule book, thorough and well laid out, contains a wealth of reference material for scenario developers, who will find the game a rich source of enjoyment.