From: rradiospace@mmindspring.com (radiospace)
Subject: TOAW: My review in place of it (WAS: Is there a demo?)

On Wed, 10 Jun 1998 06:50:13 -0400, "Krud"
<au79@nospam.mindspring.com> scribbled with the virtual quill:

>Anyone know if there is a demo for The Operational Art of War?
>
>-Krud
>

I don't think so, Krud.  Let me demo it for you, though:

It's a traditional, hex-based wargame on the surface.  The most
innovative parts are "under the hood."  Rather than rely on
questionable combat results tables (you know, throw in that extra arty
piece to make the 8:1 table and you have a whole new battle on your
hands), Norm has created a system that actually fights out (invisibly)
each battle on your processor, with each weapon (be it a tank, or a
sqaud of riflemen) shooting between 4-10 times per fight.

Like I say, all this is under the hood.  You can examine an
after-action report which lists your precise casulties and kills, but
won't, usually.  Still, this innovation adds some confidence for me in
the game.  I've never been crazy about boardgame-bound wargame
designs, and one of the main factors for my dislike has been the
transparently "gamey" combat results table.

In other areas:

The game is sharply done, and fully professional, which should go
without noting, but sadly is the exception rather than the rule
anymore in the business.  The graphics in the 2d-large view are the
best I've ever seen for this sort of game.  The 3d-graphics are a real
laugh, both ugly and non-functional.  The good side of this is I've
finally been forced to adapt to the standard military symbols used in
traditional counter-based views and they turn out to be quite fun to
play with, once you get them down.  If you buy the game, just know
that you're going to play this way, as well.  It's hard to imagine
that Norm intended the game to be displayed any other way.

The AI, while having a few weaknesses, is quite competitive, and
surprisingly aggressive at encirclement manuevers and jumping you on
your flanks.  It's obviously reminiscent of the AOR AI, and probably a
little better.  Like AOR the quality of the AI may be largely
dependent upon the care which a scenario designer took with its
programming.  The good news is that, unlike AOR, all of the battles
I've looked at so far seem to be completely top-notch in their
construction.

Basically I find that I like any one scenario in TOAW better than most
traditional wargames that usually sell for about 50 bucks a pop.  I
recently picked up a cheap copy of The Ardennes Offensive, for
example, and find it considerably less satisfying than any of the
single battles I've played in TOAW...and The Ardennes Offensive
received some of the best reviews for such a title I've seen in a
while.

The best thing about TOAW, the thing that keeps me mulling over my
little wars while I'm at work and looking forward to playing the game
again, is that while it is very complex, there is a simplicity and
forward-motion to the gameplay which keeps you from feeling bogged
down in arbitrary game rules...another thing which the title has in
common with Norm's Age of Rifles.  Can you say, "one more turn
syndrome"?

On the down side the information management could be a little more
ergodynamic.  There's a lot of mouse clicking that could be eliminated
through the introduction of hotkeys (there are none), and shift-
commands for issuing orders to entire stacks.  It could use some
additional display options, such as one sorely missed by me, which
would display the strength factors of entire stacks rather than only
the unit sitting on top of that stack.  It also would benefit from a
"limiter" to prevent you from using up all of your movement allowance
on a wayward unit, similar to the reserve-shot option found in East
Front, itself borrowed from X-Com.  I'm hopeful that all or most of
these issues will be addressed by Norm in near-future patches.  His
track record certainly indicates that we can expect to have at least a
few of our wishes met.

I think you'd enjoy it.  Just realize if you buy it that you are
purchasing a fairly traditional wargame...in some ways more
traditional-feeling than Age of Rifles, and certainly it isn't Close
Combat on a big scale.  But I think it's the most interesting and
enjoyable of such games to come along in a while.  

Thanks for playing the demo <g>

Patrick
--

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