Like other wargames, your goal in Onslaught is to conquer your opponent. But Onslaught differs in how this is achieved. Simply piling your best units on a narrow front and driving into the enemy line is probably not going to win you the game. A skillful opponent can make use of terrain, air power, surprise amphibious landings, weather, time, and the many other elements of Onslaught to slow and then crush such a move. But in the end, who comes out the victor depends on the players and circumstances. Because there is no one way to achieve victory in Onslaught.
Major Countries
The two major antagonists in each game will be located on the map’s left side (or top) and right side (or bottom). Onslaught starts off where the politicians and their peaceful solutions failed. The only question left to be settled is not “how to best avert a war” but “how to best win a war”. The only chance peace has is if one side can’t hack it and surrenders unconditionally to the other. Onslaught is a tough world, but aren’t they all?
Neutrals
Some Onslaught game scenarios incorporate Neutral nations into play. Neutral nations exist between you and your adversary, they are autonomous and defensive in nature, and they practice a “don’t bother us and we won’t bother you” policy. Neutrals will defend their airspace but won’t launch a ground attack on you unless you attack them first. If you do attack, a neutral will do its best to contain and counter attack your forces.
Game Time
Each turn in Onslaught represents one week’s worth of movement and combat. Just like in the real world, four weeks make up a month, twelve months make up a year and the weather acts in seasonal yet sometimes unpredictable patterns. Also, there is no limit to how long a game of Onslaught can go on, so the old “all or nothing” attack before the game runs out does not apply here.
Game Scale
Onslaught is played out on one continent, the size of which you determine at the beginning of the game. The continent is surrounded by a band of deep and shallow sea allowing naval movement to take place. The whole map area is divided up into hexes, each one representing roughly 400 square miles. When you first play Onslaught, you might feel that some units have ranges or movement that is inconsistent with this scale. This is actually a fair criticism as we sometimes altered reality to make the game more enjoyable.
