Floppyshop 2/Floppyshop - 2.zip/Floppyshop - 2.iso/diskmags/0022-3.564/dmg-0139/news.txt/waterloo.asc

Text File | 1997-04-16 | 6KB | 117 lines

--SitComm-May-1990--------------------------------------------------------------

                    Waterloo sunset

      As the French tourist once queried why do you British name
your railway stations after defeats? The Iron Duke himself made
Waterloo out to be  "...the most desperate business I ever was
in." Once having played Peter Turcans' second innovative wargame
the reviewer can only agree, its a knife contest playing either
side in a battle that's much smaller in area and units than Borodino
(ST World 37). A quick recap though on why this system is the best thing
yet for computer wargames.

                    At the speed of horse?

      Before the advent of radio the main way to command an army in
the field was by rider. Commands and information back from the front
went as fast as the rider (about 5 1/2 miles per hour). By the time
the order to attack had arrived the corps in question might be in
full retreat. The other limitation was that nobody could see further
than the next ridge - no all seeing AWACS here. So not only the
commander couldn't react to the event in real time they often didn't
see it happening either. The vast majority of wargames before Turcan
have simply ignored these factors and have presented the gamer with
god like powers and senses.

                    Its all in the AI

      The Turcan system gives you a realistic static perspective
view of the battlefield from the point of view of the commander
and limited in range by the Eye Ball Mk1 - usually up to 2 miles
for a land battle. Combined with this is an excellent parsing
module that allows the entry of English commands that are relayed
to the corps commander by rider and are thus subject to fortune
on the battlefield - they get lost, killed or confused.
Driving the whole is the artificial intelligence (AI) at the four
levels of command; Commander in Chief, corps, division and
regiment - the gamer provides the played sides commanders AI. The
actual mechanics and sequence of play are derived from boardgame
rules. All of this has been attempted before but never as a whole
nor with the historical rigour that Peter Turcan displays.

                    War and Peace

         Waterloo was the climatic battle of the Napoleonic era, a
period of war and some peace that ran from 1799 to 1815, bringing
together for the first and last time the two geniuses of the
battlefield - Emperor Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington. In the
previous four days the French army had fought two battles and
thus succeeded in driving the Allied and Prussian armies apart.
Now on the 18th June time was the essence for Napoleon to
defeat Wellington before an AI Blucher at the head of the
Prussian Army intervened from the east.

                    Hougomont or bust

      The game starts at 11 am as the previous night had seen a
deluge of rain that made for a muddy field of battle that made
the siting of the critical artillery prolonged. The battle itself
takes place in an area about 3 square miles with a shallow valley
separating the armies. There are 3 garrisoned outposts in front
of the Allied army, Hougomont - superbly detailed in the game, La
Haie Saint with its sand-pit and La Haie. They are the key to the
Allied defence. The majority of the Allied army lies either on
the ridge or behind it out of artillery line of fire. Arrayed
against this are Reille's corp to the west and D'Erlon's to the
east each being supported by a cavalry corps whilst in the centre
rear is Lobau's corp and the Guard. There is no leeway in
reserves if you make a fatal error in your orders to the corps as
to when and where they attack. As once an attack goes in you
learn that it takes hours for a corps to pull back and reform.
And without formed reserves your going nowhere fast. You can tell
how well formed the corps divisions are as you can see them
either in neatly turned out lines and columns or scattered about
with some regiments heading rapidly for the rear.

                    Point and panic

      By using the hand pointer ( changed from the telescope
cursor in Borodino ) and clicking on a unit their status appears
in the text window. This is effective up to the horizon, the only
way to check further is to move the HQ which you can do once ever
15 minute game turn. Just don't do what I did in the first game
and move the HQ into the path of a routing unit. All of a
sudden Napoleon found that the HQ was disorganized and wasn't
able to issue any orders for 2 turns or move the HQ. I sat there
like a lemon forced to look south whilst the battle raged on to
the north and broken regiments fled past the HQ. By which time
the first of Bluchers corps had started to arrive on the eastern
flank.
                    La Garde recule!

      Waterloo is an easier game to get into than Borodino, its
size and scope make for a quicker more comprehensible game. I
could image actually playing this by mail - one option the game
gives. The corps commanders AI is quite believable, indeed you
curse Reille as he sends Jerome's division off on its own to
attack Hougomont. The victory points  now increment thus
aiding you in noting how well or not your doing. Yet the graphics
are so realistic you can see by looking around locally just how
well its going. The manual is an improvement on Borodino's tho' I
couldn't find any note on the unit colours - I like to know if my
heavy cavalry are about to crash into British guards or Brunswick
militia.  One final plea would be for an order retrieval module
so you can keep track of your sent orders. The game system
is excellent as it stands and can only improve as its developed
further - it has great potential.


Design: Dr. Peter Turcan.
Publisher: PSS/Mirrorsoft.
Price: £24.99.

                                ~~~OOOO~~~