From: Dave & Cathy Shaw Subject: Game Review Dave Shaw dshaw62197@home.com Command #13 Desert Storm: Mother of All Battles Desert Storm: Mother of All Battles recreates the decisive ground war against Iraq to liberate Kuwait in 1991. The single map depicts Kuwait, southern Iraq and northeastern Saudi Arabia. Units represent divisions, and each game turn represents one day of real time. For a game covering such a sophisticated modern war, DS is a suprisingly low-complexity game. Player turns are mostly move and attack, with the Coalition forces having special "hasty" (on-the-move) attacks, night attacks, and helicopter assaults. However, there are plenty of special units and actions (mostly for the Coalition), such as Marines, airborne forces, screening maneuvers, and naval support. Air power, so critical in bringing victory against Iraq, is abstracted in that most of the Iraqi units begin the game at half-strength. However, tactical air support is available for combat while a B-52 unit carries out strategic bombings of individual Iraqi units. The Iraqis can have some power, too; humorous (if not exactly historical) variants for a death ray, super-Nazis from a parallel universe and even Godzilla give Saddam's armies a boost. Players can choose from several scenarios, each giving the Iraqis a better degree of preparedness for the Coalition ground assault. Given the historical outcome of this campaign, DS actually has a challenge to offer the Coalition player - the Iraqi player only needs to inflict a minimum of casualties on the Allies to tip the scales in his favor. As such, this game offers a rare situation where the simulation is not necessarily modeled after its historical counterpart. (There is a solitaire scenario which allows the Coalition player to face the historical Iraqi situation, with the predictable results.) In all, DS is a very enjoyable game. Despite its relative ease, it is a game of subtle strategy - players (especially the Coalition) can't assume that history will simply repeat itself. DS plays fast, and offers more of a challenge than one would think from what was perhaps history's most lopsided battle.