From: Steven Szymanski Subject: Re: The war college,A7V,Landships At 22:43 96/06/21, PERRYM wrote: >Has anyone played the new game, The War College? It is designed by the >same programmers which did Microproses UMSII? Played it. Returned it. I was unimpressed. Pro: - good graphics for the map - what appears (to _me_ at least) well researched scenarios - I like the idea of usiing lines to represent lines of units. Con: - slow. I was running on a P90 and went to read the paper while it was playing to kill the time - lots of minor interface design problems whihc added up (BTW - is there any way to turn off the music?) - While representing the units as lines is a great step forward, the lines in WC are of fixed length. This might be approriate for Napoleonic and before, but not being able to stretch the line (get a unit to cover a wider frontage) is a problem for more modern scenarios. - Picture this: units are fixed length lines. Units can only fire _exactly_ perpendicular to their line. Thus, the ideal situation is to get beside an enemy unit so that their line is perpendicular to yours. looking something line this: | | ----- | where you are the verical line and the enemy is the horizontal line. In this configuration you can shoot at them, but they can't shoot at you. I very quickly picked up on this and planned my maneuvers to take advantage of this. The problem? Well, those who are experienced with pre-WWII naval combat will recognize this maneuver as "crossing the T". When I realized I was essentially led into playing Tannenburg using a tactic which would be more appropriate to Trafalgar, I punted. _HOWEVER_ I will say there are some good, new concepts in the game. I hope someone else picks up on them and builds them into a better game. .szy Real Life: Steven J Szymanski The Truth is the Truth Home: szy@windridge.com My Opinions are My Opinions Work: szy@apple.com Which is Which is Unclear AppleLink: szy Burma Shave