As every wargamer knows, naval surface warfare games are among the most difficult to simulate. The map tends to be blue and combat is a variety of twists, turns and keeping track of damage inflicted and sustained. This frequently strikes most gamers as boring. And despite a variety of "new systems" most surface naval warfare games boil down to little more than a variation on American Heritage's old BROADSIDE game. (You remember -- with the plastic frigates, sloops and so on with sails you removed to indicate damage). Faced with the choice between purchasing MicroProse's B-17 or Task Force 1942, I chose the latter. Maybe computers could overcome the inherent "playability" problems I had encountered with manual games. First off, Task Force 1942 is a lavishly illustrated, high quality graphics game. The opening sequence shows a graphical cruiser or destroyer sailing about and firing its guns. Menu screens are, for the most part, back lit with WWII era black and white photographs that show a number scenes from what the Japanese call the Great Pacific War. There are an impressive number of scenarios available -- including Cape Esperance, Augusta Bay and others. Included is a full length Guadalcanal "campaign" game where the player is required to either stop, or maintain the all important naval campaign in support of the invasion and its aftermath. The "human" player has the option of choosing the Japanese or US Navy. For uncertain reasons your orders are given to you by "Bull" Halsey or Nagumo -- rather than Nimitz or Yamamoto. There's also a background picture of an aircraft carrier (US or Japanese depending on the Admiral). This would make some sense if you had any aircraft carriers to command. Command options allow you to command the Task Force, Task Group, or individual ships. You can also tailor the "difficulty" level by adding or removing options -- such as tracers (to show you where your gunnery fire fell), accuracy of reports, friendly fire (oops -- just sunk our own destroyer) and whether or not the game continues while you give orders. There are dozens of orders that can be given. You can also board a ship and direct its actions. The graphics quality is high and a lot of attention was put into the special effects. From the bridge you can control the ship. Fire is directed by moving to the either the gun director station or the torpedo room. From the gun director you choose between star shells and armor piercing shells. A realistic WWII "fire control computer" is built into the gun director, allowing you to determine the proper time to fire. The torpedo director is fun, if a bit simplistic. Orders for more than one ship are given from the map, which can be zoomed down to show individual ships. As with most naval wargames the principal task with the ships is to keep your heading straight, as well as configuration. (I managed to run one destroyer division aground by not paying attention to where my ships were going the first time). As with all MicroProse games, TF1942 comes with a well done booklet covering the naval campaigns and the art of naval warfare in the Second World War. There is also an intelligence booklet listing various ships, showing their silhouettes and identifying their classes (necessary to get by the copy protection). The booklet also contains good brief summaries of the various naval actions covered in TF1942. Problems Despite all that, however, there are some problems. The game is huge -- it takes up about 10 megabytes. Most of this is to support the excellent graphics. And in the final analysis the game does not overcome the problems noted above. Combat becomes a process of movement and then when the two fleets are in range, its little more than a slugging contest as to who can deliver the biggest bang the fastest and most consistently. In other words the computer takes over the paper ticking role. There is not even a sense of personal urgency present in most games, such as F-117 or Knights of the Sky, or even Stratego. If the ship you command sinks, you're simply transferred to another ship. There may not ever be a workable system, computer or otherwise, that adds any sense of tension to naval surface warfare. After all, naval surface warfare is essentially a process of maneuver, position and fire on a basically featureless terrain. Sort of a glorified artillery duel, where the biggest problem is getting the firing solution correct. One saving grace is the "Guadalcanal Campaign." But here it is the decisions you make (which ships to send where and when) at the operational level that are "exciting." If you're contemplating buying TF1942 and hoping for a game system that gets you beyond the usual problems of the board game, don't bother. If you're just looking for something that allows you to have some fun with some excellent visuals and sound effects, this will fit the bill. TASK FORCE 1942 MicroProse Software, Inc. (© 1992) System Requirements: IBM 386 or better (or 100% Compatible) 640K RAM. 1 MB EXPANDED MEMORY VGA or MCGA only Joystick & Mouse supported Suggested Retail $59.95 Back to Cry Havoc #3 Table of Contents Back to Cry Havoc List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 by David W. Tschanz. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com