Turning Points

Gettysburg
Waterloo
Armada

Reviews by Dr Peter Turcan

Released by CSS Ltd. & On-line Entertainment.

I first came across the Peter Turcan game Waterloo in the late eighties when my Atari was going strong. I was impressed enough by his gaming system to buy Gettysburg, Austerlitz, Borodino etc., when they arrived on the scene. Basically having built an Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) engine, operating at strategic / grand tactical level, he has adapted and developed it for numerous other battles, land and sea. The beauty of the system is having learnt the command structure for one game you have an automatic grounding for all the others. His game Dreadnoughts was acclaimed as excellent when it came out but I personally never bought it - WW1 battleships are not my scene. His latest offering 'Midway'is also Naval and starts a new series on war in the Pacific - again not my scene.

This offering is a compilation for the PC, of 'Armada', 'Gettysburg', and 'Waterloo' and retails at around £ 29.99 or £ 10.00 per game. The manual issued with the compilation contains order formats, examples, orders of battle, historical background, even recommended reading, and of course maps. The original games had color maps which were plastic coated (very handy), but these have been photo-reduced to fit the manual, and are black and white - still can't have everything.

Each game allows for human vs. computer, human vs. human and even computer vs. computer (demo mode). You are the C-in-C of your force, and you issue orders to your immediate subordinate commanders, subsequent orders passing down the command chain out of your control. If you play strictly to the rules your vision of the battlefield is limited to what you can see through your telescope and your concept of how the battle is going is limited to battle reports (no all seeing eye). To ease you in gently there are options which allow you to view the field from anywhere, see your enemies orders, watch what happens to your orders in the command chain. You are given the historic orders of both sides in the manual, which are the defaults. These can be changed, but beware, if you leave gaps in your attack /defence lines the computer will exploit them (been there - done that and lost), so I suggest you play them as written, till you really get into it. You win or lose by the number of points you amass for gaining objectives, routing enemy divisions, capturing /sinking ships, inflicting casualties.

The Armada offers you the chance to play Howard and defend England, or Medina Sidonia leading your invasion fleet in the conquest of England. The full scenario covers the five days it took the Armada to travel from south of Plymouth to the Isle of Wight.

The Battle of Gettysburg was the biggest and bloodiest battle of the American Civil War, and marked the high tide of the Confederacy in the view of many (but not me personally). There are two scenarios, both commencing on day two: the historical attack by Longstreet and a what if scenario called missed opportunity. You are effectively commanding either 70,000 Confederate troops or 90,000 Union. Historically the Union won but you can change history.

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on 18th June 1815 (we know!. . . was the cry). It pitted Wellington's sound defensive tactics and use of terrain against Napoleon's renowned offensive tactic's. Segments of the Prussian forces are included but Bulow's IV Corps arrived at around 4 p.m., Pirch and Zieten later at about 6 p.m. Your choice is to repeat history or to change it.

Overall I consider this compilation well worth the investment though I could be accused of nostalgia. The manual alone has a wealth of information on order construction which I for one utilized to build the mechanisms for my own tabletop encounters.

This is available on 3.5" diskette and is stocked by most software mail order firms, so its worth shopping around for the best price. Companies like Computermate Supplies cover a large range of products but do not specialize in Wargames, unlike Strategic Plus Software which do.

Reviews

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