In a recent posting to a newsgroup dedicated to historical wargames, the designer Norm Kroger made a rather sad remark about the present state of computer wargames largely dominated, as another poster put it, by the "World War II, European/US centric stuff". He said "I can't afford to abandon it". It's difficult to imagine a designer with a comparable reputation (Norm is one of the four superstars of the hobby along with Greg Boors, Gary Grigsby and John Tiller) in either minis or boardgames saying anything of the sort. It's not, I suspect, that Norm dislikes modeling World War II. His games on the subject are as meticulously researched, well implemented and fun as those he sets in other eras. But rather like a film director, he seems to feel the need to produce the crowd pleasers for his Bank Manager when his heart belongs to "nutcase designs" (again his words) for a vastly smaller slice of what is a minority market anyway. Although not limited to World War II, the periods used for inspiration by mainstream computer wargame publishers can be counted on one hand - without the thumb. If 1815, 1863 or 1945 don't fire your cannon, then you'll find very little to convert you from plastics to pixels. With some notable exceptions (Europa Universalis) and some good tries (the Great Battles series) to play computer wargames is to revisit Normandy, Gettysburg and Waterloo again and again. There are, I reckon, two main reasons why this is the case, one will be familiar to tabletop wargames, one happily less so. For good or ill and for whatever reason some conflicts become deeply ingrained in a nation's sense of its self. These three conflicts are the looking glass through which we see ourselves and so naturally we care about the outcome and identify with the protagonists. The reasons why these three periods have that peculiar status is an article in itself but suffice it to say that there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to. Why for example should the American Revolutionary War have such a low profile in the US? Or the English Civil War over here? The other reason is the top-down nature of the process of creating computer wargames. With the exception of Foundry and perhaps a few other companies, traditional wargaming has survived as something of a cottage industry. Small companies can specialize and often do better to do so. To find a niche and exploit it mercilessly rather than simply chasing the same custom as everyone else. Computer wargames on the other hand are competing for shelf space in shops and attention in mainstream magazines with the latest Quake clone or driving game. The prevailing wisdom is that to stand any chance at all your average punter is going to at least have to recognise the conflict the game deals with and as we all know from shows, that's something we can't always take for granted. The bottom line is that publishers know certain lines sell. And they know this, well, because the last one did very well thanks very much. Big companies will always prefer to knock out a good game that sells moderately well than to produce a great original game that sells only to a niche market. I just wish that sometimes the big companies would pay attention to the players themselves. Almost the minute a game is released, some enterprising soul will have produced a mod or scenario to take it beyond its designers intentions. We've had an attempt at the Revolutionary War for a game about twentieth century warfare and a North African desert armour mod for the very people-based Close Combat system. Whether wargames are just natural tinkerers (or perverse?) or someone's running a competition they've not told me about, I've no idea. But it’s obvious to me that there's a market for other types of wargames out there. The Close Combat system seems to be ideally suited to platoon scale Vietnam actions for example. I'll buy Sid Meir's Waterloo like everyone else but I'd much rather be playing Sid Meir's Crecy or Iswandala. What we need are smaller companies producing niche products. And of course we've got them but if you don't live in America or frequent the right newsgroups, you may have missed them. Almost by definition a small press approach is low key and in fact most of the companies mentioned here rely on good word of keyboard. They sell directly through their websites and have a high presence in electronic communities but are almost completely unknown outside of that. Although a couple of magazines, notably PC Strategy Games and Strategy Player, have been valiantly championing them on the shelves of WH Smiths. Of course, a small press approach only works because there is no "unnecessary" expenditure on glossy printed manuals or high profile adverts. The graphics and in some cases the sound are functional. They aren't cheap either. Most of these games will set you back between £40-£50 weighing up all factors compared to the more usual £25-35 range. They are also unlikely ever to hit the bargain bins. John Tiller HPS Simulations claims to be the oldest and most successful independent publisher. It’s almost certainly one of the most well known because it publishes the games of John Tiller. John's reputation as a designer stems from his involvement with Talonsoft. In the nineties when SSI had seemingly fallen by the wayside and Command and Conquer was doing just that, Talonsoft was producing a range of "proper" wargames. The Battleground series and to a certain extent the campaign series that followed it are as close to tabletop wargaming as you're likely to get or want. When John parted company with them, he took not only his good name but the system he'd designed that they no longer used. This does mean of course that HPS are publishing games based on a game engine at least ten years old It also means that a good part of the wargaming audience is going to be completely comfortable and familiar with the rules, conventions, and even layout of each new game as its released. Some gamers enjoy learning new rules every time. Personally I like to get right out there into the clash of steel. As well as his Second World War games based on large-scale armour clashes, HPS publishes two games based on earlier conflicts that perhaps should have a higher gaming profile than they do. Pinching the name of Talonsoft's last series, Campaign:1776 not surprisingly models the War of Independence. Stretching from an interesting walk in the countryside that is the Lexington-Concord battle to the siege of Yorktown. The Battleground system seems to hold up pretty well to challenges of Eighteenth Century warfare. Try marching your Redcoats up Breeds hill without adequate support or command and watch them run right back down again. The system seems to be just flexible enough to accommodate the flavour of each historical period and in a lot of ways it feels "right", even down to the choice of historically appropriate background music. For a much wider perspective on the Eighteenth Century, Shrapnel Games publishes Horse & Musket: Great Battle of the Eighteenth Century. Opinion is divided on the game itself and I have to admit I've only played the demo. My biggest gripe is the lack of any 2D mode. Now I don't know about you, but I rarely play wargames in 3D mode. I might for the sheer spectacle of it look admiringly at my Hussars all neatly lined up ready for the charge but when the time comes for action almost all my planning and playing is done in 2D. That said, where else are you going to get to recreate battles from the Seven Years War, Great Northern War, and the War of the Spanish Succession on your PC screen? Well okay, there's Cossacks but that's a completely different type of game. Unlike 1776, which includes an OOB, scenario but no map editor, Horse & Musket includes a fully functional editor which is just as well because they sell separate scenario packs which add up to fair few quid if you buy them all! HPS's The War of 1812: The Conquest of Canada is thankfully more of the same. Same attention to detail, dozens of scenarios and campaign games. Naval action has been added, I just wish it'd have been implemented in 1776. It might have helped me with a drubbing I got as the British in an email battle of Bunker Hill! Sadly, a fully featured map editor is still absent. Maybe some enterprising third party will produce one? I'm afraid we're heading back to the beaches of Northern France for the next one but bear with me. What Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord from Battlefront lacks in originality of content it makes up for in form. The game system is best described as a kind of reversal of the military dictum "Hurry up and Wait". Combat Mission allows the player to plan and order his moves for as long as he likes. Hit the next phase button however and all hell breaks loose. For the next sixty seconds your units carry out their orders without the possibility of any interference from you. Are you sure your forward troops are supported? That there's not a tank lurking on the other side of that hill? You'd better be. Combat Mission is played in true 3D. Want a better look at a particular formation? Go and have a look. It takes some getting used to but when you do you'll be zipping around the battlefield faster than the flu virus in a British summer. They also sell the very definitely 2D Tac-Ops - an extremely detailed look at modern combat conditions. If you've fond memories of the classic era of computer wargames in the 1980s, matrixgames have updated versions of the Gary Grigsby strategic level wargames War in Russia, War in the Pacific and a World War II only version of Steel Panthers. All for a free and relatively small download (apart form the Steel Panthers variant which pops up on computer magazine coverdisks from time to time). To finish and to take us back to where we started a mystery. A couple of years ago Talonsoft published The Operation Art of War volumes 1 and 2 covering the second world war and post war periods. Last year the whole kit and caboodle was repackaged and the database stretched to cover the whole of the twentieth century. The Operational Art of War: Century of Warfare along with the Sealion expansion for Western Front wasn't released in the UK for no good reason. Unlike books, Amazon won't ship computer games out of the country and other online vendors charge at least the proverbial two limbs to send it across the Atlantic so what are we do? UK Bound If you happen to live in the UK then for at least some of the games mentioned above you needn't rely on the good offices of the Customs and Excise. I've used two importers www.duchet.com and www.strategic.plus.co.uk and found them both to be prompt and reliable and at least you know what you're paying up front without the vagaries of exchange rates and import tax. There was a rumour floating about a while ago that Battleground is negotiating for a European distributor but as far as I know nothing has yet come of that. If you have access to the internet and an interest in computer wargames, I'd urge you to have a good poke around if you haven't already. The www.grognard.com is a good place to start. The games described here are in just the Premier League of small press computer wargames. There are many more out there by the fans and for the fans on almost as many obscure and interesting subjects as you can mention, some are even shareware or even freeware. They are likely to be even more rudimentary in presentation but they at least get you away dull thud of familiarity so often provided by off the shelf games. This issue is in the end going to be solved by hard economics. I'm going to buy whatever's available (I'm such a good consumer I've got dozens of games I've never played) and that means I'm going to buy Normandy et al over and over. But I'll make a special effort to grasp anything different that comes along; I'll even buy it before it hits the bargain bins! Software Companies www.battlefront.com for Combat Mission:Beyond Overlord, Tac-Ops [Demos available for both] www.hpssims.com for Campaign:1776, War of 1812 and World War II games mainly armour battles. [No Demos but lots of support material] www.matrixgames.com for Steel Panthers: World@War, Gary Grigsby's War in Russia and War in the Pacific [Free Downloads] and others. www.shrapnelgames.com for Horse & Musket: Great Battles of the Eighteenth Century [Demo available] and others. www.talonsoft.com for the Operational Art of War series and others. [This is not an e-commerce site]. UK Importers [do not stock all the games mentioned here]. www.duchet.com www.strategic-plus.co.uk First stop for most things wargaming on the web. www.grognard.com French Rugby Team: www.grognards.com Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #136 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by Solo Wargamers Association. 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