Reviewed by Paul J. Calvi Jr.

The Operational Art of War, Volume I

Publisher:  TalonSoft
 

Introduction

The Operational Art of War, Volume One is TalonSoft's latest game in their new two part series. The game covers operational warfare from 1939-55. In this case "operational level" is defined as "a view of the battlefield on a scale just exceeding that at which differing ranges of various direct fire weapons are significant." The game scale is thus variable from 2.5km to 50km hexes and half day to full week turns. The emphasis is on ground combat and both air and naval operations are abstracted. The Operational Art of War comes on CD-ROM with a 160 page manual.

Installation, Documentation, and Interface

Installation goes easily from the CD. The Operational Art of War is fully Windows 95 compliant and is the first game I have played where this is truly the case. Unlike most Windows 95 games that must be played full screen with nothing else open The Operational Art of War can easily be played in a window while other programs are running (with a slight performance hit of course). In fact I have the game running as I write this with a web editor and Netscape 4.0 open. While the game installs and runs just fine, startup is another matter. It takes almost five minutes from the time you click on the game's icon until you can start playing. On my system (a P200) the opening video takes two minutes to load and I have yet to find a way to skip it that does not lock up the game. Needless to say this is rather annoying. At least the opening video, composed of historical footage with a nice soundtrack, is interesting.
TalonSoft learned their lesson with the skimpy manual they provided in East Front. The Operational Art of War includes a complete 160 page perfect bound manual. The manual covers almost everything a player needs: the interface, how to play the game, how to create your own scenarios, equipment lists, and a tutorial. Overall the manual is very well done and one of the better computer wargame manuals around. My only minor gripes with the manual are that some of the screen shots are very dark, especially the icons, and, more importantly, the single tutorial is only of limited use. I found the three tutorials in the East Front expansion pack manual far more useful. These are minor quibbles and a player who takes the time to read through the manual a few times will be rewarded with a wealth of information on not only how to play the game but how the game system works.
The Operational Art of War runs at resolutions from 640x480 up to 1152x864 in 16bit color. The maps can be as large as 100x100 hexes [Note: The new 1.01 patch provides a new editor that can make maps as large as 300x300 hexes. A new program executable will soon follow that can use these new larger maps.] The maps in The Operational Art of War are simply the best ever seen in a wargame, period. They are exquisitely detailed and strike a perfect balance between aesthetics and functionality. The maps look better even than most printed game maps with the exception of its winter maps that display snow cover. There are two levels of zoom for each map and all game functions are available at both levels.
Unfortunately, the interface in The Operational Art of War is not as beautiful as the maps. It is a very dark green with gold type and icons. This in itself would not be so bad but the designers made every button tiny and serverely three dimensional in a way that wastes screen real estate and leaves little room for information. The result is a dark, ugly, hard to read interface with not very intuitive icons. To make matters worse, The Operational Art of War uses a courier-like font throughout that is very squashed and thus hard to read, especially on the dark background. In fact the typeface is my biggest complaint with the interface. The buttons are not such a big deal after a few plays but the type is always hard to read for briefings, reports, city names...everything. I desperately hope TalonSoft changes the typeface in a patch. I also hope keyboard shortcuts for many of the button functions are also added. [Note: The new 1.01 patch provides a nice selection of keyboard commands.]

The majority of the game screen is taken up by the game map, which has two zoom levels. At 1024x768 resolution, on a 17" monitor, the units are perfectly readable and the map size is sufficient to reduce the need to zoom out very often. A jump map is provided in the lower right corner that shows the positions of all units as colored dots and a single click takes you to that part of the map. Scrolling, performed by moving the mouse to any map edge [Note: In the new 1.01 patch you can also use the keyboard number pad to scroll.], is somewhat slow but the jump map is very quick making map navigation a breeze. Above the jump map are 28 buttons, the Control Panel, arranged in seven rows (less at lower resolutions). As mentioned above the buttons are very small and many of the icons unreadable. There is little need for them anyway as most of the game functions are accessible from a right-click pop-up menu. Above the Control Panel is the Unit Panel that shows the terrain of any hex clicked on along with the units in the hex, their values, and a 3D icon of the main equipment used in the unit. Along the bottom of the map is an Information Panel that displays various messages as you mouse around the map or click on units. The information displayed is important and very useful during the play of the game. Along the top of the screen is the menu bar where all game functions can be accessed.
For the most part, I cannot praise the interface in The Operational Art of War enough. Finally, a game company that understands how to use the power of the computer to streamline wargame play. Seventy-five percent of all game commands and information displays can be access with a click of the mouse on the relevant unit. This is accomplished by the use of the Unit Panel, the unit icons themselves, and the wonderful right-click menu. The right-click menu contains the most frequently used commands. The Unit Panel is not as useful as it could be. It displays all the units in a hex as a stack that you can click through to display all their combat values. With the exception of movement factors, all the same values are available on the unit icons themselves on the the game map, which you can cycle through easily by clicking. In the 3D view and when zoomed out the Unit Panel does become more useful. I wish instead they showed the units un-stacked in rows. The little 3D equipment graphic is nice but not particularly useful. The Operational Art of War includes a movement display feature so wonderful it is amazing no game has ever included it before. To move a unit you simply click on a unit and then on its destination. What makes this unique is that, unlike most games, as soon as you click on a unit a movement arrow activates that follows your cursor around the screen showing the exact path the unit would follow if moved, the cost of each hex, and the movement range of the unit. Wonderful!
The interface is not without its faults. TalonSoft included their "battleview" from their Battleground series of games in The Operational Art of War. This 3D view is of little use in this series. Stacking is represented only by dots and much less of the map can be seen. The 3D infantry icons are also rather unattractive and the bases very gaudy but without the bases many units are all but impossible to see. Some players may get a kick out of the 3D view but I think most will simply ignore it.
The 2D map has a few problems as well. When a unit is selected all other hexes occupied by units from the same formation are surrounded by steel borders. This makes it easy to keep formations coordinated. Unfortunately, units from different formations in the same hex are not indicated and thus it can be easy to move them as a group (stack) and break up other formations. It is also not possible to give commands to entire formations, although the Formation Report box comes close. When Show Movement Points is selected the combat values on units are replaced with their remaining movement points. It would be nice if all units not yet moved could be highlighted in some way. While The Operational Art of War can show all supply hexes the "Supply Trace" feature of the V for Victory series would have been a nice option as well. The large maps in The Operational Art of War can make turning Show Supply off and on a bit slow. Weather effects are completely addressed in the game and a weather view shows the weather for each hex with a cloud icon. The icons are cute but it would be more efficient if the Information Panel would display the weather state for that hex as the cursor passed over it. While the interface in The Operational Art of War is very well done a few more tweaks would make it even better.

Game Play

The Operational Art of War resembles Atomic Games/Avalon Hill's V for Victory series but improves upon it considerably. The game is a mix of new and familiar gaming concepts. It is basically a you go/I go system with some interesting chrome. While not as sophisticated as The Gamers' Operational Combat Series board game system, The Operational Art of War does a good job of conveying the important elements in operational warfare. Play is similar to the V for Victory series in many ways but moves past it as well. The heart of the system is the turn's ten rounds. A turn is composed of movement and attacks that, depending on their length, may allow the player another round of the same. Thus if you only move half your movement and "end" your turn you will get a chance to move and attack again...maybe! What keeps things interesting is that the system makes a number of calculations based on how far you moved and how big your battles are to determine how many rounds pass. This is a very slick and easy way to simulate armored exploitation without a lot of separate phases. If this is not enough, full fog of war is available that is influenced by air recon as well as the recon abilities of units. Combine this with the ability of units with high reconnaissance levels to disengage makes for a game where, for the first time, recon units become a useful and valuable asset. Even stacking is handled well. Instead of putting a flat limit on the number of units allowed in a hex a density value is assigned. As you pack more units in a hex the value goes up and the detrements become worse. The subtilties of this system may not be readily apparent but after a few scenarios you will begin to see how well it works and the impact it has on your operations. Added to these rounds is variable initiative that may give a player two turns in a row (not used for play-by-email games). Thus every turn is a variable ebb and flow as units move, attack, and exploit in supporting and intertwined fashion.
Integrated within this slick turn sequence are a number of unit and formation level options. Units have a number of deployment options: Moving, Defend (three levels), Tactical Reserve, and Local Reserve. The Tactical and Local Reserve deployments are the most interesting. Tactical Reserve allows a unit to respond to attacks adjacent to it during the opponent's turn and Local Reserve allows the same for attacks within the unit's remaining movement allowance. The deployment setting is indicated by a small letter to the right of the unit symbol. The deployments are a fantastic way to allow a "reaction phase" within the you go/I go system.
The Operational Art of War also includes formations that range from battalion on up. Units within these formations can attack together while attacking with other formations may be unfavorably modified if not prevent altogether. Formations also have variable supply abilities based on their composition.
Combat is equally as elegant as the movement system. With a simple right-click, units can be set to attack and defend with six levels of intensity. Units can be set to Minimize, Limit, and Ignore losses in combat. In addition, the same options are available as a Limit Attack (essentially a probe or holding action). These settings are indicated on each unit by dots to the left of the unit symbol. Consequences of an attack can be losses, engagements, retreats, and unit breakdown into smaller sub-units. Individual units may also be subject to "reorganization" after particularly grueling attacks where they can still move and defend but not attack. The system takes a huge number of factors into account for each attack including attack density, complexity, supply, flanks, defending terrain, and a complex accounting of the actual equipment of which each unit is comprised. A unique Attack Planning Dialog box makes setting up attacks easily. The box shows the defending unit and all surrounding units with flags next to each unit that indicate their cooperation level. As units are selected to attack a running total of attack and defender strengths is kept with a success estimate. Supporting units such as ranged artillery and air support are also available. While actually part of movement, The Operational Art of War includes disengagement attacks. Units with low recon and or low movement levels, adjacent to enemy units, may undergo disengagement attacks that can be quite disastrous. Thus The Operational Art of War simulates the difficulty engaged units have in moving away from combat.
All of these seemingly simple and basic options combine in such a way as to give the best representation of operational level combat in any computer wargame to date. The slick and well designed interface makes it a breeze to forget the details and concentrate on maneuver and operational level tactics.
The AI in The Operational Art of War is exceptional. This is not to say it is a silicon General Patton but it will certainly provide an adequate opponent. The AI seems to have little difficulty handling small or large numbers of troops and is one of the more aggressive AI's I have seen on the attack. It does of course make the occasional silly error but these are thankfully rare. The one odd thing I have noticed about the AI is that it seems to shuffle units around a lot. Unit movement by the AI is rather quick so it is difficult to tell exactly what it is moving but it sometimes seems to move the same unit back and forth a bit for no purpose. AI execution time is acceptable; depending on the size of the scenario it can take over fifteen minutes for the AI to complete its turn if you have combat reports turned on. [Note: The 1.01 patch supposedly speeds this up a bit.] Players have the option to set the sophistication, called intelligence, of the AI, which influences AI execution speed, as well a handicap/cheat level.

Scenario Selection and Design

The Operational Art of War ships with seventeen scenarios from the attack on France in 1940 to North Africa to the Korean War. The scenarios range from less than ten turns to over 50. Unit density in scenarios range from a few dozen units per side to 500. [Note: The new 1.01 patch raises this limit to 2,000.] Arracourt 44 is probably the best scenario to play first as it has the lowest unit density. All the scenarios are very well done although some are so large many gamers may steer clear of them. My only complaint about the scenarios is that there are not more smaller ones. [Of course with the new OPART300 in the 1.01 patch that allows 2,000 units per side I wonder if I may be in the minority with this belief.] Another quibble is that the scenarios are sorted alphabetically instead of by year and or theatre (This will become more annoying as more scenarios become available). Every scenario can be played as either side against the computer, hot seat against a human opponent, or by email. The back of the box states that TCP/IP play is included but it is not. TalonSoft is currently deciding whether to add it on or not. I do not see why players would want to play The Operational Art of War live over the Net when a player could take up to 30 minutes or more to complete his or her turn. Each scenario includes the basic stats on hex scale and time length as well as a description of unit colors. A detailed historical account is also provided. Another unique aspect to The Operational Art of War scenarios are Significant Events. Significant Events are essentially special triggers that can occur due to action within the game such as certain objectives being captured or lost or simply by time. Thus reinforcements can be dynamically activated as well as events outside the scope of the game such as the deployment of gas or atomic weapons. Significant Events add considerably to the depth of each scenario and produce an almost campaign like feel within a scenario. The Operational Art of War is one game where scenario add-ons will be heartily welcomed.
Of course players will not have to wait for add-on packs because The Operational Art of War comes with a complete scenario design system. The Scenario Editor is the actual one used by TalonSoft to design the scenarios included with the game. Players can manipulate almost every aspect of a scenario from the maps and units to reinforcements and Significant Events. I will report more on the Scenario Editor once I have had more time to use it. I can say the Editor is not for the faint of heart but for those willing to spend the time they will be well rewarded for their efforts.

Summary

The Operational Art of War is without a doubt simply the best operational level computer wargame designed to date. It is not a revolutionary system, but it takes tried and true board game concepts and combines them with some unique concepts and a great interface to produce a fantastic package. The detailed manual and complete Scenario Editor make the replay value of this game extremely high. Without a doubt, countless scenarios will be written by players and made available on the Web for years to come. TalonSoft has done it with this one!