Computer Graphics Memory Diskspace
Minimum 386/25 VGA 2MB 5.5MB
Max/Rec. 386/33+ 640x480x256
Control: Microsoft or Logitech compatible mouse; keyboard
Sound : Thunderboard, Pro Audio Spectrum, Gravis Ultra Sound, SoundBlaster
family and compatibles
Notes : needs 5.5MB of uncompressed hard drive space, 557KB free base RAM,
607KB free EMS
Reviewed version 1.0 on 486/33 VLB and 486/66 VLB with 8MB RAM, QEMM 7.03,
Logitech Mouse, SB Pro.
Achtung! Panzer! The sight of tanks rumbling across the battlefield is one of the basic images of twentieth century warfare. Since their debut in World War One, tanks have come to epitomize modern combat, and wargamers have been eager to simulate armored battles ever since wargaming started in its modern form. It is not surprising, then, that one of the biggest hits in wargaming's modern era was Avalon Hill's 1960's hit PANZER BLITZ, a tactical game of Eastern Front combat that introduced many gamers to their hobby. Since Panzer Blitz, numerous boardgames and miniature systems have given wargamers the chance to command armored forces in battle across several technological eras. For computer wargamers, however, the choices have remained relatively slim. Recently, Scott Hamilton's HPS Simulations has begun a line of detailed tactical wargames that cover the high end of computer wargaming, with detailed and sometimes complex games. With the release of its WARGAME CONSTRUCTION SET II: TANKS! (Tanks!), Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) has seized the middle ground somewhere between historical simulation and abstract battle game.
Tanks! is a tactical level simulation of modern armored combat from the First World War to the present. Unlike Panzer Blitz and most other board games, Tanks! allows players to simulate battles from nearly any time in the twentieth century. Units are platoons and batteries, and players control forces ranging from about a single batallion to several brigades of tanks and supporting arms. Despite its title, Tanks! includes infantry, artillery, air support, and numerous other forces in its extensive databases; it is not just about tanks, but rather about modern tactical combat in its entirety. Using a familiar hexagon based map and turn based gameplay, Tanks! supports one player, two players, or no players (computer vs. computer) play, and is suitable for play by e-mail. Units feature shilouettes of vehicles and weapons, and are nicely rendered in 640x480 SVGA on systems so equipped. The game includes a database of weapons, troops, and equipment that ranges from Mark I tanks of WWI to the M1A1 Abrams of today, and allows players to pit forces from different eras against one another. The action takes place on a map which can vary in size from 20 by 20 to 60 by 60 hexes, with each hex being 250 meters across. Terrain comes in three elevation levels, and includes temperate, arid, and frozen landscapes, with all the streams, roads, berms, forests, towns, and bridges one could want. Sound effects are incidental to play, but include the rumbling of vehicles and the squeaking of treads, as well as the blasts of weapons and the rat a tat tat of machine guns.
Gameplay is relatively simple. A mouse is essential for play, as it is the primary means of selecting and manipulating units. Depending on the level of realism desired (standard or advanced), there are two ways to give orders to your forces in Tanks! With the standard command rules, players move all of their units in any order they desire on a turn. When using the advanced rules, the program determines the order in which companies move based on their initiative (command and control) values. In this case, the movement of both players' companies is interleaved; Red might move two companies, followed by three from Blue, then another Red, etc. Individual platoons can be set to hold fire or auto fire. When set to hold fire, units only fire if the player specifically orders them to. On auto fire, units pick and choose their own targets, and provide covering and opportunity fire in reaction to enemy actions. As combat consumes movement points, the balance between firing and moving becomes one of the player's most important concerns. Action is basically move/fight, though units can occasionally fight then move. Thus, as firing a weapon uses movement points, and the program gives you no control over rates of fire, firing usually uses up all of a unit's movement points. Tanks! takes account of unit facing, ammunition supplies, weather, and line of sight considerations in fairly standard wargaming style with a minimum of fuss. During a battle, the players can access a list of their own combat formations (companies), which lists each comapany's components. Players can also examine each sides' equipment, including optimal engagement ranges, simply by pulling down the Equipment menu and selecting two unit types to compare. In addition, Tanks! has buttons for determining the hexes in a unit's line of sight, displaying the larger strategic map, and other useful game functions. All in all, a nice implementation of classic wargaming features.
While Tanks! includes a number of preprared scenarios, covering the entire period from WWI to the present, the heart of the game is its ability to generate random games, complete with unique maps and orders of battle. Not only that, but Tanks! includes a complete scenario editor that allows players to create their own scenarios, either from scratch or with varying degrees of help from the computer. Creating a scenario from scratch involves making a map, creating an order of battle for each side, and assigning objectives. The only difficult part is correctly setting formation objectives, as this can take several attempts to get it right. The editor will also generate random maps identical to those generated by the random scenario maker. Terrain density and percentages are user selectable. Tanks! can create orders of battle for a user scenario as well, making the editor a very flexible tool, which should keep gamers occupied for some time to come. It is entirely possible to create a scenario where Soviet helicopter troops, for example, assault a position held by WWI German Stosstruppen, or M1A1Abrams' rumble through a line of British Matildas. While not every scenario will be balanced, the sheer variety of possibilities should ensure long life on the hard drive.
With all of its variety, ease of play, and numerous possible scenarios, Tanks! has all the makings of a gret game. Unfortunately, Tanks! fails to live up to its great promise. Combat is very bloody, with both attacker and defender often reduced to mere remnants by game's end. Part of the problem is due to the overstated effects of artillery. Artillery fire, particularly light and medium mortars, is unrealistically effective against heavily armored targets. Too often, platoons of Tigers, or Abrams, or T-72 tanks are devastated by light mortar attacks. The result of the overly bloody combat system, and the unrealistic effectiveness of light artillery, is that few battles resemble historical engagements in either their course or outcome. Another problem in this vein is the way Tanks! treats transport units. Dismounted infantry and weapons units have to carry their transport with them where ever they go. Players can not detach trucks or tracks and keep them somewhere out of the line of anti-tank fire while the grunts sneak through the woods. This leads to some very bloody engagements, where scores of trucks die as they accompany their infantry to the front lines. The system used in HPS's Eastern Front WWII tactical game TIGERS ON THE PROWL allows players to separate transport and passengers, and Tanks! should have used a similar approach. While the recently released 1.1 version should correct some of these problems, Tanks! remains much more of a game than a simulation, and gamers should assess it accordingly.
Some of the problems in Tanks! could have been avoided had the designer/programmer Norm Koger implemented some sort of morale system; such a system might have provided a means for battered units to withdraw and regroup. As it is, the computer in particular will fight to the last tank, often for no good reason. It tries to disengage, but the lethality of the combat system usually makes this a moot point. There is no suppression, so artillery and machine gun fire can only kill or miss. If Tanks! included suppression rules, perhaps the artillery could then be a bit less lethal, thus improving accuracy all around. Likewise, anti-tank missiles fire and hit on the same turn, which is acceptable in terms of game scale, but there is no provision for suppressive fires that could take advantage of the slow flight time of most missiles. HPS' modern armored game POINT OF ATTACK, as well as numerous board games, provide rules to simulate the relative vulnerability of missiles to suppressive fires, and Tanks! would have benefitted from such rules as well.
Luckily, the computer opponent is generally adequate, if rather trigger happy. The AI tends to fire all of its weapons at the first thing to cross its sights, regardless of whether the target is a cheap armored car or a Tiger tank. A careful player can fool the computer into blowing all of its fire opportunities on one measly target, as the computer seems to put all of its units on auto fire. The unit lists and equipment pools available in Tanks!, while numerious, are oddly incomplete. There are no Soviet Mi-24 Hind gunships, no BMP-2's or BMP-3's, and no later generation Soviet anti- tank missiles or improved American TOW or TOW-2 systems. Old missles like the Sagger have the same attack value as TOWs, with greater accuracy, an assessment that is debatable at best. Space limitations apparently resulted in the elimination of modern German (Bundeswehr) forces, leaving an unfortunate hole in the database when it comes to NATO vs Warsaw Pact and contemporary European scenarios. One wonders whether the inclusion of WWI forces was worth the omission of the modern Germans and the lack of some major modern weapons systems in the database. Finally, Tanks! does not allow players to review and change the set ups of their forces in randomly generated scenarios, a feature that even 8-bit computer games like SSI's KAMPFGRUPPE by Gary Grigsby implemented This feature is present in all of HPS's tactical simulations, and its absence in Tanks! mars the enjoyment of the random scenarios.
As far as actually playing the game goes, some users have reported that the combat messages fly by too quickly on fast 486s, and the sound effects for air strikes include a piercing whistle that goes through the PC speaker no matter what sound card is installed. Other than these minor problems, there seem to be few bugs in Tanks!, as is usual with a Norm Koger programmed game. On the whole, Tanks! is an entertaining and competent wargame, sort of a more flexible and polished version of KAMPFGRUPPE. It is not as detailed or as demanding as HPS's Tigers on the Prowl, which remains the premier tactical wargame on the personal computer, but it is a valuable addition to the wargamers's shelf nonetheless. It is attractive, even if some of the unit shilouettes look elongated in SVAG, and it is very easy to get into. It plays a lot like Game Designer's Workshop's (GDW) SANDS OF FIRE and its siblings, and boardgamers familiar with GDW's tactical games or earlier efforts from Avalon Hill will find Tanks! familiar territory. Ultimately, Tanks! is more of a game than a simulation. It does not model modern combat with enough detail and accuracy to be a definitive simulation, but it does provide more than enough meaty gameplay to establish itself as a sort of half way house between abstract games like Quantum Quality Production's THE PERFECT GENERAL and detailed historical simulations like Tigers on the Prowl. If nothing else, the excellent scenario builder makes Tanks! worth its price.
This review Copyright (C) 1994 by Robert Riley Mayer for Game Bytes Magazine. All Rights Reserved