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Wargame of the Year

The Operational Art of War, Vol. 1
Publisher: TalonSoft
Developer: TalonSoft

"The Operational Art of War is a class act all the way, offering almost every feature a wargamer could want."
- T. Liam McDonald, GameSpot Review

Great wargames manage to stress every nuance of combat and numerous battlefield details while striving for some degree of accessibility. Toward this end, The Operational Art of War succeeds with the force of a tank brigade. Designer Norm Koger wanted to create a veritable be-all, end-all of wargames, and the result is a game brings new ideas to a genre that is typically apprehensive about change.

What's even more impressive is that while most other games focus on one military campaign, The Operational Art of War covers the entire era from 1939 to 1955. The elegant interface hides intensely complex combat mechanics that tries to incorporate a horde of factors (weather, terrain states, theater-wide air superiority and interdiction, intelligence, local patrols and reconnaissance, guerrillas, supply, replacements, reinforcements, political events, and more) that influence each combat unit's effectiveness. Add to this a superb scenario editor, and the formula for success is complete.

In an era where many designers eschew attention to gameplay detail over accessibility for newcomers, Norm Koger's Operational Art of War succeeds on both fronts, more than earning a 21-gun salute from GameSpot.


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