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The mightiest generals in history unite. |
The Ancient Art of War was created by Dave and Barry Murry and released by Broderbund in 1984. The game was inspired by Sun Tzu's famous treatise on strategy The Art of War, and it incorporated elements of his work in its overall design. The Ancient Art of War was one of the first games to successfully combine an easy-to-use interface and colorful graphics with the depth that strategy game fans have come to expect. It was ahead of its time, incorporating strategic and tactical elements into an adjustable-speed real-time system. Players selected one of several computer-controlled opponents, some modeled after historical figures such as Gengis Khan and Sun Tzu, and every opponent had a different personality and style of play.
What really set The Ancient Art of War apart was the way the game took details into account when determining the strength of the opposing armies. Each squad would display two status indicators: condition and food supply. Condition indicated a combination of movement, combat, and how well-fed your troops were, based on the distance from a friendly village. If a squad's supply line was cut off by the enemy, that squad's food-supply status would decline, and its condition would deteriorate as a result. Each squad also had a variable marching rate--if you made your squad march quickly, its condition declined faster. In addition to a squad's condition, the game accounted for squad formation, terrain advantages, and other options when determining the outcome. Although the game's real-time system was not as elaborate as the systems found in current real-time strategy games, it did give players the option to make some tactical decisions by zooming in on specific battles. If you chose not to zoom in on a particular battle, the game would resolve the conflict automatically and inform the player of the results.
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The victories of good warriors are not noted for cleverness or bravery. Therefore their victories in battle are not flukes. |
There were two more games in the Ancient Art of War series--Broderbund's The Ancient Art of War at Sea and MicroProse's The Ancient Art of War in the Skies--but even the most recent game was released more than 10 years ago, and rather than updating the ground-based strategic and tactical warfare of the original game, the sequels brought the original game's simple and elegant system to different settings. The original game in the series definitely deserves a remake, if only to let a new generation of strategy game fans enjoy its excellent design and deceptively deep strategic elements. While the remake could be made with updated graphics and sound alone, there are also plenty of opportunities to expand on the basic elements of the game, such as adding individual unit or squad experience bonuses, additional tactical options in battle, or a wider variety of available unit types. Either way, a modern sequel to The Ancient Art of War would be a great addition to the current selection of strategy games.
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