As a miniatures game player, I love good turn based games. Massive Assault Network is one of them. This is a good old fashioned wargame where cities provide resources and you have the option to buy units or every turn or save up for bigger units or an assault force. The game only supports 1 on 1 matches, but a league system (clan wars) allows players to work together towards a common goal. The maps and stats for the Clan Wars are not in game, but are available via the web. You can read more about this aspect on the MAN forums. To me graphics and sound do not make much of a difference to me in turn based strategy games, but game play and “fairness” do. Game play is smooth and intuitive with a great opportunity to display both your tactical and strategic skills. The key in MAN are the secret allies. At the beginning of the game you have a fixed number of secret allies randomly distributed across the map. During your setup, you make two of these active while the rest remain hidden. Each turn you may activate one of your secret allies and place the starting allotment of troops to protect the province (or setup for an attack or setup to protect another province). To be a consistent winner you have to manage your secret allies well and prepare for your opponent to reveal his. Another indicator of good game play is solid balance between the sides so its just not a matter of using one canned tactic or strategy to win. In MAN both players have units with the same exact stats. This may seem boring to some, but it make for perfect balance. What I mean by fairness, is that the players who plays better will triumph the vast majority of the time. Obviously, balance plays a big part here, but there are two other factors that affect the fairness: initiative and secret ally distribution. I have found the secret ally distribution to play a minor part, but some setups can start you at a disadvantage. Initiative has a much greater impact. Phantom League (PL) player always moves first. This means that that the Free Nations Union (FNU) player will need to play more defensive on the first turn, especially on smaller maps. When games are setup, you can specify which side you want to play or you can let the computer pick. In tournament play, each player gets to play both sides so it is not an issue. During Clan Wars, this imbalance is taken into account by always having the attacker play FNU and the defender PL. This gives the advantage to the defender. In conclusion, MAN is a great value at ~$7 per month with no other initial investment. This means that you can play the full game with minimal risk (as we have all paid full retail for games that we hardly touched). For me this game is addicting and keeps me coming back for more.
