Massive Assault Impressions

At ECTS 2003 we were able to get an up-close look at the soon-to-be-released turn-based wargame Massive Assault, a highly streamlined game that will, according to the developer, present "pure strategy" by focusing on tactical engagements rather than on collateral management, such as resource-gathering, base-building, diplomacy, supply lines, or morale. The futuristic game takes place across six different planets of different sizes and terrain types. It seems that control of these worlds is being disputed by two powerful warring factions, the Free Nations and the Phantom League, each of which is equipped with powerful futuristic technology in the form of armed vehicles such as tanks, bombers, and battleships.

Massive Assault will be a tactical, hex-based game "without the hexes." You'll deploy your forces in a hex-based pattern, but the actual maps won't have hexes; instead, they'll include the national borders of different countries, each of which is controlled by a capital city. You'll spend most of the game coordinating military operations between armies whose relative strengths are shown with easy-to-understand figures. For instance, a light tank may have four health points, while a heavy gunner might have nine. Depleting a unit to zero destroys it; however, enemy units may not be bypassed, so you can easily delay your enemies by placing a bunch of inexpensive, low-health cannon fodder along a line of battle.

Much of the game's action takes place on the tactical map, which features fully 3D-rendered terrain and military units on grassy fields, arctic tundra, and seaside areas by default. However, the game also has adjustable camera controls that let you move your perspective to a zoomed-out, completely overhead view that resembles that of a more-traditional wargame. The key to winning battles is to make good use of combined arms and to protect your weaker units by forming an impassable battle line to defend them from your enemies. This is because Massive Assault won't have a single "superunit" that can be mass-produced to overrun your enemies. For instance, slow-moving heavy artillery can fire on enemies that are multiple hexes away but have only three health points, so a light, fast-moving enemy vehicle, if allowed through your lines, may be able to sneak in and quickly dispatch the artillery.

Though Massive Assault will be a highly streamlined game, it will feature a few amenities that should help make the game extremely playable for both wargame veterans and beginners. For instance, the game will feature both "undo" and "rewind" buttons that will let you not only retract individual moves that you may have taken with a specific unit, if you happen to make a mistake, but will also let you take back an entire turn, all the way back to the very beginning of the battle. And though Massive Assault won't have any kind of traditional resource-gathering, it will have a streamlined funding system in which you'll earn cash to commission new battle units from your various holdings. You'll be able to collect income from the treasuries of each of your holdings, including secret holdings, which are essentially undeclared territories that you control secretly and from which you can quickly hire out a new army to dispatch invaders. However, all openly declared territories must pay an indemnity tax each turn, so your decision to unveil your hidden territories will likely depend on how close your enemies are and how good a chance you have of surviving an assault, given your current funds. Massive Assault will feature single-player campaigns as well as 30 stand-alone scenarios. The game is scheduled to ship soon.