textfiles/games/REVIEWS/commndhq.rev

 COMMAND HQ

 1918: The convoy steams out of New York harbor into the hostile Atlantic and
the unknown. Do the wolves lurk hungrily just off the coast? Or farther, out in
the reaches, or just off the coast of Scotland? The German battlefleet is
moving. Can the Royal Navy hold it? Meanwhile, on the bloodsoaked plains of
France the armies mass again. Armies scattered around the world embark in their
slow transports and begin the long crawl to Paris. Can it hold, or will the last
gasp of the Central Powers drive it under? As supreme commander of one side or
the other in COMMAND HQ, you will decide the issue. (This review is based on the
IBM-PC version.)

 COMMAND HQ from MicroPlay/MicroProse is a grand strategic-level game set in one
of five time periods. The game is played either versus the computer opponent or
a "real" opponent (alternating at the same keyboard, or via modem connection).
The main screen shows a projection of the whole world in high resolution
graphics, with colors representing terrain, cities, bases, and in some cases
oilfields, in addition to the players' units. The interface is point-and-shoot:
You zoom in to examine the action in a theatre, then individually manipulate
units. The entire game is played from this single screen using pop-up menus and
a pointing device or keyboard to control the action. The interface is intuitive
and easy to learn, especially if you're using a mouse.

 COMMAND HQ is not a turn-based game; it runs in real-time, which makes
two-player games on one keyboard unwieldy, although possible. The clock
continues as you zoom to a theatre and select a unit to modify its orders. As
days pass, your fleets sail across the seas, infantry units dig in, tanks roll.
Things continue without your intervention, though once a unit's orders are
complete, it stops and sits in place, awaiting further commands. COMMAND HQ is a
game of priorities: The important theatre gets the minute attention, while
others fend for themselves on general "move that way" or "hold in place" orders
until you can spare the time to fine-tune troop deployments or convoy routes.
This does lead to some interesting snafus.

 The units vary from scenario to scenario, with the early scenarios employing
only subsets of the full complement. Learning the game by playing WWI, then
WWII, and finally the more advanced scenarios, is recommended, as it allows you
to become familiar with the idiosyncracies of each unit class gradually. You
begin with infantry armies, the basic unit for holding terrain; cruisers; the
basic element of seapower (in reality, surface fleets of many battleships) --
cruisers and destroyer, along with support elements); and submarines. Each has
its own particular strength and/or weakness. Infantry moves slowly, both on land
and sea; on sea, it is assumed to have boarded transports and is very vulnerable
to being sunk. However, it may entrench if stopped in one place for several
turns, making it much tougher on defense. An infantry unit entrenched in a city
(which adds an additional defensive bonus) is a chore to root out. Cruisers, on
the other hand, move fast, but only on the seas. They may project their
firepower several spaces away, on land or sea, unlike infantry, which must be in
contact (overlapping) with the unit they are attacking. Submarines possess the
element of stealth. A stopped submarine is invisible unless it is in contact
with a unit (again, overlapping), as long as it is stopped. If it is moving, it
can be spotted by motionless units. Submarines eat transports for breakfast in
one gulp.

 Units are controlled by giving them orders. To give a unit orders, you first
select it by pointing at it; then you tell it where you wish it to go. If it
intersects with a hostile unit, it will attack. It may pass through friendly
units, cross seas, etc., in the process of going where it has orders to go.
Often, it is better to micromanage a unit's movement by sending it to point A,
then point B, then finally point C, rather than telling it simply "go to point
C," since units tend to either go "crow's flight" overland, or follow
"established shipping lanes" when at sea, which can take them through
undesireable obstacles (such as enemy units or hostile terrain), or far out of
the way.

 The world is composed of various forms of terrain: Some of these affect
movement (ocean, dock, forest, jungle, lake, mountain, polar); some give
defenders bonuses (base, city, mountain); some cause attrition (polar, nuclear
wasteland, desert, jungle), resulting in "damage" to the unit occupying that
terrain. There are also cities, bases, and oil fields. Units are created, or
"bought," in cities or bases. (Sea units must be created in cities or bases that
are ports; not all cities and bases situated on the sea's shore are ports.)
Cities are the source of revenue, each yielding 50 million (per year?), and oil
fields provide oil, adding to the supply required to support units, cities, and
bases. In addition, units occupying cities, bases, or oilfields may be repaired
over time if damaged. Cities and bases also possess an intrinsic defense
capability. The local populace does not take kindly to being invaded, and will
snipe at occupiers until fully pacified, making the conquering of hostile cities
by tired units a risky business.

 Each unit possesses a strength bar that represents its current battle
readiness. If it falls to zero, the unit may be destroyed. Strength may be
reduced in combat, by entering hostile terrain, or by paradropping. Strength is
regained by remaining motionless in a city, base, or oilfield. In combat, each
until also possesses a facing arrow. A unit attacks in the direction it is
facing, and it will turn to face a hostile unit that it overlaps. Units under
attack may become pinned, preventing them from moving until the combat is
decided. Repeated retreat orders may result in movement in this case. Attacking
single hostile units with two (or more) units results in two friendly attacks
per one enemy attack. With land units it is possible (and desireable) to attack
an enemy unit from two directions, resulting in one head-on attack, and one
flank or rear attack. This yields much greater damage to the defending unit. At
sea there is no flanking or pinning; units are always free to move.

 Limited intelligence plays a major role in this game. Each type of unit has a
spotting range, usually quite short. Air power and carriers are important due to
their sighting range, even if their other benefits are ignored. Satellites (and
thus, their killers) have a tremendous impact on play in the scenarios they
inhabit. A very common occurance is for the player to receive a "XXXX city [way
out in the boonies away from any 'hot' area] has fallen!" as the result of an
unspotted enemy unit sneaking in round-about.

 With the WWII scenario come carrier fleets, tank armies, and air wings. The
critical role of airpower in modern war is well-modeled, as is the role of the
carrier in projecting that air power. Air units have a range in which they may
conduct missions, fly recon, and conduct CAP. Once an air unit flies a mission,
it becomes "unready," and must rest for a period of time. It may still fly CAP
at a lesser effectiveness, and CAP missions are done at a lesser readiness
penalty. Recon may be flown only by a ready air unit. Both recon and CAP are
entirely automatic. Unready units forced to fly CAP are more vulnerable to being
shot down, as are units flying missions at extreme range near the base of an
enemy air unit.

 Tank armies project more firepower than infantry, move faster, and "overrun"
infantry units (i.e., are not pinned by infantry), thus becoming the offensive
arm of the land forces. They also cost more to build. They may not entrench, and
therfore are more suitable for fluid defenses than static ones.

 The game's handling of nuclear weapons is well done. When they are available in
the later scenarios, they are cheap (for the firepower), but come at a high
political expense that must be balanced against the benefits in the "quick-kill"
of using them. Use of nukes, especially the nuking of cities (you are not
allowed to nuke your opponent's capital), results in the defection of a random
number of allies to neutral status, or neutrals to enemy status. First use
carries an additional penalty, versus "hey, he did it first!"; this makes the
first employment of nukes a tough decision. In addition, if one side uses three
nukes more than the other side (assuming that side hasn't won the war...or lost
the war after all its allies deserted), that side cannot employ nukes again
until the other side does. Alongside all these political penalties, repeated use
of nukes degrades the environment, resulting in nuclear wasteland (very
dangerous to units), a drop in productivity of cities (no more $50 million
each), or possibly a "lose-lose" situation due to full-blown nuclear winter!

 Another interesting element is the use of cease-fires in the later scenarios.
In cease-fires, units may be freely redeployed anywhere, unobserved unless the
opponent conducts an intelligence scan that gives him a glimse of current
deployments (which then, of course, change as rapidly as possible). This leads
to an environment of war, cease-fire, scramble to redeploy, war, cease-fire --
all scrambles for advantage.

 Foreign aid adds to the political side. If a neutral city is conquered, the
rest of that country is very susceptible to the influence of a foreign aid
"gift" from the other side. Again, the attacker has a dilemma. The result is
usually massive overruns (timed to occur as simultaneously as possible), so that
the other side can't sneak in some cheap benefits. Of course, this does tend to
lead to weaknesses elsewhere, which leads to surprise attacks, which makes
things quite interesting.

 The game also includes a "war film" feature, whereby you can turn a finished
game into an archive file for later playback. For those of us solitary gamers
who love to show off our strategic coups when the occasional opportunity arises,
this is a nice addition. A film may be interrupted, and play may be resumed at
any point.

 There are five "scenarios" in the game, but you can play either side, and play
is different from the "other side."

 World War I, which makes the best learning scenario (it incorporates only
infantry, cruiser, and sub units), begins late in that war (1918), at the final
gasp of the Central Powers. The U.S. has just entered the war and is shipping
men and material across the Atlantic to turn the tide. As the German leader, you
must slip your fleet past the watchful Brits, stop the convoys, mass and attack,
capture Paris...no problem! The Allied leader must, of course, prevent all of
this, gather forces in France, launch an overwhelming attack on Germany, and
topple the Kaiser by capturing Berlin. Naturally, there are very roundabout ways
to accomplish any of these objectives. The playing field is the whole world!

 World War II introduces tanks and airpower, both land-based and carriers. Along
with airpower come air-transport and paratroops, adding whole new tactical
approaches. It begins in late 1941. America has just entered the war, the
Japanese have crushed the Phillipines, western Europe is consolidated under the
mailed fist of the Nazi hoardes that now looks east. Only Great Britain holds
out. The fall of Washington yields an Axis victory. Again, Berlin is the key for
the Allies. Before it's over, the war may range across the steppes, into the
vast reaches of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, on the beaches in
North Africa, Europe, Iceland, Norway, India, Diego Garcia, Brazil, Australia,
Indochina, America, Canada, and on, and on....

 World War III, a hypothetical 1986 scenario, pits the Warsaw Pact versus NATO.
Again the arena is the whole world. Oil is added as a strategic consideration in
this scenario, along with satellite and satellite killers, nukes, foreign aid,
intelligence scans, and cease-fires. Many more strategies result, as opposed to
the simpler tactical additions in the WWI to WWII jump: This is Moscow versus
Washington.

 2023 (WWIV?), another hypothetical scenario, is played with the 1986 rules and
units, but presents a randomly selected mix of cities and oil fields. It is the
more distant future, when alliances have shifted, new patterns formed. All the
prior scenarios begin with the same setup each time you play them; this one is
always different. In addition each side begins with a pool of money and build
its initial forces.

 The last scenario is a far-future set on earth, when the world is populated by
city-states, all independant. Your goal: Conquer the world. (Translation: Find
the other guy and topple his capital.) This scenario is reminiscent of the
classic EMPIRE, but with more economic considerations, a fixed playing world,
and a different mix of units.

 COMMAND HQ's manual isn't as big as the typical MicroProse manual (which may be
a relief to some), but it's up to the normal MicroProse standards. It includes
tips on play, a tutorial, and historical summaries for the historical scenarios
(the WWI section is especially informative), and some notes for the
future/hypothetical ones.

 The programs are distributed on either two 5-1/4" or one 3-1/2" diskette. The
game requires an IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2, Tandy 1000, or 100% compatible machine,
with at least 512K (or 640k for Tandy) of RAM. It supports keyboard, mouse, or
joystick play. Either of the latter two are recommended, but I played with a
combination of mouse and keyboard. The games also requires EGA, VGA, MCGA, or
Tandy 1000 graphics; EGA systems must have 256K on the card. (Note: The game
does not support CGA. The box may state otherwise.) Your DOS must be 2.1 or
above (and the game is known to run with DOS 4.0).

 COMMAND HQ may be played from either floppies or hard drive; a simple INSTALL
program is provided on the first diskette. The SETUP program mentioned in the
Technical Supplement is rolled into the INSTALL program, and modifies your video
or accessory setup after the game is installed. The program files take up
relatively little space (maybe a megabyte, when the save directories are
included).

 Contrary to what the Technical Supplement says, the game does not use a
key-disk protection scheme. MicroProse decided to spare us that grief at the
last minute, and instead employed a manual-based system. The games sends you to
a page of the manual, then asks for the "first word of line 3 in column two,"
prompting you with the first letter to help. It only asks once per play session,
so it's not at all intrusive.

 The game supports no specialized soundcards, and makes very little use of sound
-- except for rumbles of battle when units meet. Sound support would add to the
game, but its lack doesn't detract much.

 As mentioned above, head-to-head play with another gamer is supported via
modem, or even using single keyboard (though the latter is a bit kludgy). The
READ.ME file provides details on establishing modem connections; A
Hayes-compatible modem is required for modem play. MicroProse also intends to
support LAN play in the future.

 COMMAND HQ is another winner from the MicroProse crowd. It's very good for solo
play, but its real strength lies in play against a "real" opponent. I found the
AI to be average, and the "levels of difficulty" appeared to affect the
opponent's starting units and speed of repair and readiness recovery more than
it affected the intelligence of the computer's moves. The last two scenarios,
however, do provide an infinite series of new games to play.

 The graphics were not spectacular, although the main playing map, its zooms,
and the units were all visually pleasing. I was disappointed with the quality of
the art in the animations. (Jet attack aircraft in WWII?) Graphics don't affect
play (except to slow it down); I turn them off. The same with the lack of sound
support: It's not a must, but it is becoming standard. Heh...surprise attacks
would _really_ be a surprise with good sound support!

 As far as game play goes, it is smooth: The speed control lets you slow things
down and issue lots of minute commands if the situation demands, but lets you
speed things up so that time flies if things are relatively static, or when long
strategic redeployments are taking place. Usually things are happening, and
fast.

 The mechanics of the game, and the abilities of the units, lead to very
realistic tactics and strategies. Pincer movements are a must at the tactical
level, whether from flanking attacks by tanks, paradrops behind the lines, or
end-run seaborne landings. Strategic end-arounds are also common, and necessary
to win. Combined arms attacks make a huge difference. Invasions work best when
the beaches are pounded by cruisers, bombed by planes, then assaulted with
tanks. You can't attack everywhere. Where do you defend, where do you ignore,
where do you attack? Which unit mix?

 He who arrives firstest with the mostest wins.

 COMMAND HQ is published by MicroPlay and distributed by MicroProse.

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