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The Customizer

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As I said, the most notable part of the game isn't even the game itself: it is the really unprecedented way you can tweak the game to simulate any situation you want. It is all built in. Don't like the rules? Change them. The terrain and unit graphics are poor? Draw new ones. Want new or modified weapons? Create them. Want to create a whole new army? Do it! You really have nearly unlimited power: you can change movement rates, fire rates, weapon effectiveness, fog and smoke, the whole enchilada. I haven't seen anything like it. You can even change the sounds and animations if you want. The techniques are explained in the manual and in a pair of tutorials on the disk. It is not easy, naturally, and it is quite time-consuming, but basically you are building your own game, and what is remarkable is that you don't have to know how to program to do it.

Fig. 7. A customization screen

For show I played around with the graphics to devise a Napoleonic army. Make your marines red-coated Brits and the other side French, turn the bikes into horses and the Comstruks into cannons (modifying the movement values, naturally), replace their lasguns and autocannons with some muskets and carronades (you can even simulate the difference between round and canister shot if you want!). Change the voices to talk like the French and English, and poof, you've got a game system that would make a Napoleonic miniatures buff proud. Now all you have to do is go out and make some scenarios to link together into a campaign-Sharpe's Rifles, anyone? (Note: I did not actually do all this, but it's all possible.) It is the closest most of us will come to actual game design, and Boku wins big points for letting us have the option, even if most of us won't because we are shabby artists or don't have the time.

As you can imagine, the possibilities here can add hundreds of hours of life to the game. On Shrapnel Games' Web site (www.shrapnelgames.com) there are scenarios and other bits available for download. Campaign packs simulating World War II and a fantasy setting are scheduled for release this summer, according to the manual.

Conclusion

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AoA is not for the gaming masses. The graphics are not the prettiest, and the game does not boast some of the features of other tactical squad-level combat sims out there. But it does offer unprecedented flexibility and power for the more creative among us, in addition to being a generally good and challenging game. Boku did good work here and I'd like to see more from them.

System Requirements:

• Pentium 133
• Win 95/98
• 30 MB HDD space
• 24 MB RAM
• DX 6.0 or later.
• CD-ROM

Reviewer's System:

• Pentium III/500
• Win 98
• 13.6 GB HDD
• 256 MB RAM
• 44X CD-ROM

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