From: yin@CS.ColoState.EDU (hwei yin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games,comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: REVIEW: Carriers at War Naval Game --IBM version (LONG)
Date: 28 Sep 92 18:37:18 GMT
Organization: Colorado State University, Computer Science Department

Carriers at War (CAW) Review		9-27-92
IBM VGA reviewed (I don't know if it will be released for MAC or AMIGA)

This is a detailed review of the SSG game, Carriers at War (Keating and Trout).
A summary is provided for those who are not fanatical enough to read the entire
review.  This is a preliminary review -- I've played only two games in the week
I've had the game (both decisive victories: Japan at Coral Sea and US at
Pearl Harbor).  I've played the old Apple ][e version extensively.


Summary:
  Excellent wargame simulating carrier warfare in the Pacific.  Decent graphics
enhance feel and excitement, but combat graphics can get obtrusive.  Very 
realistic, with as much detail as most people will ever need.  Enemy AI can 
challenge experienced players and can totally smash inexperienced players.  
Interface, considering complexity, excellent, although there are a few 
annoyances.  Minor, ignorable gripes for extreme fanatics.  Considering the 
complexity taken into account, very easy to learn if someone shows you, 
although the first person learning may require a some work.  Carrier warfare
has a spy-novel sort of feel, with the majority of the time spent in a
hide and seek game of calculation and risk-taking that climaxes in brief 
but extremely devastating combat.  From what I've heard, this game is far 
better than any competing effort.  Similar, but much slicker than the earlier
version.

Overall Configuration of Game:
  The current version only allows the players to play historical battles or
minor variations on them.  These variants are selected from the "War Room"
facility, and can be randomized.  Only Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, Midway, Santa
Cruz, Eastern Solomons, and the Marianas Turkey Shoot are represented.
Surface actions, such as Leyte Gulf, are not represented.  Players take the
role of specific admirals or land based commanders.  The computer can control
any excess commands.
  The CAW interface is based on a game clock.  The clock is frozen when players
give orders.  When everyone is done, the clock is restarted, ticking off 5 
minute intervals.  The clock continues until a player calls for a break, stops
the clock, and gives new orders.  Thus, rather than giving orders in set time
intervals, orders are given upon the occurance of specific events.  There is
no modem option, so players must trade off using the computer one at a time.
  Orders and info are given through a hierarchical menu system, although there 
are a few important displays that can only be accessed through the pull-down 
menus.  
  Ships are organized into task groups, several of which can be assigned to 
one commander.
  While the clock runs, players watch events unfold, breaking whenever they
feel that orders need to be changed.  Events include enemy sightings and 
combat reports.  Gasps, cheers, and groans occur during combat, as players 
watch specific ships attempt to dodge attacks.

Search:
  The most important aspect of carrier warfare is that you have access to very
little information about the enemy.
  Search craft and subs are not explicitly controlled, although their progress 
can be monitored.  This makes handling search much less of a headache; however,
there is loss of control in search density and exact search paths.  You can at 
least know what has been scanned by careful monitoring of search craft and 
weather fronts, and with experience it becomes much less of a problem.
  The sightings can contain a good deal of inaccuracy.  It is now possible to
mistake friendly task groups for enemy and to get the location of the enemy
wrong.  Reports on the composition of enemy groups are highly unreliable, but 
this is made moot by the excessive information available through other means.

Availability of Information:
  One problem introduced in this version is that there is excess information
about the enemy available.  Combat displays, while exciting, show exactly
which ships are being attacked and how many hits they suffer, although the
extent of the damage is usually difficult to tell.  You can also pull up a
roster listing ALL enemy ships, thus eliminating the "how many carriers?" 
uncertainty present in the war.  The tech service people say there is no way
to turn these features off.
  Strangely enough, it's very hard to get information about friendly task
groups not under your control.  You see a bunch of plots out there, and you
know what ship is the flag of each, but you can't get a listing of the ships
belonging to it.  The solution is to save and restart the game controlling
everything, then to return with the knowlege gained.  Most people (not in a
hurry) would much rather control everything on their side all the time.
  Weather can only be accessed while you are giving orders -- you cannot see
it develop while the game clock is running.  This is annoying since you have
to continually stop it just to see if the squall you're hiding under has
moved away.

Managing Ships:
  The system for moving ships is extremely intuitive.  Although the map appears
to be analog, it seems to be divided into hexagonal units, with each unit
being equivalent to 20 naut miles.  The clear, simple interface lets you steer
toward any particular target or toward a random location in the middle of the
sea, and allows you to link up with other task groups without hassle.  True
fanatics, however, will be bothered by the fact that there is no coordinate
system, so finding a precise spot in open sea is difficult -- this is important
when you wish to position ships in-between small gaps in enemy air coverage.
It is important to note that carriers freeze their location when strikes are
launched so that planes know where to return to.
  Surface combat is a lot of fun, although realism may be suspect.  The screen
is divided into horizontal distance zones: the configuration and heading of 
ships within a zone is not accounted for.  Thus, formations can only close or
open the range: "crossing the T" is not possible.  There is none of the
confusion (especially at night) that dominated many of the famous surface 
engagements -- instead, we are faced with a straight-out slugfest.  Once again,
too much information about the enemy is available as you know the number, type,
and range of enemy ships approaching.  None of this is supposed to matter in a 
battle dominated by carriers, although a surface engagement has happened in 
both battles I fought.

Managing Planes:
  The interface for managing aircraft is, in a word, wonderful.  Squadrons are
chosen directly from the display showing their status on the airfield, thus
eliminating the need for seperate status and orders displays.  A very slick
combat air patrol system allows the player to precisely control patrol 
intensity and timing with no clumsy shuffling of squadrons and orders.  Massive
strike orders can be sent on a squadron-by-squadron basis in only a few seconds 
of mouse clicking.  You cannot explicitly control the type of weapons placed
on aircraft, but this has yet to become a problem.  Skill level is assigned to
individual pilots (they even considered naming the pilots).

Running the Clock:
  As noted before, the clocks ticks off five minute intervals.  You can stop it
manually or use specific predetermined events as breakpoints.  Air attacks on
ships appear on the screen and show attacks on individual ships from 
small groups of aircraft.  Surface combat also appears, showing the results
of each ship's salvo.  Although exciting, this can get real tedious -- imagine 
an air attack in the Phillipine Sea handled five planes at a time or Pearl 
Harbor's Battleship Row attacking Nagumo one salvo at a time.  Fortunately, 
most engagements are not on this colossal scale, preventing five minutes of
game time from exceeding five minutes of real time.

Realism:
  In addition to the comments above, there are many other subtle factors that 
probably won't matter to the average player.  Damage control and management
is much improved over the old CAW, with fire damage differentiated from 
structural damage, in addition to the scuttling option.  Morale and fatigue
are no longer visible as factors -- it is not clear if they are still taken
into account.  Fatigue is an important deterrant to keeping planes in alert
status all day long or launching multiple strikes with the same men.  
Operational hazards exist, but seem to be minimal.  You can maintain large
CAP's in miserable weather without much problem, and you can go charging 
about at 35 knots in the middle of the night without risk of collision.  It
is possible that in the few games I've played I've simply been very lucky.
  There are many wonderful factors taken into account by this game -- if I
had played weaker games I would probably notice them more, but as it is, it
is all too easy to take them for granted.  Kamikazes, tanker refueling, 
bombardment, aircraft base transfers, submarine attacks, strafing, weather 
patterns, and a host of other factors are taken into account without any 
effect on the easy interface.
  The "War Room" is a facility designed to introduce variability into the
historical scenarios.  It seems to screw around with the number of ships
involved and their timing, although much of this uncertainty is lost (as
described earlier).  I haven't seen any changes radical enough to offset prior
knowledge about the battle; however, I've only played the game twice.  It 
would be nice if they also included scenarios where carriers COULD have 
played a major role (such as Wake Island, many situations around Guadalcanal,
or Leyte Gulf).
  The second half of the manual includes a rather nice summary of the naval
war in the Pacific (old news to fanatics).

Tactics:
  The computer player, in the two games I've run, has been very conservative
and unwilling to take risks great enough to surprise or be unpredictable.
This evaluation, of course, is in danger of being quite premature since I've
only run two games.  The computer is more than good enough to completely
hammer the unwary; however, the computer is efficient and even experienced 
players must keep on their toes.  I complete this review with some brief 
advice for newcomers.
  Despite the vastness of the ocean, you do not have the freedom to go
anywhere you want.  Learning the ranges of various aircraft is important -- 
these combined with the location of airfields create the "terrain" for a
particular scenario.  This terrain manifests itself as zones that have varying
degrees of risk for detection or attack.  Three important factors can nullify
this terrain: weather, nightfall, and, of course,  enemy carriers.  
  Your most important objective is to destroy the carriers without getting
yourself annihilated in the process.  To do this, you must surprise them
by guessing where they're going to be and being in an unpredictable place 
yourself.  The games I've played have thus been characterized by wild 
running around during the night (as people try to fool each other) followed
by storm chasing and prayer during the day (as they try to find each other).
If you're lucky enough to get any information at all about the enemy, you 
must guess where he's going to go and position yourself accordingly.  If you're 
Japanese, you're usually blessed with extra range on your planes, allowing you 
to attack without being attacked yourself.  I also am fond of diversionary
action to try and fool the other player about my intentions, but not everyone
needs to do this.

Carriers at War is well worth the money.  I do not know how well it will go
over with people who have no previous interest in the period, but I do know
that it is a prayer answered for fans of the genre.  Good luck -- God knows
you need it in this game.

Hwei Yin (yin@cs.colostate.edu)