The Wargamer

Better known for modern, World War II and nineteenth-century games, HPS would seem to have a comfortable niche. The industry then was taken by surprise when, out of the blue, the company launched a tactical ancients game. Not only ancient but early Republican Roman, before the professional war machine created by Marius and used by Caesar and Pompey. Nonetheless, Paul Bruffell and team know their stuff and have created a deep and delightful game.

Field of Mars

Installation is usually done via the wizard and takes up 300 MB of hard disk space. Like most HPS games, the documents are on-disk but, despite the placeholder option, are not accessible through the menu bar. Fortunately, Punic Wars runs windowed so that the 33-page-"Rules", eleven-page "Start" and FAQ documents in both Word and PDF formats can be brought up by clicking on them in the Windows taskbar. The "Start" document outlines the basic play mechanics but is not a walkthrough for the "Started" scenario. Instead, general tips on the use of units are presented. The documents are clearly written and well illustrated. The hot links in the rules' table of contents are particularly helpful.

A nice twist on a familiar item is the way the scenario parameter data is handled. Instead of one long text file requiring much scrolling, the drop-down menu breaks the data into topics such as terrain and formation costs, weapon range and effectiveness, and stacking limits. Clicking on these brings up a clear and pleasing table onto the screen. Players can now see important information clearly without thinking it a chore.

Battles are fought on three map levels. The 2D zoom-out map covers the entire field of all but the biggest battles. Little detail is shown here with units undifferentiated by type until the unit info box is called with a click. Units are colored by nation or tribe, making the polyglot barbarian armies very colorful. This view is helpful to grasp the broad picture. The 2D zoom-in map gives more terrain detail with units marked with modified NATO symbols and bars to show facing. Using this level with group commands is a good way to handle the "move to contact" phase of a battle. A very helpful function is the ability to rotate the map 180 degrees.