The Power and the Gory is an interesting name to
say the least. Personally, it brought to my mind images of a Mortal Kombat-style
fighting game in which barbaric fighters ripped off opponents' heads and
blood flew through the air like fireworks on the Fourth of July. I never
would have predicted what The Power and the Gory actually was.
The color cover of The Power and the Gory box told me what the disk inside contained. The Power and the Gory was a "World War II land and air strategy game." In retrospect, of course, the title of this software was fitting. For predicting, though, the title was not very helpful. Even my Magic 8-ball was not much help.
The packaging for The Power and the Gory (henceforth known as TPTG) is very nice. The disk and manual come in a color cardboard box which has a screenshot of the game on the front as well as the logo of Neotrek, the makers of the game. The packaging impressed me with its professional look. Another plus was that the box was only as big as it needed to be and not wasteful.
TPTG comes with a sixteen page, color cover, spiral-bound manual complete with charts. Overall, the documentation is very well done. It includes instructions on getting started and even a comprehensive table of contents. A table of contents in a game manual is very rare indeed!
TPTG is a computerized version of a war board game. For some reason, I think of Avalon Hill board games when I look at TPTG despite that I have never seen an Avalon Hill board game. It seems to fit the description that I have heard of Avalon Hill games.
The object of TPTG, of course, is to skillfully lead
your forces to victory. To triumph in TPTG, a player must wind up with
twice the amount of industry as their opponent. Both players start with
the same number of industrial units and they can be destroyed by enemy
units. Personally, I think that other objectives should have been able
to be used such as capturing the opponent's capital city. That would allow
for more variety and a shorter game. However, I suppose these were the
rules established in the original board game.
At the beginning of a game, the player first chooses between a multi-player game and a one player game. When playing the computer, a dialog shows up allowing the player to choose between three skill levels. I have yet to come close to defeating the first skill level.
Next, the player may choose his capital city. The
choices are Berlin, Moscow and Washington. The different cities really
have no relevance but merely are used to designate the sides. The player
must then decide where to place their units. The types of units available
in TPTG are artillery, tanks, rocket trucks, infantry and
anti-aircraft guns. A bit of strategy is involved in setting up the
units. For example, it is quite obvious that one wants to make their industries
as inaccessible as possible to the enemy. So, I generally place them towards
the back. Anti-aircraft units are usually placed toward my front lines
in an effort to protect my forces against bombing runs. Airports must be
placed towards the front line so that bombers will have ample fuel to reign
destruction on the enemy AND return safely. Airports and the capital also
have radar ranges which report of enemy aircraft. After all the units are
placed, battle commences.
Everything in TPTG is determined via the roll of
a six-sided die. The die determines which side goes first in all stages
of the game and how effective a units' attack is. There are helpful charts
in the back of the TPTG manual which tells how effective an attack will
be given the roll. At shorter distances, lower die rolls are necessary.
For example, a rocket truck will kill 200 troops times the number on the
die at 150 kilometers, but will kill 400 troops per number within 100 kilometers.
Kilometers are represented by squares on the playing area.
After setting down all of your pieces, the day's attacks are made. For each unit type, the die is rolled to decide which side goes first. Units with ranged attacks are shown with boxes around them showing their maximum attack distances. The player merely chooses an unlucky target and the die is rolled. At the beginning of the game, players start with fifteen artillery alone so attack rounds can take a fair amount of time. Watching the computer attack can get a little dull.
The next stage of the game is the movement stage. Units can move ahead to fill up new gaps in the lines caused by the enemy's attacks. Tank and infantry units may also move on top of enemy pieces and attack at close range. Close range, or "atop", combat results in a battle to the death between engaged units.
After attacks and movement, bombing missions can be selected. These are tough to plan for the novice. One has to find a good path past anti-aircraft units, allow for enough fuel to get back, and try to avoid enemy radar. It is certainly not an easy task. Dog fights and anti-aircraft guns make large dents in attacking forces but bombing is very effective against hapless ground forces.
At the end of three days of battle, reinforcements
are made. The more industries that one controls, the more units that can
be produced. Some units are more costly to build than others. Reinforcements
may be placed anywhere behind the front line. I think that a nice feature
would have been to turn reinforcements off for those wanting to play a
quick game.
To plot your next move, you have many tools at your
disposal. A map shows the wavering front line which shifts back and forth
with your fortunes (or, in my case, steadily moves backwards). This map
gives a quick run-down of where every unit is through color coding. The
map also displays radar grids which shows the radar ranges of both combatants.
The map, while useful, is much too small. It should have been enlarged
by placing the color key in either the manual or
on another screen. This also gets very confusing with the overlapping
radar ranges.
TPTG also offers a statistics chart which tells the
strength of each unit in your's and the enemy's army. This chart gives
the number of soldiers remaining in an infantry unit as well as tanks left
in a tank division.
Perhaps my biggest gripe about TPTG is its interface. I'll be honest. I like GEM. GEM is good. GEM is especially well-suited for a game of this nature which could make much use of a menu bar. An added bonus of using GEM would be the ability to multi-task the game. Using GEM might also allow the game to be resolution-independent. Owning a Falcon, I'd rather not have to switch to medium resolution. Of course, ST users are also used to GEM and that should be taken into account.
I would be able to forgive TPTG of using an original interface if it offered improvements on the GEM interface but it simply does not. Instead of good, old fashioned slider bars, TPTG has four arrow buttons arranged in a square to scroll the window about. The menu selections take up a large portion of the play screen when drop down menus would have been much nicer. There is really no reason I can think of that GEM was not used. I would have been much more comfortable with the game if it had.
Another unique feature of the TPTG interface is how
selections are made. Instead of simply left-clicking on a selection, the
player must click both mouse buttons at the same time to verify a selection.
This takes some getting used to. In some areas of the game, the left button
on the mouse is used to decrease a number while the right button increases
it. Both buttons confirm the choice. I found this method tough to get used
to, but fine. Unfortunately, I had a problem changing numbers in increments
of one. Often I would click on a mouse button as quickly as possible but
to no avail. I could rarely get the exact number I wanted.
TPTG is a solid game. The graphics are not stunning but are suitable and I would imagine that it is a accurate translation of the board game on which it is based. Fans of this type of board game would most likely enjoy TPTG.
This game does have many weaknesses, however. The game can not be installed on your hard drive, does it use GEM and does not run under the extra Falcon resolutions. I also question that there is only one objective to the game. Your singular objective is to double the number of industrial units your opponent still posesses. This can create some rather long games.
I would recommend that people wanting to take charge of an army look at public domain or older commercial offerings. There are many war games in the public domain which offer game play very similar to TPTG. TPTG really offers little variability with its one objective and one board. Use caution before shelling out your money for TPTG.
Retail $39.95
Neotrek Software Ltd.
PO Box 1904
Parksville, BC CANADA V9P 2H6
(604)248-3076 Tel/Fax