Six and half centuries ago, the kingdoms of England and France had a minor disagreement about the true successor to the throne of France. When they couldn't settle this dispute amicably, they did what any self-respecting medieval royalty would do. They went to war. Thus started one of history's greatest conflicts -- the Hundred Years War. The Stuff Gamers Dream Of In actual fact, the Hundred Years War wasn't really a war at all but a series of battles, sieges, and minor invasions that see-sawed back and forth for 116 years (1337-1453) without any real winner emerging. While the war was technically between two kingdoms, many of the campaigns were conducted by the nobility, each with differing personal agendas and shifting loyalties. With so many variables there are an almost unlimited number of tactical or strategic possibilities that could change the course of history. It's the stuff of scholarly debates and deep philosophical discussion. And it'd make a really cool computer game. Historian Al Nofi recognized the potential while researching this period many years ago. So did renowned war game designer James Dunnigan and programmer Dan Masterson. When they teamed up to create a multi-player simulation, the stuff of history became the stuff gamers dream of -- The Hundred Years War, called HYW by aficiandos -- here on GEnie. What It Isn't HYW is not easily labelled. It's not a typical war game, but contains elements of conventional wargames with armies, battles, sieges, and movement conducted on a hexagonal grid map of medieval Europe. It isn't a typical PBEM (Play-by-Email), but the Bulletin Board and GE Mail are used extensively by player characters to conduct private and public Court business. It isn't a Fantasy Role Playing Game, but players assume the identity of real characters with numerically-ranked characteristics and skills. It isn't a military or historical simulation, an interactive adventure, political conquest or a bookshelf board game. But it contains elements from each of these genres. So what is HYW, exactly? To quote from the game's documentation, it's a "multi-generational simulation in which your character will age and die over time to be replaced by one of the children you have sired. It includes an economic war of nerves against rebellious peasants and land-grabbing peers, political maneuvering to gain Royal favor, with the ultimate objective of improving your power base, through marriage, conquest, and wise alliances." HYW is as much fun as it is unique. It's easy to play; difficult to master. What It Is There are up to four individual games running at any given time that can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months to complete. Each game employs seasonal 'turns' that span 90 game-days and is updated daily (for the fast games) or bi-weekly (for the slow games). New games start almost every month, and are often preceded by a Free Weekend where GEnie waives standard hourly connect charges for players. Players assume or are assigned the identity of one of 107 French, English or 'Other' nobles -- real characters taken from the pages of history with historically accurate land holdings, wealth and power. Players can also volunteer to play the French and English King and Crown Prince. Following election of the kings (which is conducted on the Bulletin Board) players swear allegiance to their respective monarchs with the hope of gaining Court positions, fame and fortune. Or they can choose to go it alone, selling their loyalty and their armies to the highest bidder. Each of the 107 Player Characters (PCs) has certain land holdings (called fiefs) for which they are responsible. The player can set taxes and adjust the amount of money spent in each fief on Keep level, Garrison, Officials, and Infrastructure. The balance of taxation to spending determines how successful the fief will be: Tax too much or spend too little, and you'll have a rebellion to put down. A Cast of Thousands In addition to the Player Characters, there are roughly 6000 NPCs (Non-Player Characters) in the game. These NPCs can be hired and assigned to act as bailiffs to help manage fiefs, army commanders to help conduct sieges and quell rebellions, even spies or assassins to perform political dirty deeds. Some NPCs are special. They are the Player Characters' family members and are eligible for marriage (or seduction). One especially unique feature of HYW is that characters grow old, get ill and die. When that happens to a PC, players can choose to assume the identity of any other member of their family. As long as there are sons or daughters, or a surviving spouse, the family survives and the player continues playing. Both PCs and NPCs possess individual characteristics and skills that affect how well or poorly they perform various tasks. A character with strong characteristics and lousy skills won't perform as well as one with average characteristics and great skills. The trick is to find NPCs with the best of both, whether for marriage or for hire. All game actions -- from invading a fief or raising an army, to proposing marriage or sending messages -- are performed using a system of menus. Some actions, like travel, are immediate; others aren't completed until the turn is updated. Travel is accomplished with the aid of a simple ASCII display of a player's existing location and surrounding fiefs. Each compass direction is assigned a number and movement is a matter of entering that number from the keyboard. Without a map, however, it's easy to get hopelessly lost. HYW is a BIG game. More Than Menus and Moves The Bulletin Board is an integral part of the game. All public and political communication between Nobles is conducted there. Players use it to hold elections, plan campaigns, plot assassinations and kidnappings, exchange insults, look for mates, declare allegiances, and borrow money -- all IC (in character), of course. As Karen, the HYW Dean of Heralds, posted recently: "This a simulation of 14th century Europe and is more often than not a game of politics and personalities, not just menu moves." You can raise an army and take a fief, but the Bulletin Board will determine how successful you are at holding on to what you've got. Players looking for a little extra-curricular online interactive activity should check out the Interactive Court. There, they can chat with other players, play games of chance, engage in duels, take part in jousting tournaments, quaff some ale or get into brawls. A simple but flexible list of Conference-type commands affords a unique opportunity for role-playing. Looking For Help in all the Right Places Game mechanics in HYW are simple. New players can just jump right in and have fun learning as they go, but the underlying rules and options are quite extensive. It's advisable at some point to download the current documentation and one of the many maps from the Software Library. There are other forms of assistance. Game Heralds are almost always online and are willing to help with virtually any question or problem a player may have. There are regular Real-Time Conferences (RTC), weekly Gatherings held in the Interactive Court in each game, and the HYW Help Desk every Saturday at 3PM Eastern time in Room 2 of the RTC area. Windows users can benefit from a Windows Help File (File 625 HYWHELP1.ZIP), available as a free download by selecting menu item #5 (Game Documents) on Page 946. And a Windows-based Graphics Front-End is planned for beta release this month. Everyone's a Winner, Babe One of history's greatest conflicts has become one of GEnie's greatest online games. The original conflict took 116 years and ended without a winner; by contrast, the online game only takes a few weeks to complete, and everyone's a winner!