Fresh Fish 10/Fresh_Fish_10_2352.bin/useful/reviews/software/games/nogreaterglory

Internet Message Format | 1993-02-02 | 11KB

Path: menudo.uh.edu!menudo.uh.edu!usenet
From: [e-mail] (Dave Townsend)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Subject: REVIEW: No Greater Glory
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.games
Date: 2 Feb 1993 19:33:05 GMT
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
Lines: 267
Sender: [e-mail] (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator)
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Dave Townsend)
NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu
Keywords: game, simulation, politics, history, war, commercial


PRODUCT NAME

    No Greater Glory


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

    No Greater Glory ("NGG") is a political/economic/war simulation of
the American Civil War.  There are many, many interesting decisions to be
made, sometimes made difficult by a flawed user interface.

    Shoot-em-uppers need read no farther.


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

    Name:        Strategic Simulations, Inc.
    Address:    675 Almanor Ave, Suite 201
            Sunnyvale CA94086-2901

    Telephone:    [phone]


LIST PRICE

    $49.95 (US) ??
    I got it from Creative Computers for $25 (US).


COPY PROTECTION

    Look a word up in the manual.  To make things easier, it's always
the first word on a page.

    No on-disk protection.

    Note:  Once you pass through the copy protection, you don't begin the
game automatically; instead, you see an empty window with the game title.
You must choose "New Game" from the menu to actually start.  (I didn't read
my Amiga rules addendum closely enough, and was extremely annoyed when my
game seemed broken.)


HARD DISK INSTALLATION

    There's good news and bad news.

    The bad news is that SSI advertises the game as "hard disk
installable (graphics only)."  The instructions mention that you have to
boot on Disk 1 (it's a two-disk game).  The installation program is just a
shell script, with all the limitations and inflexibility that scripts
usually imply.  For example, the script prompts you to enter a `d' and then
your hard disk name, like "d dh0".  Gross.  And I really hate it when some
stupid game puts all its stuff in the root directory of my disk.  Worse, it
actually MODIFIES Disk 1 (so use a copy!) to wire in your hard disk name.

    The good news is that, if you have any AmigaDOS expertise at all,
you can easily install the game yourself.  Make your own directory where YOU
want it, rename the CWPICS directory to go there, copy over "cw" and
"cw.info" (make sure you use the modified version), and add an assignment
like:

    Assign NGG_v1.0_d2: dh0:games/NoGreaterGlory/CWPICS

    I'm glad that the good news outweighs the bad news, but this
shouldn't be so clunky.  Commodore, when ARE you going to release your
Installer program?

        [MODERATOR'S NOTE:  Commodore's Installer program
        has been available to vendors for many months.  - Dan]


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

    A2000 with A2630, 1 MB Chip RAM, 8 MB Fast RAM
    A1950 Monitor
    AmigaDOS 3.0


DESCRIPTION OF GAME PLAY

    You take the role of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis.  You must
deal with cabinet appointments, egotistical generals, troops and supplies,
foreign policy, regional sympathies, and law and order.

    Sound like a lot?  It is.  Ever compared pictures of Lincoln in
1860 vs. 1865?  You'll find out where all the grey hairs came from.

    Each turn represents four months, and runs as follows:

    First, make your cabinet appointments.  Each side has twelve
politicians (Seward, Stanton, Cameron, etc.), each with differing loyalty,
ability, political stance, and home region.  Cabinet appointments (Attorney
General, Defense, Navy, State, Treasury) affect the relevant area of the
game, so don't expect to shine financially if your Treasury Secretary is a
bumbler.  But you can't just take the best people; you'll need a balance of
regions and political stances.  If you don't, you alienate part of your
constituents.

    Then, you choose a domestic policy in each area of the country.  You
can declare martial law, allow all civil rights, or something in between.
The combination of the player's actions determines any changes of sympathy
in regions.  Naturally, you want to maximize your support.

    Next, you decide economic strategy.  You control bond rates and
taxes to raise money.  More money is better, but you don't want to cripple
your economy with inflation.

    Then you decide on emancipation policy.  You need to balance the
desires of the radicals and the border states.

    Then you raise troops, build your fleet, and purchase supplies and
infrastructure.  You can choose the numbers of troops to raise, but you have
to deal with Congress; another political decision that can raise or lower
support for your administration.

    Next your troops will muster and suffer attrition.

    Then you do strategic moves by river, sea, and railroad.

    Then you direct land movement.  For each force that you move, you
must assign one of thirteen generals.  Each general is rated for initiative,
skill, and prestige.  Naturally, some of the most prestigious generals have
the worst skill; but if you flout a prestigious general, your support in his
home region will drop.  Sometimes losing a battle is better than winning, if
it makes a loser like Pope's prestige drop enough so that he can be ignored.

    Then the computer resolves all movement attempts and subsequent
combat.  I say "movement attempts" because often a general (especially one
with low initiative) will refuse to budge.  It's frustrating (but realistic)
when McClellan sits on a army that outnumbers the rebels 3-1.

    Finally, you choose foreign policy towards England, France, and your
opponent.  If England or France fully intervenes, the South is as good as
freed.  Or the war might end more happily if you can force your opponent to
accept your peace terms.

    That's a lengthy description of things to do in a turn.  Fortunately,
at 4 months/turn, there aren't that many turns in a game.


LIKES

o    Tons of historical detail.

o    The package includes Stephen Crane's novel "The Red Badge of
    Courage", and historical/economic notes.

o    Most war games pay only lip service to non-military matters.  This
    game is really more of a political game wrapped with a military
    veneer than the other way around.  Economics are important, too.

o    Although there are several different avenues of play, the
    consequences of your actions are plausible.

o    Optional randomized abilities for the generals.  Maybe this time you
    get Bonehead Jackson instead of Stonewall Jackson.


DISLIKES

    In increasing order of annoyance:

o    Charles Sumner's name is misspelled as "Summer."  (It's correct in
    the IBM version.)

o    Graphics.  Each general and politician has his own portrait.  I can
    appreciate the effort that went into making these portraits, but
    they are not very good likenesses and are annoyingly dithered.

o    It's hard to win, even at the "Very Easy" level.

o    User interface.  It's awful.  Oh sure, you can use the mouse, and
    there's a full set of informational menus, but the interface is often
    intrusive and clunky.  Here are some of the most annoying examples:

    1. The Choose Cabinet screen.  The politician's portraits are
    arranged alphabetically.  Light bulbs show you their ability number,
    a muddled icon shows where they're from, a letter shows whether
    they're radical or moderate, and another letter shows if they hold a
    cabinet position.

    So the only way to see who is in your cabinet is to scan the list,
    looking for the presence of the letters.  This is annoying while
    you're trying to balance locations, moderates/radicals, and
    abilities.  And there are no indications of which offices have been
    filled, so on the first turn (when you make your cabinet) you have
    to scan the list to see which letters/offices remain.

    2. The Maps.  There are both national maps and sectional maps.  Two
    minor nits: some of the sections seem oddly named (New York is part
    of the "Mid Atlantic"?), and the menu of sectional maps gives the
    names in south-to-north order.  It's weird having "New England" at
    the bottom of the list, and "Gulf Coast" at the top, when the
    geography runs the other way.

    But my major beef with the sectional maps is that they're literally
    sectional