by Richard Roy

To most wargamers, the name Norm Koger is on par with the likes of George S. Patton, Erwin Rommel, Robert E. Lee, Genghis Khan, or Sun Tzu. This prodigous wargame designer has turned out such classic wargames as Conflict: Korea and Conflict: Middle East, and has recently turned his attention to the Wargame Construction Set series with WCS II: Tanks and and his newest release, WCS III: Age of Rifles.

In a departure from the previous games in the Wargame Construction Set series, Age of Rifles simulates warfare between the years 1846 and 1905 when the rifle ruled the battlefield. Game scale is set at from 100 to 400 yards per hex with units at the company thru regimental level. Victory is determined by controlling objective hexes before time limits for the scenario expire.

In traditional wargame style, gameplay is turn based with one side moving his units followed by the other (although an optional rule allows for variable turn iniative, thus allowing players the opportunity occasionally to move twice in a row). Unit strength is calculated from a number of factors such as complement, armament, weapon effectiveness, morale, capability, vitality, and most importantly - formation.

Age of Rifles provides armchair generals with total control of their units. You may choose from a number of battlefield formations from march column, attack column, line, supported line, and disordered to square and defensive formations. This provides much tactical decision making as there are tradeoffs between fire strength, melee strength, and overall movement capability between each formation and no single formation "does it all". Units perform as historically expected with infantry doing the grunt work, cavalry with their large movement allowances providing a good reserve to plug holes in your lines and the occasional flanking manouver to choke off avenues of retreat, and artillery providing a deadly hail of canister shot into attacking and defending armies causing many "green" units to rout.

For those new to wargaming in general, or those who dislike the traditionally steep learning curves associated with most wargames, Age of Rifles is probably the most user friendly and easy to learn wargame I've come across. Many times I've played games where all user input was through clicking on icons on the screen which many times I did not have a clue as to what these buttons represented and had to flip through the manual looking for the icons' picture and description. I could never understand why designers couldn't give short text titles to the icons when a mouse was positioned over them like many Windows programs. Thankfully, Age of Rifles includes this and immensely simplifies learning the game system without burying your head in the manual looking for obscure icon pictures for something as simple as turning off the music.

While simple to learn, Age of Rifles can be as complicated as you want it to be. Everything from the five levels of difficulty to the more advanced and realistic rule options allows you to customize the game to your hearts content. To make the game more realistic and challenging turn on morale, command effects, environmental effects, fog of war, reaction fire, and varible turn initiative. Or, if you would like the game simpler, turn on full supply, automatic formations, full undo (takes back moves), and automatic vitality recovery. Age of Rifles can be as simple or complex as you like allowing for a gradual build-up of realism as you get more familiar with the game system.

This remarkably flexible game system comes with a wide variety of campaigns and scenarios. These scenarios range from the traditional battles of the Civil war, to the exotic battles of British colonial troops, to the obscure battles of the Russo-Japanese War. And if these are not enough for you, just make your own! The scenario editor included in Age of Rifles gives you complete freedom to make your own maps, edit and create orders of battle, and even edit and create your own units right down to to the color and style of their trousers, boots, tunics, and caps. Scenarios can even be linked to form campaigns.

Of course, no program is flawless and Age of Rifles has its share of negatives. First off, there is no network or modem play supported. Multi- player play is restricted to play by email. This is not as bad as it might at first sound since the computer plays a very challenging game and can at times be very aggressive. Also, the campaigns can sometimes feel a little disjointed since your losses in one battle are not carried over from one battle to the next. This isn't that annoying in the scenarios modelling a single battle but some scenarios encompass different days of a battle and the game loses some of its atmosphere when Lee is killed in a battle only to reappear the next day along with units you wiped out in the same encounter.

The trademarks of Norm Koger designs have always been substance over flash. One didn't purchase a Grigsby game expecting an immersive multimedia experience. Of course, a little flash never hurt, and it's nice to see that traditional wargames are finally getting the once-over in the cosmetic department that has long been overdue. Game graphics are in crisp SVGA with the unit icons displayed in a miniatures style showing off the wonderfully colorful and accurate uniforms typical of this period of history.

Music is also well done with authentic period pieces lending atmosphere to each of the battles. From pipe and drum music from the civil war to Zulu drums as you try to stem Cteshwayo and his warriors at Isandlwana, the music is always appropriate and never distracting.

I don't know what else I can say about Age of rifles except that I was enthralled and cannot foresee taking this off my hard drive for quite some time. If you are a wargamer this is a must have. If you have any interest in this period of military history, this is a must have. If the thought of a turn based game without the word Doom, Quake, or Duke in it makes your stomach turn, this probably won't change your outlook. Whatever the case, Age of Rifles is undoubtedly another "classic" wargame to add to the already illustrious resume of the master himself, Norm Koger. Hail to the chief!