(Redirected from Ancient Art of War)
Ancient Art of War | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Evryware |
Publisher(s) | Brøderbund |
Platform(s) | Apple II, Macintosh, MS-DOS, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Amiga, PC-88, PC-98 |
Release | 1984: Apple II, MS-DOS 1987: Macintosh |
Genre(s) | Real-time strategy Real-time tactics |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
The Ancient Art of War is a computer game designed by Dave and Barry Murry, developed by Evryware, and originally published by Brøderbund in 1984. It is generally recognized as one of the first real-time strategy or real-time tactics games.
Warhammer Ancient Battles (often referred to as 'WAB' and sometimes Warhammer Historical) is a ruleset for miniatures wargames produced by Games Workshop's Warhammer Historical Wargames imprint. It is a rulebook for historical wargames developed from the popular Warhammer Fantasy Battle by Jervis Johnson, Rick Priestley and the Perry brothers.
- 1Gameplay
Gameplay[edit]
A battlefield simulation, the game's title comes from the classic strategy text The Art of War written by Sun Tzu around 400 B.C.[1]
The objective of the game is to win a series of battles using four types of troops: Knights, Archers, Barbarians, and Spies.[1] All four types are unmounted.
It uses a rock-paper-scissors type of unit balance typical of the genre. Knights beat barbarians in melee; barbarians have the advantage over archers; and archers have the advantage over knights,[2] in addition to being effective at defending against attempts to storm a fort. Spies do not fight, but can see enemy units twice as far away as anyone else, and are the fastest-moving units in the game.
At the start of the game, the player is able to select from a list of eleven campaigns to play.[1] The campaigns include both skirmishes and capture the flags style missions, while the terrain layout and initial starting units provided a variety of strategic options for game play. Advanced rule sets such as Training New Units and Supply Line Lengths allow for more customization. The player can also select from among several Artificial Intelligence opponents represented by various historical figures such as Geronimo and Sun Tzu himself.[1] Sun Tzu represents the most difficult level. These settings affected both AI behavior, as well as certain properties such as the speed at which enemy units moved through difficult terrain.
There is no element of the economic management (mining, gathering or construction) which is a common feature of later real-time strategy games.
Tactics[edit]
Each mission takes place on a map containing forts, towns, terrain features (bridges, mountains, forests, etc.), and squads. Squads can consist of up to 14 units, made up of any combination of the four unit types. A squad moves at the speed of its slowest unit (Barbarians are faster than Archers, which are faster than Knights), so a squad of all Barbarians would move faster than a mixed squad.
Squads that lose units have to make do until another squad can be merged with them. In many campaigns, squads with less than 14 units can receive random reinforcements by waiting at a fort.
When two enemy squads meet on the battlefield, they are frozen in an encounter while time continues to pass. If they are left by themselves, then after a delay, the computer will automatically determine the outcome of the battle. Alternately, the player can choose to 'Zoom' into the battle to resolve it immediately, gaining limited command of the soldiers in battle. It may be advantageous to leave squads in an encounter while others squads run past the enemy squad so engaged. Formations can be chosen to take advantage of a squad's particular makeup. For example, all of a squad's Archers can be placed in the rear while the Barbarians form a line in the front. The game supported per-type orders during battle, so one could alternately place archers upfront with a gap; put knights within the gap; order the archers to fire while the knights hold; then order the archers to fall back while the knights attacked. One could not order individual soldiers, however.
Formations only affected the tactical battles; only whole squads were ever represented on the strategic map, not individual soldiers.
A number of factors influence the outcome of a battle, and elevate the game beyond a simple Rock-Paper-Scissors strategy. Hunger, distance, terrain, and morale all affect the squads' effectiveness. Care has to be taken when marching troops full speed, or across a series of mountains, to prevent them from arriving at a battle too fatigued to fight. In addition, even the winning side in a battle suffered a slight reduction in the squad's readiness. Troops in very poor condition would fight poorly, might retreat without being ordered to do so, and would even potentially surrender outright if also significantly outnumbered. Hunger was modeled through an abstract 'supply' value per squad; villages and/or forts would slowly replenish the supplies of nearby friendly squads. A squad that was out of supply would lose condition and might be readily be destroyed by what would otherwise be an inferior force.
One of the limitations of the game engine was that it could only display a certain number of units total at any time. This lead some players to force the computer into having fewer (though stronger) units and thus easier to evade by creating an army of weak units.
Editing[edit]
The game allows players to create their own maps, formations, and missions.
The map editor provides a fixed palette of identically-sized tiles with a variety of terrain features, with which one can fill in the details on a fixed-size rectangular map. The severity of certain terrain features, such as whether moving through mountains is merely slow or potentially deadly, is controlled at game time with options, not via a property of the map.
The formation editor allows the player to configure templates for arranging squads according to the three combat troop types; there are a fixed number of slots for formations, which can then be chosen in-game.
The campaign editor controls the positioning and composition of squads on both sides, their initial condition and supply levels,[3] the location of flags, the default opponent, and the mission briefing, including settings such as how treacherous the terrain is.[3] Flags and squads must belong to one side or the other, as during the game. The flags positions can be randomized; if either side does not have at least one flag assigned to them in a specific location, they receive a single randomly located flag when the mission was played. This location changes every time the mission is restarted.
Development[edit]
The Ancient Art of War was designed by Dave and Barry Murry.[4] It was originally released for MS-DOS and Apple II in 1984, and was made available for Macintosh in 1987.[5]
Reception[edit]
In 1985 Computer Gaming World praised The Ancient Art of War as a great war game, especially the ability to create custom scenarios, stating that for pre-gunpowderwarfare it 'should allow you to recreate most engagements'.[6] In 1990 the magazine gave the game three out of five stars,[7] and in 1993 two stars.[8]Jerry Pournelle of BYTE named The Ancient Art of War his game of the month for February 1986, reporting that his sons 'say (and I confirm from my own experience) is about the best strategic computer war game they've encountered ... Highly recommended.'[9]PC Magazine in 1988 called the game 'educational and entertaining'.[1]
![The art of war The art of war](/uploads/1/2/6/4/126477948/145881502.jpeg)
Legacy[edit]
The Ancient Art of War is generally recognized as one of the first real-time strategy or real-time tactics games,[10] a genre which become hugely popular a decade later with Dune II and Warcraft. Those later games added an element of economic management, with mining or gathering, as well as construction and base management, to the purely military.
The Ancient Art of War is cited as a classic example of a video game that uses a rock-paper-scissors design with its three combat units, archer, knight, and barbarian,[10] as a way to balance gameplay strategies.[11]
GameSpy ranked The Ancient Art of War No. 10 in its greatest PC games of the 1980s.[10]
It spawned two sequels, the naval-themed The Ancient Art of War at Sea (1987) and the World War I game The Ancient Art of War in the Skies (1993). A new version called The Ancient Art of War 2 is now available for PCs and mobile devices.
References[edit]
- ^ abcdeMiller, Catherine D. (January 12, 1988). 'Playing with Fire on Land and Sea: Broderbund's Ancient Art of War Series'. PC Magazine. 7 (1): 456.
- ^Adams, Ernest (October 16, 1998). 'Designer's Notebook: A Symmetry Lesson'. Gamasutra. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
- ^ ab'Ancient Art of War'. Personal Computing. 9 (6): 215. June 1985.
- ^'The Ancient Art of War Credits'. Allgame. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
- ^'The Ancient Art of War Overview'. Allgame. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
- ^Sipe, Russell (April–May 1985). 'IBM Goes to War'. Computer Gaming World. pp. 24–25.
- ^Brooks, M. Evan (October 1990). 'Computer Strategy and Wargames: Pre-20th Century'. Computer Gaming World. p. 11. Retrieved 16 November 2013.
- ^Brooks, M. Evan (June 1993). 'An Annotated Listing of Pre-20th Century Wargames'. Computer Gaming World. p. 136. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
- ^Pournelle, Jerry (February 1986). 'Communicating'. BYTE. p. 291. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
- ^ abcGamespy Staff (February 2, 2009). 'The Greatest PC Games of All Time: The '80s: 10. The Ancient Art of War (1984)'. GameSpy. Retrieved June 15, 2014.
- ^Rollings, Andrew; Morris, Dave (2004). Game Architecture and Design. New Riders. p. 65. ISBN978-0735713635.
External links[edit]
- The Ancient Art of War can be played for free in the browser at the Internet Archive
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Ancient_Art_of_War&oldid=935489896'
> >The Ancient Art of War
The Ancient Art of War
DOS - 1984
Also available on: Mac - Amiga - Amstrad CPC - Apple II - PC-88
4.33 / 5 - 60 votes
Description of The Ancient Art of War
Before Dave Murry and Barry Murry designed the seminal The Ancient Art of War in 1984, best-selling wargames like SSI's Kampfgruppe bear no resemblance to best-selling strategy games like M.U.L.E. As a result, strategy gamers and wargamers are two secluded camps who don't speak the same language.
The Ancient Art of War united the two camps in one masterful stroke. Here, at last, is a wargame that wargamers would enjoy for the excellent engine based on the classic war treatise by Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu. Implementing tactics based on Sun Tzu's words becomes the key to victory. Strategy gamers were drawn to the game for its colorful graphics, the chance to match wits with 8 of the most famous military leaders in history in their most important battles, and intuitive command interface.
Here is your chance to challenge the goddess Athena, Alexander the Great, Geronimo, Crazy Ivan, Caesar, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Sun Tzu himself. As in the first game, battle locales are varied and historically important. You will wage wars in the Sherwood forest, ancient Rome, Asgaard, Custer's Last Command, Napoleon's France, ancient China, the Appalachians, and Mongolia.
The game, like chess, is simple to learn, yet hard to master. The lack of campaign mode is just about the only criticism I can think of. Suffice it to say that anyone who's never played this game is missing out an important chapter in the history of war and strategy gaming. Two thumbs up!
Review By HOTUD
Captures and Snapshots
Screenshots from MobyGames.com
Screenshots from MobyGames.com
Screenshots from MobyGames.com
Screenshots from MobyGames.com
Comments and reviews
Peregrino2019-07-021 point
This is a true clasic that still retains full playability. Why no one has ever done a remake is lost to me.
About the campaigns included in the game, five are races to the enemy flag:
- Race for the Flags and Contest of the Gods are about learning to maximize your unit's speed.
- Pharsalus and Custer's Last Stand are about defending your flag while your side detatchment runs fast to take the enemy's. The lessons learnt in Race and Contest will help you to achieve the latter.
- The Spy is about maneouvering among the enemy troops to reach the enemy flag. Avoiding the enemy is an useful skill to learn for later battles. When you have an objective in mind, do not let enemy troops lure you away of it.
Sherwood Forest is a siege. You must take the villages to cut the fort from getting supplies and starve the enemy. The position of your flag is randomized in each battle, which adds a dynamic element every time you play this campaign.
The other five scenarios are wars of attrition where you must defend your forts to build up your forces and take over the enemy ones.
- The Rivalry, being just one fort per side, is the easiest to learn. Defend your initial turf and let the enemy burn trying to assault you, then advance and move down.
- Wu vs Ch'u is pretty straightforward as you begin in control of your forts and the enemy begins in control of hims, so you can move on inmediately on to seizing villages and starving the enemy.
- Tale of Three Islands and Islands of Doom require you to maneuver quickly at the beggining of the scenario to seize as many forts as possible, then you can slowly starve down the enemy.
- War in the Mountains is the toughest one, as the enemy can move faster than you do, will get a lot more forts than you to spawn troops, and forts produce food so you need to take the enemy ones by assault instead of besieging them. Beating this scenario takes hours of gameplay.
The Eleven campaigns included in the game are fun to play, though the real thing comes with the Campaign Editor. Once you master the game, including understanding how the different AI Enemies react to situations, and all the exploits available to the player, you can engineer a lot of diverse challenges beyond the ones proposed in the basic campaigns.
About the campaigns included in the game, five are races to the enemy flag:
- Race for the Flags and Contest of the Gods are about learning to maximize your unit's speed.
- Pharsalus and Custer's Last Stand are about defending your flag while your side detatchment runs fast to take the enemy's. The lessons learnt in Race and Contest will help you to achieve the latter.
- The Spy is about maneouvering among the enemy troops to reach the enemy flag. Avoiding the enemy is an useful skill to learn for later battles. When you have an objective in mind, do not let enemy troops lure you away of it.
Sherwood Forest is a siege. You must take the villages to cut the fort from getting supplies and starve the enemy. The position of your flag is randomized in each battle, which adds a dynamic element every time you play this campaign.
The other five scenarios are wars of attrition where you must defend your forts to build up your forces and take over the enemy ones.
- The Rivalry, being just one fort per side, is the easiest to learn. Defend your initial turf and let the enemy burn trying to assault you, then advance and move down.
- Wu vs Ch'u is pretty straightforward as you begin in control of your forts and the enemy begins in control of hims, so you can move on inmediately on to seizing villages and starving the enemy.
- Tale of Three Islands and Islands of Doom require you to maneuver quickly at the beggining of the scenario to seize as many forts as possible, then you can slowly starve down the enemy.
- War in the Mountains is the toughest one, as the enemy can move faster than you do, will get a lot more forts than you to spawn troops, and forts produce food so you need to take the enemy ones by assault instead of besieging them. Beating this scenario takes hours of gameplay.
The Eleven campaigns included in the game are fun to play, though the real thing comes with the Campaign Editor. Once you master the game, including understanding how the different AI Enemies react to situations, and all the exploits available to the player, you can engineer a lot of diverse challenges beyond the ones proposed in the basic campaigns.
Azrael2017-08-190 point
awesome! cuando todo era tan simple este juego estuvo adelantado a su epoca, Warcraft???
SoulSoldier2017-01-101 point
![Battles Battles](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_QgUfgmmdL8/T3KKDUbjzZI/AAAAAAAAB9g/CFK5VvM3Ul8/s1600/m1830013_BRCOVERART.jpg]];var%20lpix_1=pix_1.length;var%20p1_0=%20[[513)
F.Y.I.
If the installation doesn't work, you can go to
http://ancient-art-of-war.0fees.net/the-ancient-art-of-war.htm
(2017)
It gives downloads for the Ancient Art of War for multiple platforms, and also gives the manuals and some custom campaigns. It's a really cool website, give it a shot!
If the installation doesn't work, you can go to
http://ancient-art-of-war.0fees.net/the-ancient-art-of-war.htm
(2017)
It gives downloads for the Ancient Art of War for multiple platforms, and also gives the manuals and some custom campaigns. It's a really cool website, give it a shot!
SoulSoldier2017-01-101 point DOS version
I just discovered it and it should work.
To create a new campaign, in the location where Ancient Art of War is stored, create a new directory (folder for you non-tech people) named floppy (I actually don't know if it's name matters or not). Then, on DOSBOX:
mount a c:/dos/artofwar/floppy
mount c c:/dos
C:
CD artofwar
Then run it. Go to the campaign selection and then create a new campaign. It should work.
To create a new campaign, in the location where Ancient Art of War is stored, create a new directory (folder for you non-tech people) named floppy (I actually don't know if it's name matters or not). Then, on DOSBOX:
mount a c:/dos/artofwar/floppy
mount c c:/dos
C:
CD artofwar
Then run it. Go to the campaign selection and then create a new campaign. It should work.
Sun Tzu2015-05-181 point Mac version
Thanks for this amazing game it brings back a lot of memories.
Unfortunately this download doesn't include Disk 2 ('Campaign Disk') that was included with the original, which allows editing and creating new game campaigns. If anyone knows where this can be downloaded please post a link. thank you.
Unfortunately this download doesn't include Disk 2 ('Campaign Disk') that was included with the original, which allows editing and creating new game campaigns. If anyone knows where this can be downloaded please post a link. thank you.
Griff2015-02-260 point DOS version
I'm back in 1988
Edward2015-02-160 point DOS version
it's great to have this game again!
Hawabaz2015-01-04-6 points Mac version
Wow. This is blast from the past. used to love BroderBund games. I really wanted to try this and its sea version again. Thanks for providing the link. Can you advise how to play it on windows 8? Is there an emulator or a simple way to load the game and play without bugs?
Thanks a bunch.
Thanks a bunch.
Fucking Animals in their asses2013-02-26-15 points DOS version
This game makes my sack hard and allows me to cum buckets.
guest2012-10-03-1 point DOS version
Review of The Ancient Art of War for DOS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdgwPOf2BCA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdgwPOf2BCA
Aviad2012-05-220 point DOS version
I spent most of my time on this game back in the 80s. Brilliant !!!
Ray2011-11-220 point DOS version
One of the best games ever. The origin of the RTS gaming.
Rogueci52009-07-110 point DOS version
This game is one of the Classics! 8 /10
Alex2008-10-080 point DOS version
This is the best RTS game ever made and no one has the hindsight to remake it?
Joe M2008-06-060 point DOS version
Oh man I used to love this game back in the day. Could be the original RTS game.
Mike2008-05-090 point DOS version
I absolutely love this game.
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DOS Version
Game Extras
Various files to help you run The Ancient Art of War, apply patchs, fixes, maps or miscellaneous utilities.
Mac Version
- Year:1985
- Publisher:Brøderbund Software, Inc.
- Developer:Evryware
Amiga ROM
- Year:1990
- Publisher:Brøderbund Software, Inc.
- Developer:Evryware
Amstrad CPC Version
- Year:1990
- Publisher:Brøderbund Software, Inc.
- Developer:Evryware
Apple II Version
- Year:1984
- Publisher:Brøderbund Software, Inc.
- Developer:Evryware
PC-88 Version
- Year:1986
- Publisher:Brøderbund Japan Inc.
- Developer:Evryware
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