Cut To The Guts ...

Fortifications were critical to any military stratagem, whether offensive or defensive. Since advance was predicated upon the control of sectors, one had to maintain that control. Mobile units drained too many resources and were constructed too slowly to be deployed in all capacities everywhere, and defenses could be constructed quickly and without the ongoing supply maintenance costs.

Wherever you traced a fence or placed a turret was where it appeared during combat in that sector. In this way one could deliberately capitalize on enemy weaknesses and terrain features, perhaps creating chokepoints for movement, or withering artillery fire zones on the far side of protective barriers. Whatever condition a structure or fortification was in was how it appeared in successive actions. For simplicity's sake, one could not repair structures, only destroy them or rebuild them; this sounds primitive but in actuality was a wise choice, given the scope of the game and the sheer multitude of elements concerning any player. Freedom to concentrate on less mundane aspects of play.

Units on the other hand could be repaired. This required 1 Repair Structure per damaged unit/group, and both had to be located within the same sector. After an attack, players pulled heavily damaged units away from the line to rearward areas for reconstitution - destroyed elements of a unit/group could not be brought back, but damaged ones could be repaired over time, considerable time if the damage sustained was heavy enough. As units repaired, their representative 'blocks' on the WarMap would be restored to a bright 100% green from a scuffed yellow or a mauled red/grey. Repair was automatically applied if the assets were present.

Units that participated in a combat entered the Battle Map from the direction they had approached on the WarMap. Defenders were arrayed as they had been prior to the fight (sometimes as deliberately positioned by the defender). All combat resolution was in real time [non-Editor's note - continuous time as some know it]. Here is one of the most amazing things about War Of The Worlds: even now, the graphics and audio inspire awe, despite the absence of accelerator support. Everything is in 3D. With the time of the attack dictating lighting conditions, WOTW is a joy to behold - Martian Heat Rays light up proximal objects just as Human vehicle headlights follow the contours of the land. Artillery shells trail smoke as their trajectories take them to their targets, and muzzle flashes obscure the firers. While marvelling at the seemlessly animated motion of the Martian Tripods stomping through the woods and into the British armies, one is treated to a full array of hydraulic mechanisms, ballistic staccato, ambient environmentals, motorized steam and petrol turbines, and all sorts of glorious explosive devastation via the sound effects. Human appearances are as fitting and immaculately concieved as Martian ones, never once making the player disbelieve or guffaw. Typical Rage Software production values.

Topographically rich and consistently believable terrain caused Human and Martian units alike to have peculiar difficulties traversing it, though Humans of course suffered more than the Martian walkers. Natural barriers dictated routes, and water presented its own interesting dilemmas/opportunities. Naval vessels could operate in only deep water, while tall walkers could traverse any terrain. Human vehicles had to cross rivers at bridges, while flying units of both sides skimmed along the surfaces. Inclines were tougher to ascend, directly proportional to the terrain type and steepness. Certain territories were tactically more defensible due to the defender's available unit types, available fortification types, the number of borders it shared (and thus the number of avenues from which attackers could stream), and the array of enemy unit types currently on the field.

Human units relied on instantaneous gunpowder technologies, most vehicles mounting cannon of one type or another. Artillery class weapons fired visible shells that arced in flight and had considerable travel time (though reasonable) before coming down upon the target area with a thunderous crash. The Lord Of Battle really came into its own with the Ironclad warships which could toss these ultra-heavy shells further than any other unit in the game. Frequently, I would send small armadas on raids along the coastline, sometimes bringing down all of the Martian's structures with naval bombardment alone. Often however the Human sallies forth in large numbers and suffers heavy casualties for strategic gains.

Martians deployed massive armoured machines in usual groups of 3, consistently outnumbered but not out-gunned. Beam weapons quickly melted Human vehicle metals while the durable Martian alloys absorbed hit after hit. Anti-gravity Flying Machines added reflexive capabilities to the ranks early on, and research provided some very destructive variety later. Martian machines were ideally suited to offense, though fortification technologies provided adequate matching capabilities to the Humans... albeit capabilities predicated on vulnerable Power Plant structures. Repair was far more critical to 'expensive' individual Martian units than it was to the Humans.

At any time during the tactical confrontation one could direct friendly units to exit points along the edge of the Battle Map, all corresponding to legally adjacent friendly territories. Lost causes could be abandoned and a situation salvaged if the odds proved too great.

Time was suspended for the duration of the tactical confrontation - completion of the fight returned you to the WarMap. Retreated units were then positioned in orientation to their destination territories, as determined in the conflict. Play continued.

Page 5: An Effective Discovery Tree.

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