       WARGAME CONSTRUCTION SET
            from S. S. I.
         reviewed by Al Adams

    Construction sets for building your own pinball games.  Construction 
sets for making your own graphic or text adventures.  A program for 
designing your very own machine language game. Even one for building 
race tracks and the vehicles to place on them. And now, a new entry into 
the do-it-yourself field: the WARGAME CONSTRUCTION SET (WCS).

    There are many wargames on the software shelves, and it is apparent 
to all that S.S.I. practically runs that end of the market.  So it was 
just a matter of time before they decided to let us (the users) in on 
their secrets for creating exciting battles of our very own.  And this 
they have done VERY WELL...

    Using WCS is extremely simple.  The documentation is well written, 
and a step-by-step procedure for making up your own fantasy adventure 
takes you through it easily and adequately.  That is right, I said 
FANTASY game.  WCS has the capability of designing just about ANY type 
of game; limits being only your imagination.


               BOOTING UP
               ----------

    WCS consists of 2 disks: disk 1 contains the Editor on side A, and 
the Game Disk on side B.  Disk 2 is a scenerio disk.  The procedure is 
simple:  
load the Editor, design your own game, save it, then boot the Game Disk 
and load in your "creation".  Or you may play one of the 8 pre-made 
games on the Scenerio Disk, as described below.

           DESIGNING THE MAP
           -----------------

    There is a scenerio disk included with the program. It contains 8 
premade scenerios; (5) one player and (3) two player games. This disk is 
copyable, so you may want to make a duplicate of it and use it to 
practice on.  You can opt to edit one of these, or build your own by 
starting from scratch. The choice is yours.
    Many items are available to you for your MAP:

 1) Size.  The playing area can be in size anywhere from 1-57 squares 
across by 1-70 squares up and down. Because of this tremendous size, 
since the screen shows only a partial area at any one time, scrolling is 
possible by pushing the joystick to the area you wish to view.  You 
place a border around the area you wish to use. No unit may leave this 
"wall".
 2) Roads. There are 10 different types to select from: 3 horizontal, 2 
vertical, 1 crossroad and 4 types of curves:
top to right, top to left, bottom to right and bottom to left. To 
simulate a rising vertical left to right road just string together 
numerous right to bottom and top to left pieces.  As you can see, you 
have a lot of versatility at your fingertips.
 3) Rivers.  There are 10 different icons to choose from: 2 upper banks, 
1 lower bank, 1 right bank and 1 left bank.  Four types of river bends 
allow you to construct turns: upper left, upper right, lower left, and 
lower right.  There is also a full river icon for straight runs.  In 
addition, a horizontal and a vertical bridge is included for use when a 
road meets a river.  And for a truly realistic scenario, use 1 of 2 the 
interchangeable blown bridges available.
 4) Hilltops.  There is 1 hilltop icon. It can be used to represent 
either a single knoll or the slope at the edge of a large hill.
 5) Crests.  One is to provide a continuous area of ground rough, or to 
represent singular features (like entrenchments). The other can be used 
for crests in a continuing line.
 6) Buildings.  Seven assorted shapes and sizes can be used 
interchangeably, or placed next to each other to represent one very 
large building.   Also, there is an objective square which can be used 
to "enhance" a game strategy. A player receives 1 point for each turn 
one of his units occupies an objective.
 7) Woods.  There are 2 main woods centers for starting a forest, plus 
numerous tops, bottoms, and edges.  A nicely added feature is "auto-
edging".  This allows the computer to do all the hard tedious work of 
touching up your forest's edge. You place a main woods icon anywhere on 
the map and allow the computer take over from there.   Just be sure not 
to place one of the woods centers too close to another type of icon, 
such as a road, building, etc., otherwise it will be wiped out.  Auto-
edging adds the bottoms, tops, and sides that you would otherwise have 
to do.   In addition to the main woods, there are single tree icons.
 8) Mines.  You have 3 mines to work with.  One is a hidden mine for use 
in clear terrain, one represents visible mines or traps,  and one is a 
road segment designated for road mines.


                 UNITS
                 -----

Friendly Units... are units NOT controlled by the computer.  Units 
aren't necessarily just characters, but can also include trucks, 
airplanes, boats, tanks, machine guns, trajectories, helicopters, etc. 
Units are referred to by their unit #, which in this case can be 
anywhere between 1 and 31. So you can have up to 31 friendly units at 
your disposal. Characteristics of a unit which you can
define are:
 * Firepower         * Range
 * Fire Type         * Unit Type
 * Defense           * AT Defense
 * Assault           * AT Capability
 * Movement          * Strength
 * Dig In

The following units are available to Friendly Units ONLY. They can be 
set to transport other units:
 * Trucks            * Helicopters
 * Boats             * Transport

    Another feature added is Arrival Time.  You can therefore have 
replacement troops coming in at a different turn, if you so desire.

    Also, after designing say unit #1, you can make an exact duplicate 
instantly to be unit #2 or unit #18, etc. No need to re-enter everything 
again.

    Once all this is done, you are left with one more choice: selecting 
an icon to represent a particular unit.  There are PLENTY to choose 
from.


Enemy Units...are computer-controlled units.  These, too, are numbered 
1-31. Their characteristics are identical to friendly forces, except 
that Dig In and Transport are omitted, and Agression is added. This 
number can be set from 0-7, with 0 meaning the unit will not move, but 
hold its territory at all costs, and 7 lets the unit counterattack. 
Numbers in-between allow the enemy to hassle your troops.


             DEPLOY UNITS
             ------------

    This mode allows you to set up both friendly and enemy units 
anywhere on the map that you desire.  Keep in mind, though, that your 
units have a tendency to move from south to north, and the enemy from 
north to south.

    When placing the enemy units on the map, you will have to set them 
down in 3 different places.  This allows for a random appearance, a 
necessity for one player games, since you would not know just exactly 
where they are going to appear. If you prefer to have them stay where 
you first placed them (as in a two player game), just place the icon 
down and press the button 3 times in succession.

    There are 4 types of Scale modes available:
 * Tactical (approximately 20 to 100 meters across each square).
 * Tactical/Operational (from 100 to 500 meters across).
 * Operational (from 500 meters to 1 or 2 kilometers across).
 * Strategic (1 to 2 kilometers across on up to 10 or even more).


   You are now set to save the game for later play. You have an option 
to print the map out (in ASCII format) for reference, especially if you 
made a very large-scale type map.


    True to SSI's nature, they designed Wargame Construction Set to be 
as realistic as possible, from movement costs for entering dense foliage 
to recovering form wounds.
    If you have played their previous games like "NAM", "FIELD OF FIRE", 
etc, you will notice a likeness between them and your personally 
designed game. As a matter of fact, you can actually make a replica of 
those with WCS, and go one better with the addition of boats and 
helicopters!
    All in all, I HIGHLY recommend WCS for all avid wargame fans.  And 
to novices, it is an excellent program for getting started in this type 
of game (what can be better than starting out from the ground floor 
up?). Hats off to S.S.I. for a truly remarkable program. Never has 
designing a game been easier.
                          Al Adams


