Fighting Steel by Eric "Snacko" Marlow
	Campaign Fighting Steel's campaign structure is a mix of new and old. The campaign begins by an initial selection of campaign setup options. At the outset, you make the choices as to whether a campaign will be based on historical or fantasy criteria. The AI adds a random factor that establishes how much chance is applied to the generated mission types. You also have control over player nation, difficulty and game length. The missions produced by the campaign engine are not scripted; rather they are random based on the characteristics you specify. The part I most enjoyed with regard to the campaign was the fleet management functions. At the start of each campaign you are given control over a finite set of assets. The assets are comprised of a variety of ship types and crew abilities. It is your job to manage the availability and effectiveness of the ships in the fleet. Effectiveness is managed by specifying which ships are on patrol and which ships are in port. Moving a ship to "in port" status allows the crews to refresh from a "fatigued" status. On the other hand, allowing the ships to stay on patrol and participate in engagements improves their crew quality and (if they participate in a night battle) improves their night fighting skills. I found the fleet management screen to be a little confusing at first. The manual does not do an adequate job of explaining the fact that the more lit green squares there are on a ship's status, the stronger it is in that area. Thus I thought that when all of the green squares under the heading of "Crew Fatigue" were lit for a particular ship, that ship's crew was highly fatigued. Not so - apparently it's the other way around. The lower the number of lit green squares, the higher the fatigue level. Night fighting and Crew Quality is as it should be: the more green squares the stronger it is. I think the title "Crew Fatigue" needs to be changed to "Crew Freshness" or some such heading to make it clearer. As for how the campaign tends to incorporate "the old", the engine is built on the turn concept where each turn signifies a movement of time in increments of one week or one month depending on the campaign length you selected initially. As each turn is implemented, time moves forward and ship/crew status is updated accordingly. The campaign engine makes the determination if a battle is to be fought; if one is at hand you are moved to play mode. Although I like the fleet management aspects of the campaign, I would have liked to see more emphasis on achieving some kind of strategic goal during the operation. As it is now, you move from battle to battle with no sense of what you are trying to achieve other than the total destruction of the enemy (for which you have no intel.) As we saw in the Pacific War during WW II with the island-hopping/by-pass tactics of Nimitz and MacArthur, there are different ways of skinning the cat. Click to continue		Battle sizes are determined by the campaign criteria and not by my ability to manage my fleet assets. I would have liked the ability to better control what ships I engage the enemy with and be rewarded for my asset management prowess. As it is now, the ships identified for battle are determined automatically and you have little say what assets you bring to the party. Mission Building Fighting Steel contains a very robust mission builder so existing missions can be edited and new scenarios can be created. Just about every conceivable control is available via the scenario editor: environmental settings, game length, location, air/sea control, visibility, and mission type are but a few of the factors you have command over. In addition, you have the option of creating hypothetical engagements between navies that never met in real life. Interested to see how the Arizona, Oklahoma, and Utah would have faired against the IJN? Build a scenario where the unfortunate battleships of Pearl Harbor take revenge on the unsuspecting Japanese. Mad at England for subjecting us to the music of Oasis? Create a scenario that pits the US Navy against the Brits. While the scenario editor is quite flexible, the editor does place a limit on the maximum number of ships you can position in a user-built scenario at 20. While this may be sufficient for most battles, I found this frustrating when I tried to write my first historical mission, the first battle of Guadalcanal, which had 27 ships. Consequently, I created a mission that simulates the battle of Vella Lavella, which can be found HERE. While this battle took place in 1943, the scenario editor's database allows me to create a very accurate engagement. Go to Page Three: Game Play & Graphics
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