Task Force Admiral (WW2 naval wargame from Microprose)

[Holman]

Task Force Admiral has been putting out videos for a number of years now, but it's apparently getting close to completion.

The player commands USN carrier-based fleets in WW2 from 1941 to 1943, managing ship behavior and giving orders to aircraft groups. Those orders are pretty granular, but the game is not an in-cockpit sim. That is, your pilots will choose their own maneuvers and targets and etc when they engage the enemy. Microprose calls it a "3-D command simulation," which I would translate to "realistic RTS." There are multiple campaigns, historical scenarios, a scenario editor, etc.

There's now a demo on Steam, and a Kickstarter campaign has just launched.

The Kickstarter gives you a Steam key for the game along with a few extra perks, including a deluxe version with classic Microprose-style printed manual and historical guide if you want to pay that much. (The standard-edition KS price is lower than the Steam release price will be.)

I'll probably give the demo a try in a day or two.

[Holman]

I took a very brief look at the demo and the manual (linked from the demo), and while many features are not yet implemented, this seems like it will be a feature-rich WW2 carrier-command simulation. The bones of a good naval wargame are already in place.

The demo includes one historical scenario (a clash from the Battle of the Coral Sea, with the player controlling a Task Force built around USS Yorktown and USS Lexington along with numerous escorts) and a small scenario maker (although apparently not all of the eventual platforms are included in it).

As the player, in the historical scenario you are commander of the flagship Yorktown. You're searching for a Japanese fleet (also built around two carriers) known to be roughly to the NE. You have a lot of control over operations on Yorktown itself, from setting parameters for scouting, CAP, and attack missions to deciding which weapons are carried by which flights and even determining what aircraft are stationed on deck as opposed to being held below in the hangar. You can also determine the formation positions of your escorting cruisers and destroyers. (I'm not yet sure how much control you'll have over other settings for those ships.) It looks like damage modeling for ships' systems will be pretty specific and realistic.

Fog of war is everything, hence the need to send out scouting planes to look for the enemy fleet. Procedures take a realistically long time. For example, WW2 carriers kept their deck-embarked aircraft down at the nose of the ship so that the rear was available for planes needing to land. If you order a small flight to take off, they will have to be manually taxied to the rear of the flight deck so that they will have enough runway to take off. This can take many minutes, so if you suddenly get discovered by a flight of enemy aircraft and you don't already have CAP in the air, you're very vulnerable.

Various chalkboard-looking windows allow you to track the timing of your flights and their returns. There are also a wide variety of views of the action available, from looking over a selected pilot's shoulder to more schematic engagement-level displays tracking the movement of planes, ships, bombs, and torpedoes.

According to the early-access manual, the game will eventually include submarines and anti-submarine warfare, surface actions involving cruisers and battleships, and other features not yet available.

The graphics are not state-of-the art, but no one expects that from a small wargame developer. Mouse control feels a little sluggish, but I assume that will be adjusted. I had one instance that felt like it was going to be a crash, but it was really just a long pause.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to what this could become. If you're interested, there are numerous videos on Steam and on YouTube.

[jztemple2]

Thanks for posting, I'll keep an eye on this one.

[raydude]

Whoa! Thanks for letting us know! I've had this on my Steam wishlist but just having it on the wishlist doesn't alert me to upcoming news like a demo or kickstarter. Hope to try the demo soon.

[Kurth]

I didn’t even know Microprose was still around. Silent Service is one of my all-time favorite games. The promise of a Microprose WW2 carrier battle war game is almost enough to make me jump back into the world of PC gaming.

[Tampa_Gamer]

Thank you for posting. I haven't really had the available time or patience to get into a strategic wargame for awhile due to life but this looks like it may scratch a few itches - and it has a demo to boot!

[MCQueen2]

The mix of managing fleets and letting pilots do their own thing is interesting. I’m curious to see how the demo plays. If the Kickstarter deal gives extra perks like the manual, it might be worth it if you're into the classic Microprose stuff.

[jztemple2]

I just got an email saying a demo is now available. Make of that what you will.

[Holman]

I didn’t even know Microprose was still around. Silent Service is one of my all-time favorite games. The promise of a Microprose WW2 carrier battle war game is almost enough to make me jump back into the world of PC gaming.

The old Microprose disappeared (or was absorbed) some time ago, but the brand has been acquired and revitalized by some military-sim computer-game veterans within the past few years. Wikipedia tells the story.