HPS Simulations and John Tiller are proud to announce the release of Midway!
Part of the Naval Campaigns Series
For six months following its surprise attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) had dominated the war in the Pacific. But 4 June 1942 would see the tide turn, with three US Navy (USN) aircraft carriers waiting in ambush for the IJN near a tiny atoll whose name would become immortalized in history: Midway.
By the end of that day, the Japanese would lose four fleet carriers, and the course of the war would drastically change.
Naval Campaigns: Midway covers not only this action but also other major carrier battles of World War Two, including Midway, Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, Eastern Solomons, Santa Cruz and Philippine Sea.
Can you, as the fleet commander, sail your fleet and fly your air forces to victory, or will you be plunged beneath the deep blue waves never to be heard from again?
A Whole New Dimension
The previous three titles in the Naval Campaigns series examined various surface actions in detail from World Wars One and Two, but with the addition of aircraft the complexity of the battles increases drastically. Now, players must not only maneuver their fleets, but also conduct air operations. This means dealing with search results, wind direction and speed, and coordinating multiple carriers and their air wings. This is a true challenge for any naval commander.
Midway features the familiar Naval Campaigns interface with its real-time environment that can be paused or run up to 10x normal speed. 19 different landmasses are included to model a wide variety of actions. Historical and hypothetical OOB’s are also in the game giving plenty of material for would-be scenario designers to exercise their skills.
The addition of airplane and carrier dynamics to this game engine radically changes play--it's almost an entire new game series now. Click Here to download the "getting started" pdf file from the Midway CD-ROM to familiarize yourself with the changes.
Features
Midway features 36 scenarios ranging from small 10 minute actions covering a specific air attack to 12+ hour scenarios covering full fleet actions with dozens of ships and hundreds of aircraft. These scenarios include the entire battle of Midway as well as specific actions, such as attacks on individual carriers and recreations of each attacking wave of aircraft. There is also a “what if” scenario based on the Coral Sea action not having been fought a month earlier. But aside from Midway, the game also includes the historical carrier battles of the Eastern Solomons, Santa Cruz and the Philippine Sea, as well as a hypothetical IJN-USN confrontation at Pearl Harbor.
The larger actions lend themselves to multi-player actions with several commanders on each side dividing available forces between them. Gamers can use LAN & Internet “live” play, or play against the computer AI. Many enhancements were made to the AI during this games development to provide a very challenging environment for the novice or veteran player.