Campaign Download (1992 Simulation Game)

Campaign covers some of the most important battles of the Second World War, from Sahara to the Russian campaign, and from the Battle of the Bulge to D-Day. A map editor allowing users to modify existing scenarios or to create new ones is included.

You can take involvement at many levels of a battle. You can take direct control of either driving or gunning a tank, direct groups of 16 tanks and their support units, and create a combined overall strategy factoring in supply routes. Over 150 different vehicles from both sides are featured.

It's a hard-core wargame that will like mostly to the "aficionados" of the genre. The game package includes a lot of extras: a thick "Equipment factfinder" manual (170 pages), 2 huge posters, replicas of WW2 postcards and of a newspaper.

Campaign is a classic strategy game with Wold War II setting. As a general you take control of either the allies or the axis and lead them through several campaigns from Africa to Russia. As a good general you have to take care of all aspects of warfare. You will have to manage the production of your facilities, protect your air force bases and provide your troops with enough reinforcements, ammunition and fuel. Last, but not least, you will have to make sure that your enemy won't be able to do the same.

The game mostly emphasizes on tank combat, but there also are air and sea units, and you will need a lot of tactical finesse to succeed in combat. Not every fight can be won by sheer strength. You will have to use barrage fire as well as artillery support or ground bombardment with your aircrafts. If you are in defence you might consider to dig in your troops, or use mine fields.

Most of the time you will operate on the tactical map, which gives you an overview of the terrain, your troops and those of your foe. All troops are commanded in squads, so you don't have to bear with single unit management like in Panzer General. Even if this is still too much for you, you can hand the control of single squads over to the AI. Once your forces engage the enemy you have the choose whether you wish to lead the battle yourself of if you want the AI to auto calculate its outcome. The manual battle interface looks a little bit like the full sized minimap of Command & Conquer where you can command your tanks as well as air strikes and artillery support. If that's not enough action for you, there is also the possibility to hop into one of your tanks and shoot the hell out of your enemies. Be careful when you have to retreat. Every tank left on the battlefield can be captured and repaired so its possible to face your own tanks in the following fight.

Maybe you're wondering why I haven't mentioned sound or graphic so far. Well, both of them are clearly bellow average. The tactical map looks very boring and I am sure you will play your own music instead of listening to the games sounds. Also the 3D View of the tank battle is very limited in variety but the intro looks great. The interface isn't very easy to understand at first, but right-clicking on every icon will bring up some help text.

On the bottom line, Campaign is a very good and original combination of strategy and arcade which will hopefully not only please hardcore generals but occasional gamers as well.

"Billed as a strategic-tactical simulation of the World War II Western Front, it was marginally adequate on the former level and an arcade rendition of the latter. Some interface inadequacies contributed to the "vanillaness" of this game, but with World War II-era tanks zooming around like race cars, one should take any relationship to history with a pillar of salt." -- M. Evan Brooks Home Page. Brooks trashes almost everything! ;) The game, in my opinion, is actually not that bad at all. It is certainly not designed to be a hard-core wargame, but an arcade-oriented simulation of World War II tanks. Okay, so maybe calling it even a simulation is farfetched, since tank handling is nowhere near the level of realism achieved in MicroProse's venerable M1 Tank Platoon. Still, the game is fun for a while, and certainly worth a look for action fans looking for World War II scenarios, and fans of designer Jonathan Griffith's earlier classic (and much more arcade-style) Conqueror. The PC conversion from original Commodore 64 was done by Chris Sawyer, of Transport Tycoon fame. If you like this average game, check out the even worse sequel called Campaign II on this site as well.

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

People who downloaded Campaign have also downloaded:
Campaign II, Advanced Destroyer Simulator (a.k.a. B.S.S. Jane Seymour), Armored Fist, ATF: Advanced Tactical Fighters, Carriers at War 2, D-Day, Birds of Prey, Carriers at War