Rome attacking the Gates of Mordor; Gondor vs. the Vikings; everything is possible with THE SHATtered ALLIANCE by SSI. It offers a choice of seven scenarios plus many that you can create with the fourteen armies provided. This game has the new Rapid-Fire system that makes the game play as fast as you can type the orders with the maps and units displayed in beautiful high resolution colors. To play, you must first choose a setting: historical, fantasy, or a bit of both. Once the game is set up and the armies are displayed, the computer will start the game by turning on one of the units. Now enter your command. The flashing unit can spell, move, or attack. As soon as you enter it, you won’t have to wait for the computer. The game continues until the morale of an army reaches zero.
That army then sounds like retreat and flight. Combat can be with melee or missile weapons with all weapons gaining bonuses or debuffs, depending on the enemy troop type and armor (ie a javelin works better against light infantry than heavy cavalry). The five types of terrain also affect the battle. After each battle, forces are modified to reflect casualties and the updated force list is displayed. Various spells can also be used that can provide increased mobility, protection against attacks, combat effectiveness, or increased morale.
The game is offered in three forms: player vs. player, player vs. computer and computer vs. computer. An excellent feature of this game is that the computer can play on both sides. This way, you can never feel like the computer has the upper hand, as in the next game you can play on the opposite side of the same battle. There are also two skill levels, beginner and advanced, that can modify the scenario by increasing the strength and / or morale of an army. The scenarios are saved to a scratch disk, which the program initializes, but you must provide it. Games can be saved, in progress, on the same scratch disk. The limitations of the game are that the largest number of units an army has is eight, and the armies are predetermined.
You must choose between the given armies, which cannot be modified in any way. Also, you are limited as to which armies you can face against each other. For example, you cannot put the Roman army on both sides of the battle. You also cannot unite Carthage against Rome to recreate battles in the Punic Wars (although both armies are in the game system).
SSI says they can come out with a utility disk that will not only allow you to pit any of the armies against each other, but will also allow you to create the composition of the individual units. SSI will make this disk available if there is enough interest. If you are interested, send them a note. The aforementioned issue aside, the graphics are excellent and the Rapid-Fire system makes playing fast and easy. All things considered, I feel like THE SHATtered ALLIANCE is a really fun game. My rating for this game is 4.7 out of 5.