Wargame Construction Set

Wargame Construction Set is a unique tool from Strategic Simulations, Inc. that, instead of offering one specific battle, gives the player the ability to design their own turn-based war scenarios. The player defines the map, terrain, units, and their properties, and can then play through the created scenario themselves or hand it off to another player — the game thus functions as both an editor and a full-fledged game system at once. Not only the maps and units can be configured, but also the basic combat rules, so more experienced players could build scenarios matching almost any historical period or fictional conflict. The program thus worked more like a rules construction kit than a single specific game, which was a fairly unusual approach for home computers in the mid-1980s.

On the Commodore 64, Wargame Construction Set offers clear tools for editing the hexagonal map and setting unit parameters, which made it a popular tool among genre enthusiasts who wanted to create their own historical or fictional battles without needing to program. The included sample scenarios also served as a guide to working with the system, as well as being full-fledged games in their own right. The text-and-graphics interface is just as spare as in other SSI wargames, but the editor's controls are designed to accommodate less experienced users with no programming knowledge. Working with the editor is step-by-step and clear, so even building a larger scenario could be managed gradually, across several shorter sessions.

At a time when wargames were a genre with a fairly narrow but devoted fan base, Wargame Construction Set gave that community a creation tool similar to the game editors of later years. On the Commodore 64, it remains an interesting example of how SSI approached the genre not just as a series of individual titles, but also as an open platform for custom scenarios that the player community could shape to fit its own vision.

Why play: For players interested in period game editors who want to see how SSI gave wargame fans a tool for creating their own scenarios instead of yet another closed-off title.