The Ancient Art of War

The Ancient Art of War is one of the oldest games that can be considered a forerunner of real-time strategy, and it arrived on personal computers at a time when most strategy games were still strictly turn-based. The player commands several units on a map of the land, with units moving fluidly through time, although the game can be paused at any moment to issue new orders. The goal is usually to destroy enemy forces, capture their base, or seize a flag, and to do so the player must cleverly use terrain, mountain passes, bridges, and march length.

Units consist of three types of fighters. Knights are strong in direct combat, archers strike from a distance, and barbarians move quickly and are suited to ambushes, with each type holding an advantage over another, creating a simple but functional combat triangle. Soldiers grow tired and hungry and need supplying, so a long march through the mountains can weaken an army more than losses in battle. When two units meet, the game switches to a side-view battle screen, where the player arranges individual ranks and watches how the clash unfolds. The whole game is interspersed with quotes from Sun Tzu's Art of War, which frame the individual scenarios and at the same time hint to the player how to think.

Technically it was, for its time, an impressive title with a clear, though very sparse, color palette and sound limited by the capabilities of computers of the era, relying all the more on its concept and clear design. It also shipped with an editor in which players could create their own maps and scenarios. At the time the game earned praise and received sequels set in naval and medieval settings. Today it's interesting above all as evidence of how early someone came up with the idea of commanding armies in real time, and its basic ideas returned in a considerably richer form a decade later. The matches themselves are short and tight, so even today's player can finish one scenario in a few dozen minutes and understand why the game received so much attention back then.