Old Gamers Never Die: Learning the Ropes of 'Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age'

 

© 2024 Triassic Games/MicroProse

As someone who came of age during the latter half of the Cold War, I’ve always been captivated by the scenarios in which tensions between NATO and the Warsaw Pact could have escalated into full-scale war. It’s not that I wished for a Third World War to erupt in the late 1970s and early 1980s during my brief flirtation with conservatism. True, I disliked the Soviet Union then as much as I dislike Vladimir Putin’s Russian Federation now. However, I desperately wanted sanity and diplomacy to prevail during those tense times. At the same time, I hoped that if a war between East and West did break out, our military forces—especially the U.S. and Royal Navies—would triumph in a Third Battle of the Atlantic.

© 1988 MicroProse & Jack Ryan Enterprises, Ltd. 

It should therefore come as no surprise that many of the books, movies, and computer games I enjoy, even in my more liberal incarnation, center on actual Cold War incidents such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War or speculative Cold War-turns-hot fiction like The Third World War: August 1985 and Red Storm Rising. One of my all-time favorite films is Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Stanley Kubrick’s dark satire on the lunacy of Mutual Assured Destruction.

I also love playing Cold War-turns-hot computer games. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I played many MicroProse games with this theme, especially M1 Tank Platoon and Red Storm Rising. These games were – and still are – two of the most thrilling simulations of conventional war in a fictional World War III. Nowadays, you can find the reissued version of M1 Tank Platoon on Steam. However, Interplay, the company that holds the rights to many of MicroProse’s classic titles, cannot re-release Red Storm Rising due to Ubisoft’s exclusive deal with Tom Clancy’s estate.

I own and play several computer games that depict conventional conflict between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, the most recent of which are Regiments (2022, MicroProse/Bird’s Eye Studios) and Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age (2024, MicroProse/Triassic Games).

A screen grab from Regiments. © 2022 Bird's Eye Studios/MicroProse

I’ve written many posts about my experiences with Regiments, which simulates combined arms warfare in Central Europe in a fictional version of 1989 where glasnost and perestroika never took hold and the Warsaw Pact invaded West Germany in early summer. I’ve played different iterations of this visually striking and fast-paced game since the summer of 2022, and even though I have not attempted to play the grand campaign, it’s one of my go-to sources of military-themed gaming.

My latest acquisition – I snagged it in early access from Steam just last week – is Sea Power. This exciting successor to Fleet Command and Harpoon, with a dash of digital DNA from Cold Waters, zeroes in on naval warfare during the late 20th Century. Covering the early 1970s to the late 1980s, Sea Power offers a thrilling array of scenarios. The official scenarios from Triassic Games include historical engagements that have been slightly tweaked for gaming, alongside classic Cold War-turns-hot hypothetical encounters between East and West. Additionally, there are naval battles fought by other factions, including the intense Tanker War in the 1980s Persian Gulf and various Arab-Israeli clashes of the period.

All graphic design elements are © 2024 Triassic Games/MicroProse

Although I’m engrossed in my latest novel, which has taken precedence over all else, I’ve still managed to carve out precious moments to dive into the pulse-pounding scenarios of Sea Power. Since its release last week, I’ve completed two gripping scenarios: Morvarid, played from the Iranian perspective during the brutal 1980-1989 Iran-Iraq War, and Dong Hoi, which revisits the intense naval clashes of the North Vietnamese Spring Offensive in 1972.

Of the two, Dong Hoi stands out as a testament to trial and error. Through multiple defeats, I learned – the hard way – how to safeguard a U.S. Navy Surface Action Group (SAG) from relentless North Vietnamese MiG-17 Frescos and P6-class torpedo boats off the coast of Vietnam. It wasn't until my fourth attempt that I discovered the perfect blend of tactics to fend off aerial assaults, annihilate PT boats, and unleash a devastating bombardment on enemy targets ashore, all while keeping my fleet intact and victorious.

I’ve triumphed over Dong Hoi twice, most recently during a midday break yesterday. The mission unfolded smoothly for the most part, although there was a heart-stopping moment when a MiG-17 managed to land a bomb hit on USS Higbee, a Gearing-class destroyer. This caused a minor fire onboard, but the ship's damage control teams quickly extinguished the flames. Remarkably, the after-action report listed Higbee as "undamaged."

© 2024 Triassic Games/MicroProse

Yet, as thrilling as these digital skirmishes are, they serve as mere interludes in the grand symphony of my writing journey. Crafting my novel is the true battlefront, a demanding endeavor that commands my utmost dedication and creative energy.