''Clash of Steel'' is a

grand strategy Grand strategy or high strategy is a state's strategy of how means can be used to advance and achieve national interests. Issues of grand strategy typically include the choice of primary versus secondary theaters in war, distribution of resource ...

computer game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

released in

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

Strategic Simulations Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) was a video game developer and video game publisher, publisher with over 100 titles to its credit from its founding in 1979 to its dissolution in 1994. The company was especially noted for its numerous wargames ...

for

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

Gameplay

It covers

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

on a grand strategic scale between 1939 and 1945. Three major powers are playable:

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

(

Axis An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to: Mathematics * Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis *Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinate ...

), the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. In the game each player in charge of his chosen major power and its land, air and naval forces. Each player also controls production and research of military equipment. This game contains a number of bugs that were fixed in the follow-up game, ''Clash of Steel: Future Edition''. Buyers of the original version were given a discount when upgrading to ''Future Edition.''

Reception

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

'' in 1993 stated that ''Clash of Steel'' was reminiscent of ''

Hitler's War ''Hitler's War'' is a biographical book by British author David Irving. It describes the Second World War from the point of view of Nazi Germany’s leader Adolf Hitler. It was first published in April 1977 by Hodder & Stoughton and Viking Pre ...

'' and "a gamer's game—quick-playing, entertaining and reasonably accurate. An entire campaign ... can be played in as few as six hours". It concluded that "''COS'' should not be missed." A survey of wargames by the magazine gave ''Clash of Steel'' four-plus stars out of five, calling it "strategic and eminently playable ... everything that '' Storm Across Europe'' should have been and wasn't". ''Clash of Steel'' won ''

''s Wargame of the Year award in June 1994. The editors wrote, "Everything is accessible, useful and enjoyable in this well-conceived design". Elsewhere in the issue, the magazine stated that "Although ''Clash'' has its share of flaws, it won our award based upon its most important underlying virtue: the fun factor", describing it as a "game-about history" and not "history-in-a-game" and comparing it to ''

The Russian Campaign ''The Russian Campaign'' is a strategic board wargame published by Jedko Games in 1974 that simulates combat on the Eastern Front during World War II. Avalon Hill later bought the game and produced several editions. The unit scale is German ...

''.

References

External links

*{{moby game, id=/dos/clash-of-steel-world-war-ii-europe-1939-45 1993 video games DOS games DOS-only games Computer wargames World War II video games World War II grand strategy computer games Strategic Simulations games Grand strategy video games Video games developed in the United States