''Star General'' is a

computer wargame A computer wargame is a wargame played on a digital device. Descended from board wargaming, it simulates military conflict at the tactical, operational or strategic level. Computer wargames are both sold commercially for recreational use an ...

, last in SSI's series of hexagonal-movement games popularized by ''

Panzer General ''Panzer General'' is a 1994 computer wargame developed and published by Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI). It simulates conflict during World War II. The designers of ''Panzer General'' were heavily influenced by the Japanese wargame series ''Da ...

''. ''Star General'' bases its story setting on ''The Fleet'', a series of books written by

David Drake David A. Drake (born September 24, 1945) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy literature. A Vietnam War veteran who has worked as a lawyer, he is now a writer in the military science fiction genre. Biography Drake graduated Phi ...

and Bill Fawcett. The game was developed by Catware and SSI in 1996.

Gameplay

''Star General'' pits up to seven alien races against one another in a galactic battle of conquest. The seven races include the deceitful Cephalians, the reptilian Dragonians, the feline Hressa, the Humans, the barbarian Khalians, the

insectoid An insectoid is an insect-like creature. Insectoid may refer to: * Insectoid robot * Insectoids in science fiction {{dab ...

Xritra, and

fascist Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...

human separatists who belong to the Schleinel Hegemony. There are 90 different types of units, from ground forces to spaceships. Among the space vessels there are a wide variety of specializations—including mine countermeasure vessels, assault vessels,

troop transport A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable land troops directly on shore, typicall ...

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

missile boat A missile boat or missile cutter is a small, fast warship armed with anti-ship missiles. Being smaller than other warships such as destroyers and frigates, missile boats are popular with nations interested in forming a navy at lower cost. They a ...

carrier Carrier may refer to: Entertainment * ''Carrier'' (album), a 2013 album by The Dodos * ''Carrier'' (board game), a South Pacific World War II board game * ''Carrier'' (TV series), a ten-part documentary miniseries that aired on PBS in April 20 ...

s and

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

s. There is also some use of older terms of reference for classifying

warships A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster and ...

—terms of reference that are not used in the navies of today. One example is that the term

monitor Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, West Vir ...

is used to specify a kind of space warship. The general disposition of ship types is an approximation of navies in the era between the two world wars, before carriers became a major part of naval forces. On the planetary surface, there are

space dock A space dock is a hypothesised type of space station that is able to repair or build spacecraft similar to maritime shipyards on Earth. They remove the need for new spacecraft to perform a space launch to reach space and existing spacecraft to ...

s for launching ships, mines to produce monetary units, factories to manufacture ships, and industrial plants and biodomes to support population, as well as a range of ground forces, again roughly equivalent to military forces in mid to late 1930s to perhaps early WW2.

Reception

''Star General'' sold at least 50,000 units by September 1997 and over 120,000 units by May 1999. ''

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 ...

''s Tim Carter panned the game as "all the flash and little of the gameplay" of what made the original a classic, but praised the clean interface, simple learning curve, and some fun moments in space fleet actions. ''Star General'' was named the 85th best computer game ever by ''PC Gamer UK'' in 1997.

References

External links

''Star General''
at

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