The Final Campaign

Last updated August 23, 2023

The Final Campaign is a play-by-mail space-based wargame that was published by Blue Panther Enterprises beginning in 1989.

Publication history

The Final Campaign was a closed end, computer moderated play-by-mail game.^[1]^[2] Blue Panther Enterprises officially released the game on July 1, 1989.^[1] The publisher provided players with a rulebook of over eighty pages.^[1]

Gameplay

The Final Campaign juxtaposed the large scale of many play-by-mail games by pitting two players against each other.^[2] A reviewer in 1991 described the game as "down-and-dirty, planetary warfare between two warring races" where diplomacy was not a factor.^[3] Gameplay occurred on a 15 × 15 grid.^[3] Each player designed alien armies with associated equipment, weapons, and troops.^[2] Players were limited to 30 units and designed their armies with their role or victory condition in mind (e.g., defender).^[2] Players assigned rankings for units in the following areas: "attack, defense, mettle, weaponry, status, equipment, experience and leadership".^[2] The publisher provided a disk to assist IBM users in the "rather lengthy calculations" associated with army creation.^[2] This disk was called the "Army Construction Toolkit".^[1]

Once created, players employed their armies in player-vs-player warfare.^[2] According to the publisher, "Once in the battle, [players] must contend with firing modes, movement modes, all types of terrain, line-of-sight, morale, weather and an enemy that never stays still."^[1]

Players received detailed turn reports which included intelligence on the adversary's army.^[1] Players then returned a one-page order sheet to the game moderator providing simple moving and firing instructions without the use of codes.^[1] The gaming computer kept track of gameplay on an 11 x 17 hex map.^[1]

Reception

Stephan and Stewart Wieck reviewed The Final Campaign in the February–March 1990 issue of White Wolf Magazine .^[2] They provided the game low marks for materials and diplomacy and high marks for game moderation and strategy, rating the game overall a four out of a possible five.^[2] The reviewers noted that little to no diplomacy was required for the game and the strategy aspect primarily derived from army creation.^[2] Chris Arnold reviewed the game in a 1991 issue of Flagship, stating that it was "a fine example of a wargame for the PBM market".^[4]

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References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Blue Panther Enterprises. pp. 19–20.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Wieck and Wieck 1990. p. 51.
1 2 Arnold 1991. p. 8.
↑ Arnold 1991. p. 10.

Bibliography

Arnold, Chris (February 1991). "The Final Campaign". Flagship . No. 30. pp. 8–10.
Blue Panther Enterprises (July–August 1989). "Gameline". Paper Mayhem . No. 37. pp. 19–20.
Wieck, Stephan; Wieck, Stewart (February–March 1990). "Review: The Final Campaign". White Wolf Magazine . No. 19. p. 51.