An operational wargame across a century of conflict
The Operational Art of War IV is a turn-based hex-grid wargame covering battles from the dawn of the 20th century to the modern day, including wars that never happened. It ships with more than 200 scenarios, from the Battle of Marne and Arnhem to Dien Bien Phu and a Falkland invasion. You command troops across varied terrain, and the game models supply, combat resolution, and naval warfare in detail. The naval system treats ships as complex systems with armor, durability, accuracy, speed, and agility rather than as single equipment items, and sea interdiction can come from aircraft, ships, and coastal guns. The supply system adds an intermediate "Overextended" state between supplied and unsupplied, so units in low-supply locations function somewhere in between and struggle to press on at red-lined conditions.
Playing together
Remote Play Together lets one player host and share their session with friends over Steam, so the group can watch and take part from their own machines. Combat reports are saved into the pbl/sal files for review by both players during their player turns, which gives both sides a clear record to look over between turns. The Battlefield Time Stamp feature makes the game's turn resolution easier to plan around, so you can coordinate moves with your group before committing.
Before you start
Scenarios vary a lot in size, and large ones can be intimidating. The Improved PO/AI assist automation lets you hand part of your friendly forces to the AI, which helps when a scenario is bigger than you want to manage alone. If you plan to build your own scenarios, the TOAW Editor Event system has seen major improvements that make complex scenarios easier to create. Range limits can be set per player so ranged units stay within a chosen band, and deployment states are retained after combat, with ground assaulters able to recover theirs if a planned combat is canceled. Bridge destruction can be restricted to locations where the road graphically crosses the river, and the Matrix PBEM++ system is adapted for play by mail.