9.4 /10 1 Votes
Designer(s) David O'Connor Developer Panther Games Publishers Panther Games, Mindscape | 4.7/5 My Abandonware Initial release date 1988 Genre Wargame | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Programmer(s) Tony Oliver
Ben Freasier
Hugh Fisher
Steve Adam Platforms Amiga, Atari ST, Macintosh operating systems, AmigaOS, IBM PC DOS Modes Single-player video game, Multiplayer video game Similar Kampfgruppe, Decisive Battles of the Ameri, Arnhem, Storm Across Europe, Fire Power | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fire-Brigade: The Battle for Kiev - 1943 (commonly abbreviated Fire-Brigade) is a Computer Wargame developed and published by Panther Games in Australia in 1988. The game is set around the historical WWII Eastern Front battle for Kiev in 1943.
Contents
Fire-Brigade was a pioneering computer wargame as it was one of the first wargames to take advantage of the new graphical mouse driven interfaces that 16bit computers were making available on both MAC II & IBM PC. It was also one of the first wargames to enable network game-play for head to head multiplayer battles.
Fire-Brigade required a huge amount of hard drive space and RAM for the time of its release to take full advantage of the development of 256 colours. For colour Fire-Brigade required 2MB of RAM and 640KB of hard drive space, while for mono the game only required 1MB of RAM.
Historical Synopsis
Early November, 1943 and the war in Russia is at its height. With the capture of the strategic city of Kiev imminent, Soviet General Vatutin unleashes Rybalko's elite 3rd Guards Tank Army. "Drive like hell" his orders read, "and we'll split the entire German Front!"
With the fate of the Army Group South in the balance, Marshall von Manstein must commit Balck's 48th Panzer Korps, the fire-brigade, to save the German Army. Receiving the Soviet attack will be fierce, delivering the counter-attack could be decisive... for one side or the other!
Game-play
Fire-Brigade is a turn-based strategic & tactical computer wargame that allows players flexibility and advanced functions. You can play either by yourself against the AI or against another person in any of four scenarios networked via modem or cable. You can play either as the Germans or the Soviet Union in any of the scenarios and you have at your command a comprehensive reporting system and realistic staff support.
Players can set combat, logistics and air commitment support values to direct the allocation of supplies; reinforcements and combat support assets. Gather intelligence on enemy forces and assess information on friendly forces before issuing movement and attack orders to units in either a micro (individual units) or macro level (subordinate headquarters). You can then set the frontage of your unit's formation to either narrow, medium or broad, all while you 'confer' with the games' AI which will use artificial intelligence routines to execute the orders within set variable parameters such as morale, troop quality, fatigue etc.
Players are given a 15 step recommended sequence of play list in the game manual for Fire-Brigade and is as follows:
Reception
Computer Gaming World called the game "a milestone for computing wargames in terms of sophistication" and "Fire-Brigade is meant for the thinking man, the sophisticated player who wants to learn and make the absolute most out of his computer playing time". A 1991 survey by the magazine of strategy and war games gave it three and a half stars out of five, and a 1993 survey of wargames gave the game two-plus stars. The magazine gave Fire-Brigade a score of 70 out of 100 and ranked the game the 4th Top Sleeper of All Time in its November 1996 15th anniversary issue.
Fire-Brigade currently forms part of the historical collection of software; hardwere; trade and promotional materials that document the history of Apple Inc. and its contributions to the computer industry and society. This collection is currently housed at Museum Victoria, Melbourne.
Awards
Fire-Brigade won the 1988 Charles S. Roberts Award for Best 20th Century Computer Game
Fire-Brigade won the 1989 Apple Developers Award for Best Entertainment Package