AP is a World War II strategic-level simulation of naval war in the Pacific following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.
It is joystick-controlled and played on a large, scrolling map of the Pacific which includes the major island bases from Hawaii to Indonesia.
Ships of the opposing navies are represented by Red (Japanese) flags or Blue (US) flags and the occupation of island bases is represented by Red or Blue anchors.
Three scenarios are included, but two of them (Midway and Yamato) are introductory only and do not offer much play-value.
The third, WW II, is a 40-turn campaign in which the objective is to accumulate 100 or more points than the opponent by the end of the game.
This is accomplished by capturing and holding island bases.
When faced with overwhelming Japanese numerical superiority in the beginning, this may seem like a truly hopeless task for the US player.
If however, he can evade a major engagement with the enemy long enough, reinforcements will begin to arrive and, if properly deployed, will turn the tide of war.
Whether that happens soon enough is the hinge upon which the future of the Pacific swings.
AP is strictly an air/naval confrontation.
There are 113 ships in the game, representing the major US and Japanese aircraft carriers, battleships and cruisers of the war.
Among these, the most important are the carriers.
They are essential.
Without the aircraft that the carriers transport you cannot capture island bases and, without capturing island bases, you cannot gain enough points to win the war.
Since the imperative here is to capture and hold as many bases as possible for as long as possible, the capriciousness with which the computer decides to allot carriers to you (the US player) can be the determining factor in the game.
The Japanese build up such a huge lead in the beginning of the game, that if the US player hesitates too long (or receives too many battleships, instead of carriers, or has his planes waste themselves in attacking inappropriate targets) it may be nearly impossible for him too overcome that lead by the end of the game (even though by that time he may control nearly every base on the map except Japan itself, and may have destroyed the entire Japanese navy).
It is here that some gamers may find AP to be maddeningly restrictive.
The computer makes all choices of reinforcement schedules and nearly all choices pertaining to target selection and the number of planes to commit to a particular action (even whether or not to attack).
Virtually the only choices left for the player are what ships to bring together, when, and where.
For those gamers who like greater control over the actions of their pieces, AP will certainly prove to be too inflexible and with too few factors (such as weather, fuel, damage, troops, supplies, etc.
) influencing the outcome of engagements.
However, for those who are not dyed-in-the-wool war gamers and who simply enjoy strategic planning and maneuvering without a lot of detail, this game may prove to be a mental exercise in the power of position.