The Final Campaign

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]

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]

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]

• 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.

• Macagnone, Mark (November–December 1989). "The Final Campaign or Daddy What Did You Do During the War?". Paper Mayhem. No. 39. p. 46.
• Macagnone, Mark (May–June 1990). "Update: The Final Campaign". Paper Mayhem. No. 42. pp. 48–49.