Description

The Future Art of War is a science fiction wargame, self-published by Leonard J. Meloche.

The game map consists of 26 planets (one starting with each letter of the alphabet).

Players start with one planet, and a small force of ships. They occupy/conquer planets, collect and trade resources, build ships, supply their planets and attempt to discover Battleship technology.

Players are eliminated when their home planet is conquered, and victory is achieved through the elimination of all other players.

The Future Art of War includes a creative movement mechanic which adds to the "fog of war" effect. Ships travel from planet to planet via "hyperspace", and a chart indicates the number of turns (1-6) required to travel between each pair of planets. When a ship departs for a planet, the controlling player secretly writes the first letter of the planet and the number of turns required on the bottom of the ship counter, and places it on the first space in the hyperspace track. Each turn, all ships in the hyperspace track move one space further down the track, and, when a ship has reached the appropriate space, the controlling player reveals the ship's destination. Therefore, while players know how many ships their opponents have in hyperspace, they do not know the ships' destinations, or when they will arrive.

The components of this game are quite good for a self-published game. The map is poster-quality, and the cards, reference sheets, and money are comparable to many commercially published games. The one component that clearly identifies the game as "self-published" is the ship counters, which are cut rectangles of flat plastic. These, however, with a whiteboard marker, serve the "hyperspace" mechanic very well. The game is packed in a large tube.