Rudimentary strategy demonstrating Sun Tzu's ideas
Sun Tzu was the definitive tactics and strategy mind of the Chinese in the ancient era. But, his teachings still can be applied to tacticians and strategy masters of the 21st century due to the general nature of the principia that are demonstrated. At any rate, Ancient Art of War wanted to create a game that would make use of these war principles in an ancient battle simulator. However, 1984 was not the most technologically advanced period for games, and thus, the strategy here present doesn't really get to capture the finer details of battlefield combat of the era. What it does however is create a simple, rudimentary strategy game with a good tactical bit, but, for the most part, the game doesn't really manage to remain playable today. Later strategy and tactics game such as the ones in the Total War series are much better at conveying the mechanics of larger groups of soldiers. Thus, in Ancient art of War you will mostly be battling the interface and trying to make sense of the absolutely minimalist graphics, rather than concentrate on the strategy and tactics. Not a bad game, by all means, but for the time it wanted to do too much with too little and this translates in poor graphics, poor battle tactics and also abysmal simulation of the close quarters combat. Give it a try only out of curiosity but don't expect the game to deliver on its premise: this isn't the game to teach you the Sun Tzu principles of war and combat.
