In spite of the obvious lack of interest as evidenced by over 60-views and zero response to the opening post, here follows a quick review of
Steam and Iron: The Great War at Sea (SAI) from Naval Warfare Simulations (NWS).
The guiding principle behind SAI seems to be a game that produces historically realistic command and control effects coupled with accurate damage and weapons models. It does this in an extremely spartan but easy to use GUI without flashy graphics, 3D-modelling and surround-sound effects. So if you're looking for glitz or game for the audio-visual experience you probably should stop reading any further, SAI will have little appeal for you.
On the other hand, if you want a game that provides real insights as to why WW1 naval combat happened as it did than SAI has much to offer and little to reject.
I don't have one of those photo-sharing accounts but if you want screen shots NWS provides a collection in a .zip file here:
SAI Screenshot Pack
The game ships with a scenario editor and a ship editor in addition to over 30-historical and hypothetical scenarios provided. Some of these can be completed in well under 30-minutes but many of those minutes can be spent in nail-biting tension as you try to solve the tactical problems presented by a challenging, aggressive and sometimes downright nasty AI. Sorry, no multi-player options and this will no doubt limit SAI's appeal.
Stock scenarios range from the 1912 Battle of Elli where the Greek and Turkish navies squared off in an tactically indecisive but strategically important action, through two-versions of Jutland to the Royal Navy scrapping with Bolsheviks in the Baltic in 1919. The stock scenarios are scrupulously accurate in the historical mode but there is an option to play the stock scenarios with variations for one or both sides which aids replayability There are land fortifications, land targets, minefields, minelaying, submarines and aircraft. The latter two have no player control but may provide intelligence as to the enemy. This information may be delayed and it may be inaccurate. Just like real life.
Action is conducted on the gaming map which is top-down and may be zoomed from single-ship sized to continental scale. the SAI world is actually round which makes a nice change from global models in other naval games.
Ship icons are deck plans, functional and representative rather than absolutely authentic. So
Seydlitz has her five turrets, secondary batteries and her two funnels in all the correct spots but her icon is indistinguishable from her cousins in the
Moltke class.
The basic unit in the game is the Division, consisting of one or more ships. The lead ship in each division sports a square flag or triangle pennant, the former indicating Player control and the latter ships under computer control. Orders are basic: speed, course turns in succession or turns together. Divisional formations include line ahead, line abreast, scouting (widely dispersed according to current visibility) or screening (division is dispersed around a designated force). Other formation options are available for certain situations. Divisions are organized into Forces so for example at Jutland the RN has two-forces, the Battle Fleet and the Battle Cruiser Fleet. Each force has designated Lead divisions that all other computer-controlled divisions use as a guide.
SAI has three "difficulty levels" that vary the amount of player control from Captain, where you have essentially full control and manual targeting to Admiral where the player only has control of the Lead divisions; Rear-Admiral where the player may take control of all Divisions within visual range and Captain where can take control of every Division and order manual targeting as well. Some scenarios greatly benefit being played at the Captain level but for the most part Rear-Admiral provides an excellent experience.
During battles text messages in the Log are provided but these are transient and soon lost. There has been a request in the SAI Forum that the logs be permanent and savable and this has been received favourably (or at least not rejected out right) by the developer and designer, both of whom frequent their Forum and respond to feedback.
There are limited Force order options like disengage, Flotilla's Attack and others that are meant to be used sparingly. One can order destroyer divisions to launch torpedo attacks, switch them to AI control and watch as they maneuver for position from which they may or may not actually launch torpedoes. The enemy AI reacts nicely to these flotilla attacks, high-value units may turn away (have not witnessed any turn-towards as yet) and may also send destroyer forces to counter attack. These messy little actions are great to watch provided gunfire and coal smoke does not obscure your line of sight. Unlike most naval games, destroyers have the ability to absorb gunfire hits and the destroyer vs. destroyer actions that I have played so far have produced remarkably historically reasonable results.
Although SAI is played in 1-minute turns, when little is happening, one can press "Play" and the game will run continuously until paused when certain actions occur, these perimeters being configurable in the Game Preferences screen where one also sets the difficulty.
The gunnery/damage models are SAI's greatest strengths. It is very gratifying to fight out an action where the results, although perhaps significantly different from the historical, nevertheless seem to be historically valid. SAI demonstrates why the Big Gun failed time and again to be the decisive weapon in naval combat. Despite this, combat is messy and tense. Ships may blow up but it is far more likely that they will be pounded into wrecks and fall out of the action to sink later or creep home crippled. If you are a micro-manager at heart you may have issues with SAI's C2 model but it reliably presents problems that Jellicoe and Scheer would have understood had they owned a copy in 1916.
At about $35.00 USD, SAI is a steal if you have any interest in Great War naval actions and can live without a CGI Sound and Light Extravaganza. It's target audience seems to be for the naval wargamer for whom substance is more important than glitter and it scores a target round with the opening salvo.
There are minor issues, have had some lockups in the Scenario Editor, zooming the map is via radio buttons and although it cries out for zooming with a mouse wheel, the developer has stated that the game engine might make this an impossible wish. The transient nature of the log has been mentioned and it is possible to miss contact info if the map is zoomed to tightly and the event occurred outside the map limits. That said, I do not recall having bought a computer game that had fewer glitches out of the box in a long, long time.
Steam and Iron is available from direct download and my installation code arrived minutes after the download completed. If you like naval surface combat, SAI might just be the best $35.00 USD you spend this year.
NWS Store