There simply aren’t many games which honour the ANZAC tradition, for obvious reasons. Down under, we’re used to being ignored by the larger games companies, and World War 1 just isn’t a popular period for video games. But there are some board games and mods out there that immortalise our most honoured fightin’ lads.
First up, the board games. It seems the good people at Board Game Geek have one reaching all the way back to 1979, in the form of Gallipoli — though you’re not likely to find that on the shelves today. There’s also a more recent 2004 effort in Lock ‘N Load: ANZAC Attack, which serves as an expansion for the (apparently) award-winning Lock ‘N Load: Forgotten Heroes – Vietnam.
Finally, there’s the most recent offering, A Fatal Attraction: The Gallipoli Campaign. From 2007, this one seems to be the most focused on naval warfare, and also seems to want to downplay the ANZAC role in the offensive. In the words of one commenter, “I gather Australian sales are poor on this game.”
But what about vidya games?
The best looking effort I could find was a mod for Napoleon: Total War, which looks pretty, functional, and was last updated as recently as two months ago. The Great War, like many mods of its kind, aims to cover WW1 as a total conversion mod, and includes the Gallipoli campaign as a section. Take a look:
ANZACs are a playable faction in the game, and going by the gist of the comments, it’s well worth your time. For an ANZAC experience, this might be the one.
But there are other options. Hearts of Iron 3 has a World War 1 Mod, which you can recreate the Gallipoli experience in. Military sim players won’t be outdone, so of course there’s an ANZAC Mod for Arma 2. And it looks like there’s a total conversion mod for Mount & Blade: Warband, which is dedicated to Gallipoli, in which they’ve done well to re-skin everything so you can have a more personal, on-the-ground take on things.
Surely, I’ve left something out though. Do you know of any other games or mods that honour the ANZACs? Do you have any fond memories of playing in this period?
Comments
7 responses to “Lest We Forget — How To Play As An ANZAC”
The excellent Panzer Corps lets you control/recruit Australian units throughout the Mediterranean/North African campaign (Tobruk, etc)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/268400/
The best game I have played covering this period is the brilliant GMT game Paths of Glory. For Squad level combat there are many ANZAC modules for the timeless briallance that is Advanced Squad Leader first printed by Avalon Hill now printed by MMP (Multi Man Publishing) owned by Kurt Schilling. Both games have free to play online versions using VASSAL.
Um, that Arma 2 mod only has a download from MegaUpload, so it is effectively a dead link unless there is a mirror
EDIT: Any reason that every single comment of mine is awaiting moderation?
You were previously heavily down voted?
The whole allure network has been iffy the last few days as they’ve been changing certificates and hosts.
Even still, from time to time I still get posts flagged for moderation. Just seems to be some bugs in their system,
And I can’t log in on either my phone or my tablet! 🙁
Wargame: Red Dragon was just released on April 17th, from the guys who made RUSE, the RTS is set between 1975-1995, and has the ANZAC faction, which quite accurately has every single piece of military equipment we used at the time.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/251060/
The Forgotten Hope 2 mod for Battlefield 2 has a playable Australian and New Zealand faction and my god is it great. Even the dialogue is ‘Straya accurate. “Bastard spotted!”
A WW1 trenches MMO would be awesome. Control the artillery, go over the top, man machineguns. You could have it so you could play as anyone in the army hierarchy and play it like an RTS.
Panzer General II had an ANZAC mod. From memory it was bloody difficult to take victory points due to the nature of trench warfare. Probably why WW1 is so neglected by video games.