Lest We Forget — How To Play As An ANZAC

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?


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