UMS - Information

UMS was a wargame simulator unlike any other. It was also Rainbird's most complex 'game' to date, with a whole host of options that allowed the player to create whatever ground-based war scenario they wished. More on that aspect of the simulator later!

UMS offered the player a choice of pre-defined battle scenarios. These included Arbela (331 BC), Hastings (1066 AD), Marston Moor (1644 AD), Waterloo (1815 AD) and Gettysburg (1863 AD). This would then launch the game straight onto the relevant battlefield, which was displayed in wireframe 3D. This could be viewed from any angle and zoomed in and out as required to show the various skirmishes at close quarters. UMS also featured an 'automatic zoom' mode that zoomed in on battles on the player's behalf.

The actual battles were played out during two game phases; 'Command' and 'Movement/Battle'. The Command phase allowed the player to issue their orders to the troops, whilst the Movement / Battle phase executed those commands and moved or engaged the troops in battle as required.

If the player's opponent was computer controlled, the player could force the enemy to attack or defend via the Battle Logic menu. They could also just leave the computer to make its own decisions!

Troop movement was achieved via the Command box, where the player could specify the direction and distance of the movement. The number of moves allocated to troops per turn differed from unit to unit, as did the speed at which they could move (partially based on the terrain they were encountering at the time). Each troop unit had to be moved individually; there was no facility for giving mass unit commands in tandem.

The battles weren't animated on the 3D battlefield, but the game did report the casualties for each 'turn'. Once all of the troops had moved or fought, it was time for the next 'Command' phase again.

The above description barely does UMS justice in regards to the options made available to the player. However, UMS went a few steps further by also allowing the player to create their own scenarios, their own maps and their own armies. The game was designed to allow extra scenarios to be loaded in from disk, thus allowing for future 'scenario disks' to be released. Some UMS fans also released their own scenarios in the 'public domain'.