TacOps 4.05ASu

TacOps 4.05ASu is designed as a very interesting card and board game which is the commercial version of "TacOpsCav 4," an officially issued standard training device of the US Army. It is a simulation of contemporary and near-future tactical, ground, combat between United States (Army and Marine), Canadian, New Zealand/Australian and German forces versus various opposing forces (OPFOR), simulating the Former Soviet Union, China, North Korea etc. Various civilian units and paramilitary forces are also included.

TacOps 4 now supports massive multiplayer teamplay, by allowing up to 19 players or spectators (on up to 8 teams) and an umpire to connect and fight the same battle online via Internet or LAN (TCP/IP).
Most of the vehicles, unit organizations, and weapons utilized in today's world by these forces are present in the game. Some weapons and capabilities that are likely to be available over the next ten years are included as options, as well as some older organizations and weapons. The movement and interaction of infantry and armor units is treated with great detail. Supporting air and artillery activities are treated more conceptually.

The primary simulation focus of TacOps 4 is ground operations from the perspective of the battalion or regimental commander. You are a commander, not a gunner. Your control of weapons fire is limited to positioning your units with movement and disposition orders, setting minimum or maximum engagement ranges, and designating priority targets during the orders phase of a 60 second game turn. During the combat phase, your units will automatically choose their actual targets. TacOps 4 is played in turns. Each turn consists of two phases: an orders phase and a combat phase.

Each phase occurs simultaneously for all players. During the combat phase the units of all forces, under computer control, simultaneously carry out their orders for movement and combat in four, fifteen second pulses. You only observe during the combat phase; you can not give or change orders until the next orders phase. In addition, "fog of war" is simulated by showing enemy units (and friendly units from another team) only if they are in the line of sight and visual range of one of your team’s units. You may also choose to see all units at all times.

Major Features:

1. MOVEMENT
   • Units move during the combat phase according to their orders. A particular unit's movement speed is affected by terrain and the suppressive effect of enemy fire. All units have the same opportunity to move, roughly simultaneously, in one scale-second increments. In other words, every unit is checked every scale-second to see if it qualifies to move at least one screen pixel - about ten meters. If the unit qualifies for movement, its position will change.
2. MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER
   • Although TacOps can be played against a computer opponent, the most exciting and most realistic way to play TacOps is to connect up to 20 players via TCP/IP or LAN, with spectators as well as players. The multiplayer mode of play allows an umpire and up to 19 networked players/spectators to participate in the game. The players can be on up to 8 teams, and the optional Friendly Fog of War feature replicates the challenges of coordinating friendly forces by allowing players to see only those teammates units that the player’s own units can see.
   • Of course classic 2 player games via Internet or LAN (TCP/IP) can be setup (with spectators) and with or without an umpire very easily.
3. CIVILIANS AND PARAMILITARY ORGANIZATIONS
   • Civilian units (combatant and non-combatant) can now be encountered on the battlefield, including: ambulances, cars, firetrucks, trucks (with and without weapons), civilians (unarmed), civilians (with concealed weapon), dignitary, fireman, government, media, medical, NGO (Non-government Organization), PVO (Private Voluntary Organization), police (armed and unarmed), rescue, paramilitary/militia (with a variety of small arms), bomb portable (user definable), and bomb transportable (user definable).
4. AMPHIBIOUS OPERATIONS
   • TacOps comes complete with a wide variety of amphibious and waterborne vehicles to move units into combat. This includes detailed loading and unloading treatment of unit sizes and weights.
5. ENGINEERING OPERATIONS
   • TacOps 4 supports additional engineering functions and detail related to the laying and breaching of mines, creating and breaching of user definable obstacles (wire, ditch, and barricade), permanent and vehicle deployed bridging, and helicopter landing zones.
6. AIR COMBAT & ARTILLERY SUPPORT
   • Off map artillery and air forces are usually available to support on map combat units. The amount available will vary by scenario. Air combat includes air to air, air to ground, and ground to air engagements. Since the focus of TacOps 4 is ground combat, air and artillery support operations are represented in a more conceptual fashion than ground operations.
7. IN GAME WEAPONS DATA BASE
   • At the touch of a button you can pull up detailed info on any unit in TacOps. Not only are detailed stats presented, but pictures for most as well. The color pictures on this Webpage were all taken from this area. The current unit type total is now 506, consisting of 173 US Army and US Marine Corps, 92 Canadian, 22 Australia/New Zealand, 12 German Army and 151 OPFOR (Former Soviet Union, China, North Korea etc.) and 56 civilian and paramilitary.
8. CUSTOM SCENARIOS
   • You can create a custom scenario from a standard scenario by simply adding optional units and or by deleting startup units and saving the result as a saved game. You can also create a custom scenario from a custom scenario template. “Export/Import Order of Battle” menu items allow an umpire or scenario designer to transfer order of battle info from one scenario (saved game file) or map to another, and the map making utility has been improved as well.
9. MULTIPLE MONITOR SUPPORT
   • TacOps 4 fully supports the use of multiple monitors, including the ability to simultaneously show two views at different scales (the battle map and an overview map) into the TacOps 4 battle.