The Final Campaign is aplay-by-mail space-based wargame that was published by Blue Panther Enterprises beginning in 1989.
The Final Campaign was aclosed end,computer moderated play-by-mail game.[1][2] Blue Panther Enterprises officially released the game on July 1, 1989.[1] The publisher provided players with a rulebook of over eighty pages.[1]
The Final Campaign juxtaposed the large scale of many play-by-mail games by pitting two players against each other.[2] A reviewer in 1991 described the game as "down-and-dirty, planetary warfare between two warring races" where diplomacy was not a factor.[3] Gameplay occurred on a 15 × 15 grid.[3] Each player designed alien armies with associated equipment, weapons, and troops.[2] Players were limited to 30 units and designed their armies with their role or victory condition in mind (e.g., defender).[2] Players assigned rankings for units in the following areas: "attack, defense, mettle, weaponry, status, equipment, experience and leadership".[2] The publisher provided a disk to assist IBM users in the "rather lengthy calculations" associated with army creation.[2] This disk was called the "Army Construction Toolkit".[1]
Once created, players employed their armies inplayer-vs-player warfare.[2] According to the publisher, "Once in the battle, [players] must contend with firing modes, movement modes, all types of terrain, line-of-sight, morale, weather and an enemy that never stays still."[1]
Players received detailed turn reports which included intelligence on the adversary's army.[1] Players then returned a one-page order sheet to the game moderator providing simple moving and firing instructions without the use of codes.[1] The gaming computer kept track of gameplay on an 11 x 17 hex map.[1]
Stephan andStewart Wieck reviewedThe Final Campaign in the February–March 1990 issue ofWhite Wolf Magazine.[2] They provided the game low marks for materials and diplomacy and high marks for game moderation and strategy, rating the game overall a four out of a possible five.[2] The reviewers noted that little to no diplomacy was required for the game and the strategy aspect primarily derived from army creation.[2] Chris Arnold reviewed the game in a 1991 issue of Flagship, stating that it was "a fine example of a wargame for the PBM market".[4]
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