12 O'Clock High: Bombing the Reich (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.8 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Bruce Geryk
• Reviewed on: 12/17/1999
• Updated on: 04/29/2000
• Released on: 11/30/1999
• Originally published on GameSpot: 12 O'Clock High: Bombing the Reich (PC) Review

Gary Grigsby is a designer well known to computer wargamers. His contributions to the genre include classics like War in Russia, U.S.A.A.F., and Pacific War. Earlier this year, TalonSoft released Grigsby's Battle of Britain, which can best be described as a dry run for its follow-up 12 O'Clock High, a monstrous simulation of the entire air war over Europe from 1943-45. Not a flight simulation, 12 O'Clock High is a strategy game in which you fight for control of the European skies one day at a time. While the concept has tremendous appeal, the execution unfortunately ends up falling short of being a truly good game.

The map covers a huge area of Western, Central, and Southern Europe. Even Allied airbases in North Africa are present. That's because the game attempts to simulate all aspects of the bombing campaign against Germany, including raids to cripple the Reich's oil production. The British night-bombing campaign is also represented, and the Allies will even find the need to divert resources to tactical bombing to support the invasions of France and Italy. As such, 12 O'Clock High is a significant expansion in scope from Battle of Britain and will go far toward satisfying those who claimed the earlier game did not give them enough to do.

All the squadrons that took part in the historical battle are also represented in the game, down to individual aircraft, often with historically accurate pilot names. These pilots gain experience, suffer fatigue, and accumulate kills as the game moves along, which gives 12 O'Clock High an epic feel. Scattered across the map are airfields and various types of strategic targets that the Allies must knock out and the Germans must defend. Victory is achieved by the Allies by scoring points for knocking out crucial industries, destroying German aircraft, and inflicting damage on German civilian areas.

12 O'Clock High plays very differently depending on whether you're playing as the Germans or as the Allies. The game is in pseudo-real time but is separated into two phases, planning and reaction. As the Allied player, you use the planning phase to allocate your bombers to raids and to choose targets, assign escorts, set altitudes, plot mission paths, and so forth. A complex planning phase may take you several hours as you try to carefully coordinate multiple raids with one another. Game time does not advance during the planning phase, and the Allied player may take as much time as necessary.

The possibilities for the Allies in the planning phase are quite varied, and there are many variables to take into account. One innovation introduced in Battle of Britain was the need to fly reconnaissance missions to evaluate the damage inflicted by previous raids, which took the concept of fog of war to a new level. 12 O'Clock High adds an abstract simulation of the ground war; it moves the front line in accordance with the current phase of the Allied ground offensive. Raids must be timed so as not to give German fighter defenses a chance to recover. Decoy raids must be planned to prevent the Germans from concentrating on the main Allied strikes. Fighter escorts must be arranged so as to give bombers the maximum possible cover. As such, the planning phase allows for richly complicated strategic play.

The reaction phase follows the planning phase and takes place in real time. Once the planes are launched, it's the German player's turn to scramble his fighters and try to meet the threat posed by the Allied bombers. As the Germans, you will find yourself guessing which Allied raids are after important targets and which ones should be let through to conserve resources for later interceptions. The cat-and-mouse game that ensues is the heart of the gameplay in 12 O'Clock High and can be quite tense.12 O'Clock High has a vast scope that will appeal to wargamers who like to see every aspect of a wargame's subject matter being simulated. The game even takes into account tactical bomber strikes in France and Italy in support of the Allied invasions. Some targets, such as U-boat pens and V-weapon sites, will have to be attacked for political reasons. And because of the need to support the ground war, the Allied commander will sometimes find that he does not have the freedom to use all of his resources as he sees fit. But the resources he has are vast, which leads to a wide range of possibilities for prosecuting the air war. Even the night-bombing offensive by British Bomber Command is included.

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