TacOps4: TF Gallagher 6 Demo


I am in command of two battalions of US forces equipped with M1A1 Abrams tanks, Bradley IFVs, Stingers and Javelin teams, you name it. My goal is to prevent the OPFOR Regiment of Soviet Infantry from exiting the western edge of the map. First contact.

This afternoon on my lunch break I discovered a very old game from 2002 called TacOps4. TacOps4 is distributed by Battlefront and has a demo on their site which is patched and runs fine on Windows machines.

I like this game.

It looks awful and probably looked awful in 2002 but it has some real depth to the engine (a number of OOBs in difft theaters, an editor, a huge weapons and unit database and a simplicity to the combat that helped me immerse myself into the game quickly.

Let me begin by saying you should skip the tutorial and try one of the larger scenarios.  The screenshots I am using are from the TF Gallagher 6 scenario.  The tutorial is so small with little room to think tactically that I almost turned the game off.  Thankfully, I opened up something larger and I am still battling it out.

This scenario is two hours long and represents a real challenge to hold back this massive armored formation coming at me.  I've got air support, plenty of artillery and over 30 M1s.  I am dueling with T80s and hordes of Soviet AFVs.  The Soviets have air support and lots of rocket launchers.

An hour later the Soviets have pushed my forces back significantly.  The little red flame marks represent units that have been eliminated on both sides.  The terrain is simple to read which makes it easy to make tactical decisions.

As I said I like this game and might just purchase it (for $25).  It has a ton of depth which for me outweighs the graphics presentation.  Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm is obviously head and shoulders above this but the ability to expand my thinking beyond the European theater in this game is very interesting to me. Will keep you posted and let you know who won this contest.  Right now it is swinging towards OPFOR.

To download the demo please click here.

Comments

Chris said…
Hi Tim. I was wondering if you ever played this?
March 12, 2014 at 10:35 PM
Phil said…
I had a look at this about a year ago when I was searching around for tactical war games with some depth. I ended up buying Command Ops instead. I don't give a hoot for graphics anymore and have never enjoyed gameing this much in all the years I've been doing so.

Would be interested in seeing some more if you can Chris.
March 13, 2014 at 10:57 AM
Chris said…
Hi Phil I agree. Will definitely post more
March 13, 2014 at 11:58 AM
RJL said…
I played a lot of TacOps in the mid-1990s (and remember TF Gallagher well). Despite its graphical limitations (it was developed and maintained by a one-man team, Major Holdridge), it had a very vibrant following and among some older grognards still is regarded as the definitive "modern" tactical wargame. I remember that the community did some really interesting things with it, including a series of umpired kriegspiel-style multiplayer games ("CPXs"), and at least one project evaluating the performance of the next-gen wheeled fighting vehicles (what became the Stryker). Google "TacOps CPX" and "Team Trackless" for more. Also, James Sterrett was a fixture of the TacOps community in those days, and if you contact him he can tell you much more.
March 22, 2014 at 2:26 PM
Chris said…
Hi RJL. Thanks for your comment and checking out the blog. I like TacOps a lot and will Google TacOps CPX and Team Trackless. I did some research about the game and looked for sites still publishing the occasional blog about it but most seemed to have stopped four or five years ago.

Despite the graphic limitations I plan on purchasing the game to see use the editor and hopefully play through a few of the scenarios.

Thanks again for visiting and I just added your blog to my blog list.
March 26, 2014 at 8:32 PM
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