Birds away is navy talk for firing a missile. Technical eh?

You are the Fleet Commander, with the might of the US Navy at your disposal. Game of battleships anyone?
Ben Morris

The world's power structure has shifted with the arrival of the next century. The ruthless, efficient super power that is modern China has joined forces with her troubled, ailing ally, Russia, and sparked a chain of conflict whose repercussions have resonated around the globe. Not ones to take this lying down, the US have dispatched a naval fleet to restore order and teach those eastern blocs a lesson.

This may seem a little far stretched but realism is the key in Fleet Command. The game has been developed by Sonalyst, a US defence contractor no longer employed by the US government, whose previous releases have included training software for the US Navy and other military grade software. Famous for their military manuals and documentation, it comes as no surprise that everything in JFC is incredibly accurate.

In your role as Fleet Commander you stand in the central command room, monitoring your fleet's progress on a two-dimensional map and issuing orders as you see fit. The majority of the action takes place on this basic-looking map with your units represented by little military squiggles. Strategy is the name of the game here and your units must be carefully managed and deployed if enemy forces are to be vanquished.

Unlike many other realtime strategy games there is no production element to Fleet Command. As you'd expect, the US Navy doesn't have to farm crops or mine for gold before they can take to the seas. You essentially begin a mission with a set amount of troops and that's your lot. While initially this seems like a good thing because there's no waiting around before the action starts, the truth is that one of the classic characteristics of the genre is lost - there are no clever ways to out-produce your enemy.