Ancient Art of War at Sea, The

I remember killing many an hour in computer lab between classes while going to college with this DOS heyday classic.
If you like strategy games that allow you to either come into the action or have the fate of your success depend on given parameters of your crew’s skills v. s. the computer opponent's skill then The Ancient Art of War At Sea is for you.
The object of the game depends on the campaign you choose.
After the intro screen you can choose from a 4 colour CGA menu in a setting of two sailors quite concerned about a ship coming straight for them to "Go to War", "Make Changes", or "Quit" by pressing the + or – key.

Go To War: Making this choice will take you to the campaign selections that include a lot of historical sea battles as well as a few fantasy campaigns.
Make Changes: From here you can make a new campaign, change a campaign (edit), delete a campaign or make changes to game dynamics such as wind, reload time, fight delay, sound.
After You Select a Campaign: And after you read the details, if any as custom campaigns are rarely documented, you select your rules.
Rules govern how your crew reacts and performs, how weather conditions are, how often you need supplies, etc. For a campaign there are default settings but you can alter them via + and - keys and pressing space bar to change.
After choosing rules you choose your opponent's AI. They are Thor the Viking who is reckless and lacks wisdom, Duke of Media who loves fighting in close where his guns are deadly effective, Blackbeard who is ruthless and cunning, Martin Tromp which uses classical naval tactics, John Paul Jones who is fearless and brilliant (as appose to Thor I suppose) and Lord Admiral Nelson.
At that moment a famous quote will pop up as the campaign loads.
You are then presented with the Overhead Map where land is green, the water is Blue Ports are red and blue boxes, supply depots are blue and white depots, and you have either black or white anchors or ship shape representing ships and sometimes a black or white crown to defend or fight for.
The + and - keys scrolls the map and there are letter commands for (T)ime, (F)leet info, (C)lear and (S)urrender
If you move on a Ship you get (M)ove, (I)nfo, (J)oin options. Joining allows you to combine ship groups. If you have a full Detail the (D)etach option takes the (J)oin place.
Eventually there will be a ship to ship battle marks by a black and white X. By moving the cross hairs on them you get an option to Zoom in, to participate in the battle or let the computer decide who wins. After a certain amount of time the battle happens automatically or if you leave mid battle the computer will take over the battle and declare the winner.
In ship to ship combat mode there is the (T)ime option as well as (V)iew for a close up and using the + and - will jump you from ship to ship.
Ship orders are (O)rders with steering option with (C)ourse allowing you to manually steer the ship, (G)uns will make the gunners change sides, (F)ire will fire guns whether on friend or foe (S)peed will allow you to change your sails to alter speed.
When 2 ships get close enough to grapple you get the (Z)oom option no matter which ship you are on and if you chose (L)eave the computer will make a summary judgment of who won.
When you enter the grapple screen you have the option to (A)ttack which starts the battle or cop out and hope the odds are in your favour. Might actually win when your manpower is low if you let the computer choose what your crew would do based on their experience level.
The grapple commands are post to post orders which are (F)lag, (P)oop deck, (R)ailing, (Q)uater Deck, and (C)ross, so if you want your men to move from poop deck to Flag then first press P then F, or if you want the poop deck crew to cross to try to capture the Flag you press P then C. The battle ends when a flag is captured.
Besides grappling and cannon fire you can also ram each other though there is a chance of your ship sinking as well. Also, a well place shot of cannon fire can set off the powder room causing instant sinking.
There is also the danger of running aground if you leave your ship on a set course and forget it and it strays into rough or shallow water. You can also have the ship leave the battle by it going far enough off the map.
Depending on the parameter of the campaign the game ends when the game objectives are met whether capturing the crown, or defeating so many % of the enemy fleet or if someone surrenders. In the end the stats show off how many kills, captures, etc. in a cartoon screen of a pirate being strung up and the Drunken Sailor theme.
Don't let the low end graphics fool you. This game Rocks.