by Allen G. Viduka. Pentland press released this paper bound book for $16.95, plus $3.00 for shipping and handling. The ordering number is 800-948-2786, ISBN 1-57197-056-8; 159 pages.

Even a quarter century ago, one of the expected signs of the maturity of the hobby was that we would begin to see books dealing with the tactics and strategy of specific games. Indeed, your reviewer was contracted by The Avalon Hill Game Company to prepare a book on Avalon Hill's well balanced and heavily-played classic game: Stalingrad. I produced the book, obtained the permissions letters from authors, and sent if off to them. It wa major piece of work,which never came to anything.

Now we've reached 1997, and at very long last evidence for the hobby's final maturity has appeared, in the form of this book on playing techniques for Victory!, a computer game run by Rolling Thunder Games, Box 1240, Broomfield, Colorado 80038;rtgames@aol.com. The game imitates world war 2,each player controlling the forces of an entire nation. However, so far as I can determine all nations have similar -- not the same -- strengths. Some information is not available to the players. For example, something called Technology Sheets are available only to the players of particular countries; other players never see these. The game includes rudimentary economics, opportunities to develop the industry in ways that some real nations lacked, and a wide variety of details concerning the military forces.

The book includes three dozen chapters. There are arranged of discussions of rules, tactics, and their implications. The author's ocus is on anecdotes. Some familiarity with the game is assumed. Relative to my personal taste, there is less numerical analysis than I would like. The author has played the game in a to suggest interesting features of the computer combat system. For example, he notes off procedure that allows the same commander, presumably the best commander, to command a wide variety of different forces on the same turn.

If you are fond of Historical realism, you may not be totally happy with the game. If you detest Historical realism, your mileage will vary. On scanning the book, I find an invasion with 100 panzer divisions, air attacks with thousands of aircraft, a Swiss submarine fleet, and the Swiss conquest of Europe. There are are remarkable number of factors to keep track of; and and the game is certainly more complicated than any computer play by mail game that I have ever played. Clearly the author really enjoys the game, and enjoys writing about it. The game has been around for a long time, so others must also have enjoyed playing it.

The book is certainly worth owning if you are a player, since it will at least tell you what others may be thinking; it is alsoworth buying pour encourageur les autres, in the hope that the title will be the first of many.