When I heard that American soldiers were 'ranting' about a new book, I was very suspicious. Infantry soldiers do not often rant about books. It was only by luck that I found out that they were talking about a very exciting development in solo wargaming - a modern battle paragraph book. Background Paragraph games are ones here you start at the 1st paragraph and you then have several options each with their own paragraph numbers. You then turn to the paragraph number corresponding to your choice. Each new paragraph gives you new options until you succeed or fail. There is often some trivial dice rolling combat system to accompany the game. Paragraph game books make up a good portion of the science fiction and fantasy publications in the UK each year. Steve Jackson's and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy books are typical of the range. These cater for younger role-players. There have been a few efforts to move away from fantasy into history game books. The Cretan Chronicles (by John Butterfield et al, Puffin Books) are an example. Examples. I think the first historical paragraph game appeared in LW 30. It was set in the Thirty Years War. This was a novel idea and it is a pity that more solo scenarios have not been written. Another was Rogers Rangers in Miniature Wargames (April 1991). ARMOR ATTACKS. A 330 page paragraph game book, it has maps, diagrams and glossary. In the book you get to command a tank platoon of M1A1 Abrams tanks in two operations, an assault and a counter-reconnaissance mission. The book is written by a major in an American tank battalion and it shows. The book is highly entertaining as well as instructive. The missions go through the stages of battle preparation, reconnaissance, orders, tank maintenance etc. If you have not had an operational military background, it is an eye-opener on how real military operations are con-ducted. The tactical decisions are interesting; the situations are designed to illustrate some very real military lessons that have been relearned in recent wars. To say more would spoil the book. A minor criticism of the book is that despite 330 pages it has only 87 paragraphs (a fantasy game book has 400-500 paragraphs in 130 pages.) However, the situation and the options available are explained in considerable detail. Conclusion If you are into WWII or modern games, then I heartily recommend this book. If your idea of armor is a mounted knight, then you must read the introduction and appendices or you will not appreciate the developing battle. This book is a welcome addition to solo wargaming. ARMOR ATTACKS by John F. Antal is published by Presidio Press. ISBN 0891413839. Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #109 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1995 by Solo Wargamers Association. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com