Well here we are into the first quarter of the new year and getting ever closer to Lone Warrior's 21st Birthday (cheering is permitted , in fact it must be in standing orders somewhere). Thanks to members, yet again, for providing the full reviews, more are, of course, always required. This has left me the awesome task of scanning around on the look out for games which I think could be of interest to you. That does mean I have to play the odd demo here and there, even full games, in the search of this information. This is very arduous work, but editors are made of stern stuff so we struggle on rising to the challenge. (I am sure Kenn will support this statement). Now down to business.

My thanks to Sandy 'Destroyer' Weaver for the following:-

ROSTOV - Schwerpunkt. (Runs under DOS, Windows 3.1 or Windows 95). This is the latest game in a current series of operational games covers the Eastern Front battles of WWII. This particular game covers the fighting in the southern Ukraine 1941-43. If you are looking for the latest in graphics, and all the latest hi-tech windows then you can stop reading now. On the other hand if you are serious gamer looking for an excellent game, requiring only a 386 with SVGA, using an excellent move/fight/exploit system with numerous optional rules like fog of war and variable set-ups then this could be it.

Like me you have probably never heard of either the company or the game series so I did a short investigation and came up with the following. This is a small American company which concentrates on producing highly detailed historical wargames using an active strategic / operational system which is quite rare in itself. The units are divisions and brigades with the turns being weekly based. In essence you are pitting an overextended but highly skilled German army against a large Russian force whose quality is very varied to say the least. It is really for wargamers who like to fight their battles taking due account of history and follow a traditional format which is very akin to that of board games.

Out of interest the other games so far in the series are Leningrad, Crimea and Kiev with the next in the series called Izyum. I managed to find a single UK outlet in my search Strategic Plus Software [0181-977-8088]. Schwerpunkt have a web site at http://www.ghcorp.com/schwerpt. You can even get a free demo by emailing them at schwerpt@ghcorp.com. If you have played, or play, any of these games drop me a line and let me know what you think or better yet write a review.

Thanks to Andy 'Flight Sim' Midgely for the following snippet:-

Road to Moscow - Battlefield Design Group published By Arsenal Publishing. (Windows 95). Thought following essential details extracted from a full page ad might be of interest. This game covers the WWII strategic operations on the Eastern Front from 1941 - 1945 which is your period I think. You are invited to take command of the entire Russian (170 divisions) or German (140 divisions) and lead them to victory.

You have the ability to draw your operational plans directly on to the game map with your staff moving troops, supplies, allocating air strikes and artillery support. You watch your plans unfold receiving reports from the front as fighting commences. Features include personalities for Generals, the operational plans include deception, amphibious, airborne, commando, and partisan, comes complete with a point and click interface. If you want a closer look then try the playable demo from http://www.arsenalpub.com.

Right having covered WWII Eastern Front twice I think this column needs a change of subject or I will be accused of bias. The era of fighting sail (1775-1815) has in the past been pretty sparsely represented by the gaming industry but now all that has changed (London bus syndrome, don't see one for ages then you get 3 at once). First I have Kenn (not renowned as a maritime gamer) waxing very lyrical and writing a review on TalonSoft's Age of Sail. This was quickly followed by me spotting the next two items in various magazines.

I should point out that Naval is not, definitely not, my scene so I have not played any of these games and your feedback on naval games would be most welcome. I merely pass on the information to you in the hope that anyone out there who actually does play them gets a broader idea of what is in the market place.

Wooden Ships & Iron Men - Avalon Hill. (DOS). This game is firmly based on the Avalon Hill board game of the same name and may suffer somewhat as a consequence. It is a turn based game with each turn being equivalent of three minutes of real time. Distance and scale can be adjusted by use of the zoom feature and instead of hexagons you have octagons. To retain manoeuvrability you have to assign crew to working the ship i.e. manning sails, tacking etc. which of course reduces your firepower, its the good old trade off of movement versus firepower again. The only campaign available is an American Captain in the War of 1812. So if Naval is your scene this might be worth a look.

Admiral Sea Battles - Megamedia. (Windows 95 CD-ROM). This is a first-time venture into Naval and the advertising claims it portrays naval warfare in the 18th / 19th Century including steam assisted vessels. The actions available are move, fire and board and the screen shots showed some very nicely detailed ships with a well detailed map. It has animation for gunfire, boarding with the options to switch them off along with the sound. Again this could well be worth a look for comparison purposes at the very least.

Right now for another change of tack and one for the Ancient gamers out there.

Great Battles of Alexander - Interactive Media. Remember way back in 1995 I did a short preview of 'The Great Battles of Alexander' by SSI (cries of never - well I did) who had taken up the game from Erudite software, and the game promptly disappeared under a pyramid (should that be Parthanon) or something, well its making a coming back (third time lucky?). It has now found a new home with Interactive Magic and has received a major facelift in the process. It is still turn based now with a number of generals on each side. But you will not know who goes next till the computer works out who has the initiative and tells you (how's that for adding a randomiser guys).

In man versus machine mode, at the highest level, you will be Alexander or A. Enemy and issue your orders to your sub-commanders but once the dust starts to fly you only command the troops directly under you the machine does the rest. Now lets see who gets his strategy and tactics right with matters being removed from your control. It should contain plenty of historical detail and the graphics are said to be the state of the art. So if you are into Ancients (are you reading this Ian) keep your eyes open for the demo, which usually precedes the publication. The current publication date in USA is early 1997 so by the time you read this it should be around.

Lone Warrior is now firmly on the Internet and recently just came second (1278 V's 1281 hits) out of the 23 magazines involved. Details are: COALITION WEB on Internet http://www.magweb.com. This is before Cweb started advertising so things can only get better and bigger.

Good Soling, Graham

More Computer Game Reviews

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Age of Sail
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