Don't buy Age of Sail or East Front if you haven't already made this mistake. Both these games have serious flaws even with the patches you can download. If you like these games, however, do not despair. East Front II seems to have fixed the problems inherent in East Front and you might even get a discount if you own East Front. I'll let you know for sure after I've played EFII more if the problems have really been solved. Age of Sail II is due out this fall at least that is what the Talonsoft website promises. Update on Panzer General 3 Assault. In a long campaign, a mobile artillery unit can become very powerful against entrenched infantry if you can get it up to 9 or 10 stars which activates the Bombard button which clobbers entrenched infantry in one or two shots. They're toast! More powerful than air power but not as mobile. People's General is a game based upon a hypothetical WWIII in the early 21st century with a huge campaign that pits the United States and it's allies against the People's Republic of China and its allies. You can play either side. It uses a slightly improved version of the Panzer General 2 engine and plays beautifully. There are also some shorter campaigns if you don't want to take on the monster. Of course there are single scenarios, head to head, multiplayer, play by email and internet and the inevitable scenario designer feature. The manual is good and you will find this easy to play especially if you've played PG2. This is really fun to play if you are in to modern military hardware, Air superiority is adjustable and you will not always have complete air superiority which doesn't matter as much as in PG2 and PG3 because the attack heliocopters are the main destroyers from above and they are really fun to play with. There is a separate air capability which is based on points allocated each turn. This decreases if you get shot down which is probable if you are careless or even if you aren't it sometimes becomes necessary. These points can be used to destroy enemy antiair units, fly recon missions, air transport air mobile units, or use for air strikes although I prefer the helicopters for this or defense. There are many different types of units, Air defense units are a necessity in this game especially the mobile shorter range units as the long range anti-air craft units don't attack helicopters as they are undetectable by their radar but the shorter range units are quite effective vs copters. There are anti-tank units that I find of very little value, let me know if you find otherwise. The artillery units are mostly mobile and the long range units are especially valuable. The best artillery units have a range of ten hexes, really nice when the opponent can't shoot back because of range. Infantry is a necessity to attack and hold especially in cities. Go for engineers as usual! The Chinese infantry units have twice the manpower of the Allies which makes them quite stubborn. Recon units are necessary and somewhat expendable but you must have them The North Koreans have the best recon units on the Chinese side which surprised me a bit, cannon fodder! Tank units are fun and powerful especially for the overrun ability but as usual keep then, away from urban, forest or rough terrain. You can increase unit strength as the unit's experience grows and build overstrength forces which are very effective especially the heliocopters. Units may acquire leaders in the same semi-random way as PG2. These leaders will impart special abilities to the unit in much the same way as PG2 and PG3. Devastating Fire, First Strike, Marksman, Overwatch and Recon Movement are my favorites. Prestige Points are earned in a campaign and are used to buy new units. You don't need prestige points to replace casulties in this game. Isn't that nice but you can't trade in units once purchased for new ones as you can in PG2 so it evens out a bit. Spotting may be different at times as you will get a 9 instead of a picture which means there is someone there but you don't know who. Resupply is the same as PG2, you hit the button to replenish ammo etc. For science fiction fans, there is a game called Rites of War available from SSI that allows you to join the Eldar warriors in the Warhammer 40,000 which also shares the Panzer General 2 game engine. That's all for now. Back to MWAN #107 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2000 Hal Thinglum 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