Producer: CCS
Retail Price: £8.95
Author: A & O Bishop

Rarely has the idea of a game based on WWI been attractive. That war, perhaps more than any other, was so full of mindless incompetence on the parts of those in command at the time that the stalemates so frequently encountered, crippled the chances of any strategic simulation. Now, CCS have decided to change that with Gallipoli. An interesting idea for a game too.

The idea of the campaign was simple and well meant. If the allies could send the Turks out of the Dardenelles, not only would a new supply line to Russia be opened (the sea routes were iced over for much of the year) but Germany would have the painful and tiring distraction of a second front, paving the way for the break up of the costly stalemate in the trenches of France.

It went wrong.

It seems that more than anything else, bad communication was the factor that most helped put paid to the allied plans, as it had done so often before in the war. Advantages were not seized upon. Barrages ended too early and allowed Turkish gunners to re-man their posts in time to mow down thousands of British, ANZAC and Gurkha troops who were being sent over the top. It just became a microcosm of the war on the western front before fizzling out altogether.

So to the game, which comes in a double cassette box, has glossy instructions including screen map and historical notes - and, of course, a cassette. This carries the main 48K game on one side and an expanded version of the game for 128k owners. Let's get one thing straight. Wargaming has always suffered on the Spectrum because of a lack of disk drives, However, as 128k machines largely make up for this loss, it's great to see CCS taking advantage of the chance to improve the scale of their games as often as they can. Nice one.

The expanded version of the game allows tunneling to be used as an option. An interesting idea that works fairly well. The game works in a traditional format and there are no surprises in store for experienced gamers. Novice players will find the step by step commands slow and a little complex at first, but should easily get into play with patience. I a complaint has to be made, the unit symbols are both obscure and a little poor. Still, a minor quibble only.

Victory conditions are difficult to achieve but their complexity and intricacy accurately reflect the missed opportunities of both sides. The game can (theoretically) cope with three players, ANZAC, British and Turkish - though a single player option if provided for control of the allies.

The game plays surprisingly well, considering the subject matter and represents a real challenge (I haven't beaten it yet). The joystick option (Kempston, Interface 2) was most welcome and the presentation coherent. There were no observable bugs but the play was a little slow.

I like the fact CCS is diverging from the norm with their games. They deserve encouragement and success. There is a long way to go in the quality of British strategy software but CCS are approaching fresh ideas with an exciting perspective. This happened to be very much the enthusiast's game, but it is a very good example of such. The company is making more generally appealing material as well. I won't recommend this out of hand but I see no obvious flaws in terms of technical competence.

CCS
£8.95

You read about it in history... You saw the film... Now play the computer game! All the excitement of First World War combat as you command troops around the mountains and beaches of the Dardanelles.

One to three players try to avoid the defeat that befell the real British and Anzac generals. This is a battle for territory (much like American football!), so you need to watch your position carefully. Try to fight from a higher vantage point and just dig the way so you can build trenches. But beware of the tunnelling squads who burrow within inches of your dug-out with a charge of explosives then... CRASH!

No, I don't mean, CRASH... explosion. I mean, CRASH... programming disaster, as you're dumped back to (unprotected) Basic. Never in the field of military simulations has so little been offered to so many. It's entirely accurate though. The campaign was fought in Turkey - this game is a turkey. A grenade goes off; the program bombs. The campaign is a disaster... by now you probably get the point!

Resting from this all-out attack on impotence for a moment, I can only regret the grave waste of the young innocents, those who'll buy this program. They may never buy another wargame, believing this to be representative, and it isn't. In fact, it's a long time since we've seen such a primitive addition to the genre.

Sound the last post also for the great ideas in the game's design, such as its large, scrolling battle field and cursor control. There's even an optional test of reactions in the 128K version, which uses your skill as a sharpshooter to calculate combat modifiers. But all of this goes to waste because the program itself doesn't work. CCS deserves a kick in the Dardanelles for putting out such shoddy product!

Label: CCS
Author: In-house
Price: £9.95
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Gary Rook

Gallipoli is the latest in a long line of wargames to be released by CCS.

During the First World War, Turkey was allied with Germany and Austro-Hungary. The British made an amphibious landing in the Dardanelles in an attempt to force the passage to the Black Sea and so link up with the Russians.

The campaign, which has gone down in history as Gallipoli. was an unmitigated disaster. The British and ANZAC - Australia New Zealand Army Corps - forces became bogged down in a static trench warfare which was as bad as that on the Western Front, in Flanders.

On to the game. There are options for one, two or three players. If only one plays, he or she commands the British and ANZAC forces, and the computer plays the Turks. With two players, then you split up the allied forces into two commands and play against the computer-controlled Turks. In the three-player version, people play all three commanders.

Once you've made your choice, the map comes up.

Here's the big disappointment: it's not one of the best maps I've ever seen. In fact, it's positively garish. Beaches are yellow, open ground is green, low hills are an odd pattern, hills - the pattern shimmers all the time, and is very difficult to look at. I tried adjusting my set, but to no avail.

Although not drawn on the screen, the map is divided into rectangles. To move, you position the cursor above the unit you wish to give orders to, press Fire, move the cursor to where you want the unit to go, and press Fire again. You have to do this every turn for every unit.

You don't have to order a unit to move. You can tell it to dig in, or interrogate it to find out how many men it has. what its morale is, whether it's entrenched or not and so on. This information is flashed up beneath the map window.

Once the movement phase is ended, the Turks move. You don't actually see them doing so - you just get a text screen saying so.

Next you get to attack. The map returns, and you can order any of your units which are adjacent to enemy units to attack. Unfortunately, it's difficult to tell when units are adjacent - it turns out that they can be adjacent even though a unit-wide space separates them.

Units are 2,000 strong at the start of the game. As they are involved in combat, they take losses off that strength. Typical losses inflicted seemed to vary between 40 and 110 depending on the strength of the attacked and terrain considerations, but it still looks like a long drawn-out slog.

The problem with the game lies in the conception. The actual campaign was bloody and hard fought.

Reduced to a computer game, it becomes boring. All you are doing is repeating the same actions for 23 turns for thirty or so units.

I'm afraid that I very quickly lost interest.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: CCS
PRICE: £9.95

The Gallipoli campaign was something fine in theory which failed in practice. The same is true of this game, although I'm glad someone has looked at the First World War, which has a lot of variety in it.

By early 1915 there was deadlock on the Western Front, so a British amphibious landing was made on the Gallipoli peninusula, which guarded the capital of Germany ally Turkey.

The idea was to force the Turks out of the war and open up a supply route through to Britain's ally Russia.

Unfortunately the Turks were far better fighters than anyone had expected, and ground conditions at Gallipoli were every bit as bad as anywhere on the Western Front.

Unfortunately, whereas the real campaign taxed the abilities of even the best commanders the game has been made quite simply too easy for the British to win.

This is traceable to a king-sized historical blunder in the briefing booklet, "there was little artillery and this did not play a decisive part in the fighting". Exactly the opposite is true.

The Turks and Allies fought so hard over the incredibly rough and difficult terrain of the heights because it was these that provided artillery observation. With this condition gone, all the Allies have to do is come down off the plateau and outflank the Turks through the far easier plains to the south of ANZAC Cove.

Yes, you've got the idea. You put all your forces together into one massive pile, break through a Turkish unit, come down into the plains and steam roller round into the rear and capture their supply dump, which is the basic victory condition.

Although CCS don't often put out bad wargames I'm afraid this is a rare exception.

CCS HAS RELEASED THREE NEW CHALLENGES FOR SPECTRUM GENERALS. TONY HETHERINGTON REPORTS FROM THE FRONT.

CCS is rapidly achieving the reputation as being THE wargamers. Three new games as different as the campaigns they simulate add to an impressive line up which already includes games such as Desert Rats and Arnhem.

In this latest batch of blood 'n guts for the thinking gamer, prospective Generals play Napoleon at the battle of Eylau, replay the disastrous WW1 Gallipoli campaign and tangle with monsters and wizards in Swords of Bane.

GALLIPOLI

The Gallipoli campaign was typical of the disastrous WW1 conflicts in which both sides suffered terrible casualties largely due to idiotic Generals.

Would it be different with you in charge? Galiipoli can be played by one two or three players each controlling the British, ANZAC (British, Australian and Gurkha forces) and Turkish armies with the computer ready to play the game if you haven't enough players.

The object of the game seems relatively simple in that the Allies with a total of 60,000 troops must advance to take the Turks main ammunition dump before reinforcements arrive to support the 22,000 Turkish troops.

The gameplay follows accepted wargame standards with a cursor being moved around the forces issuing commands. It is the choice of orders that make this game unique.

As well as the usual move and fire orders Gallipoli troops can dig trenches forming the almost impassable lines typical of WW1.

In the expanded 128K version (included as part of the game) players can dig tunnels between trenches and set bombs off under the enemy forces to try to break the deadlock.

The expanded version also extends the combat sequence from the standard comparison of opposing armies strengths and terrain cover by the inclusion of a sub game.

You can play a single soldier looking out onto a battlefield that contains 10 hidden enemy soldiers. These fire at you in turn revealing their position giving you a few seconds to shoot at them. After twenty shots the computer evaluates your performance which determines the result of all battles in that turn.

Unfortunately this spoils the game reducing a challenging simulation into a fairground shooting gallery. Luckily it's only an option that can be ignored.

CONCLUSION

Napoleon at War is my pick of the three games. It's relative simplicity will appeal to beginners who can take control from their computer Commanders as they feel ready then there's a further two levels to challenge the best.

Gallipoli is a more complex game and reflects the painfully slow progress of WW1 campaigns (as compared to the free flowing which favourite wargaming periods). The number of troops involved and the tactics required to gain any ground at all saves this one for the experts. The sub game actually spoils the game but can be avoided.

Finally Swords of Bane just didn't work. A good idea was there but it was smothered in lack of depth, variety and clumsy control system that had you ordering troops on a fraction of the battlefield without being able to see the rest.

Gallipoli and Napoleon at War cost £8.95. Swords of Bane £7.95.