CCS
£12.99 cass only

It's back to the days of the Napoleonic wars for the first of this month's two CCS strategy games. You're a general in charge of the armed forces of a small European state which Napoleon has his greedy little French eyes on. Against these overwhelming odds geography comes up trumps: a narrow canyon is the only access point to your territory, and even the Grande Armee is forced to attack with only a couple of units at a time, evening the odds just slightly.

The graphical representation shows the battlefield in realistic mode with the two opposing forces squaring up ready for the off. Below the graphics you find the control panel. As with most games of this type you take it in turns with the computer to move the units. Troops are controlled by pressing the relevant key for each command, 'I' issues an order, 'L' lists the orders you can choose, 'U' allows you to inspect units (this is handy to keep an eye on strength and morale), and finally, as there are several menus, 'S' allows you to swap between them.

Your army isn't huge, but you have control over artillery, loot soldiers and cavalry. As usual the secret to winning the battle is careful deployment of troops, and added realism comes in the form of smoke and distance which obscure your view, the latter being overcome by using a telescope. Programmer Ian Williams has worked miracles to get so much game into a single load, and no Spectrum wargamer should miss out!

CCS
£12.95 cass
Reviewer: Richard Blaine

It's getting to the point when the only war games I seem to get to review these days come from CCS. And, to and behold, in trots The General, a Napoleonic strategy job which (at first glance) looks up to their usual standards.

You're the leader of the armies of a hypothetical European state, having to fend off an invading force much bigger than your own infantry and cavalry, and controlled by the computer. Luckily, though, the enemy has to come at you through a narrow valley, so the forces he will be able to throw against you at any one time will be roughly equivalent to your own.

Instead of using a scrolling map designer Ian Williams has tried to make things more realistic through the use of a telescope. When you want to see what's happening on the battlefield, you look through it and by focussing on various units around the valley you can get information on which units they are and their rough strength.Incidentally, this means that instead of a plan type map with square unit icons on, The General gives you a 'landscape' view, with troops on it appearing as little silhouettes.

There are, though, a number of problems. It's fine at first using your telescope to look at units, but unfortunately after a while it gets a tad tedious. You have to use the telescope to find out which unit is which before issuing any orders (unless you're giving general orders), and if you are firing you have to use it twice - once to check on your own unit, then to check on the identification number of the enemy's. What's more, by not being able to inspect your troops in close-up, you don't get any indication of the most important factor in the game - a unit's morale.

Neither does it help that the playing area is restricted to one screen wide and roughly half a screen deep - things get very confused. Admittedly, the designers intention was to recreate 'the fog of war'(the situation you get as the smoke of battle obscures the view through your telescope), but in doing so he has made the game more difficult to play.

Unfortunately, while The General is pretty simple once you've loaded it up and got going, it soon palls. You are only likely to retain any real interest in it if you're a Napoleonic military history buff. It's certainly an admirable attempt to recreate the reality of war but that doesn't, unfortunately, make it much fun to play.

Spectrum £12.99

The General shows CCS and author Ian Williams at their most innovative. This is because they have tried to emulate Peter Turcan's Battlescape system. What's so innovative about that, then? Well, consider a few facts. The game is for the Spectrum, occupies a single load (no disk remember) and fills 48K - a daunting task. Indeed! It is the design of the gaming system that makes The General such a success.

The period adopted is the Napoleonic era, a favourite of mine, However, instead of trying to simulate one particular battle (like in ARC's Austerlitz), and probably incurring the wrath of devotees due to a lack of historical features or whatever, Ian Williams has decided to present a mythical battle.

You represent a small European state which is being attacked through your only opening, a narrow valley. Due to the limited access, Only a small number of the enemy can attack at once.

The game offers good Fog of War features, such as distance (overcome by a nifty telescope feature) and smoke - a very important element which ARC's Austerlitz doesn't have. Similar to Battlescape, you give your orders in an English fashion - although it's a lot easier and quicker to use than Battlescape. Other features, such as realistic Napoleonic tactics, morale, reports and graphics, are all well integrated considering the lack of memory.

CCS are to be congratulated for producing such a well designed game which can be confidently recommended to any serious Spectrum Napoleonic Wargamer.