Producer: PSS
Retail Price: £12.99 (cassette), £17.99 disk

Fantasy games always provide a refreshing alternative to the interminable mud and metal of the Second World War, but it's unusual for a fantasy war game to be as complex as a simulation of a historical battle. It's probably not that authors are incapable of making up detailed statistics, landscapes and backgrounds - more likely they believe that people who want to play fantasy games are less concerned with such fiddly details and want simple combat, lots of D&D-inspired races, and the chance to throw fireballs around.

But I for one would love to see a fully-fledged war-gamer's fantasy war game - and with Sorcerer Lord the ever-enterprising PSS makes a gallant though flawed attempt.

So don't be put off by the box, which declares that Sorcerer Lord is by the author of PSS's Battlefield Germany, a game I found almost unplayable (it was credited to Cybercon Enterprises).

Inside the box is a player's manual, a glossy PSS catalogue almost as large as the rulebook, a reference card listing the control keys and the meanings of the symbols, and an extremely well-drawn map of the lands Of Galanor on sepia fake parchment.

The detailed rulebook opens with The Scenario. And, naturally, sinister and evil twisted ghostie things from the north are marching southward from their wastelands to do battle with the clean-limbed, upstanding, civilised races in the south. It's one of the great mythological patterns of computer war-gaming that the enemy marches from the east if it's historical and the north if it's fantasy.

The citizens of a mysterious region called the Shadowlands have, after several unexciting millennia, acquired a new Shadowlord. His predecessor was a peace-loving sort, but the newcomer wants to stir things up.

The ambitious new Shadowlord has sent his Shadow Legions - not people, but magically-engineered Wolf riders and warriors commanded by misguided humans - to invade the Lands Of Galanor and recapture the enchanted rune rings which were created there by the magic people of the Shadowlands long ago.

The player's task - as the clean-shaven men of Galanor, of course - is to repel the Shadow Legions, preventing them from capturing and holding fortresses and rune rings for more than 12 consecutive days (if they manage to, they achieve victory.) The fortresses are also the player's only sources of reinforcements, so the more that are in the power of the Shadowlord the less chance Galanor will have to raise troops to recapture them.

There are five different races in Galanor, and all have special characteristics. Elves move and fight well in woodland, of course; the Men Of Rovanium (the most southerly and so naturally the most civilised nation) are skilled in sorcery; and the Mountain Warriors Of Morgalion are adept at fighting in mountainous terrain.

After the opening menu (where you choose one of three skill levels, and can load a previouslysaved game), Sorcerer Lord launches abruptly into the Shadowlord's first movement phase. In fact, three phases quickly tumble across the screen and the Shadow Legions are already streaming southward before the players gets a chance to intervene.

Anyone who has played Battlefield Germany will recall waiting for 15 minutes while the computer plodded through its turn. I lavished scorn on this appalling piece of programming (it got 42% Overall in Issue 40), and so I'm almost ashamed to admit that Sorcerer Lord goes to the opposite extreme with an effect almost as damaging to playability.

The Shadowlord whizzes through his movement phase like Battlefield Germany 20 times faster and then - which is more serous - resolves battles so quickly that it's extremely difficult to follow what's going on. A summary of the riders and warriors lost by each side is flashed on the message area for just a few moments.

But most maddening of all is the war report, a full screen of detailed and interesting Information about the state of each army and the ownership of the many fortresses and rune rings. This is the sort of thing that one would wish to study at leisure, and frequently. On some versions of Sorcerer Lord you can summon it with a key-press at any time; but on the Spectrum, it appears for two seconds - literally -at the end of each combat phase. It's as if the author realised that Battlefield Germany is too slow, changed a few variables to a lower value picked at random, and never checked whether the new speed is any more convenient.

The screen map is hexagonal, as in Battlefield Germany. The Sorcerer Lord map is a little more attractive, though the ragged edges made inevitable by the hexagonal layout are untidy and the contours of the land are blocky. The fortresses, citadels and rune rings are set in a varied landscape of forest, mountains, plains, deserts and the occasional patches of wasteland.

Though there are several hundred riders and warriors stationed in every fortress, they cannot be mobilised without a leader (here Sorcerer Lord resembles Lords Of Midnight). As the player starts off with about 20 unmanned fortresses and just three leaders under his command, things are rather discouraging. But fortunately, every turn there is a Galanor Alliance phase, when new leaders wake up to the imminent danger and materialise for use in their own fortresses.

Fortresses also generate extra troops at random. And any leader can build up a huge army simply by going round the map recruiting warrior and riders, but this takes time - and meanwhile the Shadow Legions will have taken over the undefended fortresses and rune rings.

The abilities of each army are defined by four factors: the value of its leader, its leader's skill in sorcery, its fatigue level, and its movement rate. Combat between adjacent enemy units is not inevitable; the player can decide to attack by moving onto the enemy's square, which is then marked with a battle sign.

Combat is resolved after the player ends the movement phase, and various factors, including leadership values and terrain type, determine the result.

The most novel factor is Sorcery. If the battle takes place near a rune ring - and the nearer the better - the side which controls the rune ring can take power from it to summon Sorcery. The strength of the Sorcery cannot be predicted, but is affected by the leader's Sorcery skill and distance from the rune ring.

Weak Sorcery merely alters the weather conditions in the caster's favour (perhaps it only rains on half the battlefield...), but Devastating Sorcery brings down a whole host of screaming demons on the enemy.

Despite all the imagination that has gone into Sorcerer Lord, and the obvious potential for varied and thoughtful tactics, the gameplay is awkward and dull (though technically it's a great improvement on Battlefield Germany). The game lacks atmosphere, for all the care that has been put into the packaging.

But some people will find a lot to enjoy in Sorcerer Lord, and it's encouraging to see this sort of fantasy war game released at all.

PSS
Cassette £12.95, Disk £17.95
Reviewer: Owen Bishop, Audrey Bishop

At last! A game that looks like a wargame and plays like a wargame! Let the canikin clink long into the night as we pit ourselves against the mighty Shadowlord!

Sorceror Lord comes in a nicely designed and printed cardboard box, just like the ones that real (board) wargames come in, instead of those pop-album-style plastic cases. Inside you find an exciting assortment of goodies - a handbook (beautifully illustrated, simply laid out and clearer than most we have seen lately) and a handy card summarising symbols, terrain preferences and so on, to prop up beside the TV screen. There's also a large map of the Lands of Galanor printed on parchment-like paper to lend an air of romance and authenticity to the proceedings. With all this plus a copy of PSS's glossy catalogue, we already begin to feel that we're getting value for money.

The game, written by the author of Battlefield Germany, is an imaginative fantasy conflict at tactical level. You are the Sorceror Lord, defending Galanor from the hordes of warriors and riders under the command of the Shadowlord (played by the computer). The enemy advances quickly in large numbers, at high speed and with devastating effect. It's a waste of effort to try to halt them at first. The better tactic is to send your leaders to visit the fortresses and citadels of the land to recruit as many men as you can muster.

The warriors at your service include the Barbarians of Savantor, the Elves of Imryth, and several others, each with their own preference for different terrains, carrying different arms, and with leaders skilled in Sorcery to different degrees. All these features are taken into account as you mobilise your army and throw it against the forces of the Shadowlord. It's an easy game to get into, yet it may take you some time to master its intricacies. We found the computer opponent most formidable, even at Level 1, possibly because of its new routines based on artificial intelligence techniques.

Graphics are good and non-fussy, though the 'ancient script' of the text is hard to read, especially as many messages are not on the screen very long. There is a large scrolling map (based on hexes, in true wargame style), with an overall strategic map on call whenever you need it. The information appears just above the map and the screen is uncluttered with graphical bric-a-brac at other times. This could be taken as a model for other wargames. Oh yes, and - wonder of wonders - there are no stupid sound effects either! The control system is easy to learn and operates perfectly.

Sorceror Lord allows you to concentrate on the game itself without distractions. Whether you are into fantasy or not, the tactical aspects of this particular wargame will hold you spellbound. Recommended.

Label: PSS
Author: In-house
Price: £12.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Gary Rook

Sorcerer Lord could be PSS's finest hour. It is a one player wargame of fantastic scope and complexity. I can't remember having felt this excited about a computer wargame since Mike Singleton's Lords of Midnight.

The scenario is this: you are the Sorcerer Lord, commander of an alliance of Men and Elves, fighting, as usual, for your survival against the forces of the evil Shadow Lord - mostly creatures bred from wolves and warped by sorcery into killing machines. But mankind, as ever, is slumbering on, unaware of the peril... (bear with me). You must rouse the hidden strength of the alliance, and smash your foul enemy. OK the plot is not groundbreaking.

As with just about all computer wargames these days, the basic screen is a map window, showing you an area of the continent which the war is to be fought over. The total area is much larger than what you see on screen at any one time, but you can scroll around it to your heart's content, admiring the beautiful landscape and noticing in passing the disposition of various armies.

Along with the armies shown on the screen, there are lots of different landscapes. As you might expect, they include such things as mountains, forests, deserts, water and wooded hills, all of which have an effect on how far your troops can move. Then there are assorted man (or elven) made landmarks: towers, citadels and the mysterious rune rings. Towers and citadels are defensive positions, and also represent the starting places of the various Lords you'll need to recruit to your aid. Rune rings are the source of all sorcerous powers, and your distance from the nearest ring determines how effectively you magic will be combat.

The graphics are excellent: the map symbols are nicely detailed, as are the various shield symbols used to depict the different forces in the game. Trouble has been taken on the visual appearance of the game.

At the outset you control just a few Lords and their troops. By placing the cursor over each shield symbol you can find out more information about the lord and the forces he commands.

To attack an enemy force, you just move on top of it. Friendly Lords are recruited in the same way - you just move a leader to the fortress they live in, and they immediately join your gang.

Not all your troops are the same; you have desert riders, elves, mountain men and ordinary men. Some seem to have particular abilities - elves can move through woods as if they were open ground, the riders of Savantor prefer the desert, the mountain men the crags and so on.

You need to plan, don't ever attack unless you can get overwhelming odds, and calculate all battles carefully. I had 2,000 elves wiped out by a blunder in map reading in one game. I had intended to jump a force of 2,500 wolfheads with five elven armies simultaneously, but after I'd moved two I discovered that the rest couldn't get there! There was wailing and moaning in the old elven woods that night, I can tell you...

PSSst - wanna play a wargame?

Tough times are ahead in the once-peaceful lands of Galanor. That old rogue the Shadowlord is, even as you read this, marching forth from his citadel with a hideous army that is hell-bent on capturing the citadel of Yarthros. and thereby ruling the land.

Unless of course you can stop him. This solo fantasy wargame puts the player in charge of the three remaining race types that inhabit the lands of Galanor. At the start of the game only a small number of characters know of the Shadowlord's invasion, and the player controls these few characters and attempts to rouse the rest of the forces within the land.

Recruiting armies to your noble and worthy cause is not difficult - a unit merely has to land on the fortress or citadel where an army is located, and the army is allied to your cause.

No fantasy wargame would be complete without the addition of a little magic to spice it up, and Sorcerer Lord has its fair share, which can have the player winning or losing a vital battle. The strength of magic that the player is able to summon (though when it's used is decided by the computer) is determined by the number of Rune Rings (physical terrain features looking like Stonehenge) that the player controls. At the start of the game the player has control of all eight Rune Rings, but as the play progresses, the Shadowlord is swift to take possession of them.

Apart from the tactical map, which can be scrolled in any direction, a strategic map can be called up at the touch of a button. This map shows the whole of the lands of Galanor, together with terrain features and the approximate positions of the units. Terrain plays an important part in the game, as each unit has a set number of movement points at the start of each turn, and the various types of terrain affect the various units to different extents.

Sorcerer Lord is certainly no pushover. A player will lose either if the citadel at Yarthros is captured, or if the Shadowlord captures any fortress and holds it for twelve consecutive turns. An absorbing and atmospheric game that will keep you playing for a long time to come.

Reviewer: Andy Smith

RELEASE BOX
Spec, £12.95cs, Out Now
Amstrad, £12.95cs, £17.95dk, Out Now
C64/128, £12.95cs, £17.95dk, Imminent

Predicted Interest Curve

1 min: 78/100
1 hour: 60/100
1 day: 80/100
1 week: 88/100
1 month: 70/100
1 year: 30/100