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Until Arnhem was released, many wargames were often criticised for their limited playing area, awkward control system, pitiful sound and feeble graphics. None of these complaints could be levelled at Arnhem. It was based on World War II's Operation Market Garden, the Allied attacks on key river crossings in Holland, designed to pave the way for the advance of British and American troops into the Rhineland. RT Smith's version uses a straight forward control system, enabling even wargaming amateurs to get stuck in. As well as normal movement and attacks, your units can also travel long distances by road with the mimum of hassle, although this does compress their map size, making them far more vulnerable if attacked. The graphics are clear and easily identifiable, which is all that can be asked of, while the sound is terrific for a wargame, with the rattle of machinegun fire and the whistle of artillery shells adding atmosphere to what is often quite a lifeless genre. In RT Smith's own view, the sort of artificial intelligence that he used compares favourably with today's wargames and playing Arnhem it's hard to argue. Smith continued to hone his skills with worthy follow ups Desert Rats and Vulcan.

ARNHEM
CCS £7.95
Dave: At last - a wargame that's both playable and makes full use of the Speccy's graphics. If I've been hard on this type of game in the past it's because none I've seen has yet come up to this standard.
First off, you're given the choice of four basic scenarios. If you're new to the game it's an idea to go for the easy option, a seven turn reccy round the battlefield. The next three cover specific operations that take more time but should turn you into a battle scarred veteran. Only when you've got ten hours to spare is there any point in tackling the final scenario that covers the complete Market Garden area. At the beginning it's sure to be whole river full of bridges too far.
If you're on your tod, you'll control all the Allied forces while the computer plays the Germans - with a friend, the Allies split into Brits and Yanks and there's even a three player mode that offers a complete free choice.
Play is certainly fast but it's easy to follow so you shouldn't get hopelessly lost just as you thought you'd got 'em outflanked. Plus there are sound effects and on-screen flashes that show when a unit is under attack.
The scrolling screen covers the whole of the Arnhem area and there's also an accompanying map and booklet for budding battlers. In-door generals who'd probably find the real thing a touch too noisy could do worse than take a look. 4/5

Roger: Outside my usual cowardly tastes but good enough to make me take a general's job - leading them from the rear ... 4/5

Ross: Not my sort of software but I soldiered on - and then got beat! 3/5

ARNHEM
Producer: CCS
Memory required: 48K
Retail price: £8.95
Author: RT Smith


Oh no! I thought, when I got this one out of its jiffy bag. Can it possibly be true? Perhaps the lavish praise I’ve been heaping on CCS of late has gone to their heads! Maybe they have taken on a new marketing manager (horror of horrors) to actually start getting their stuff into shops and weird things like that. The reason I’m wondering about all this is because Arnhem, the latest from CCS, comes in a big box — in fact the same size vinyl pack as Alien by Argus (here’s a possibility for you, boys) with a full-colour painted cover and a sixteen-page booklet with a fold-out map of the playing area.

The cover picture is a little bit dodgy, but the overall effect of the packaging is very impressive. No more inlay cards that fold out eighteen times! No more miniscule print! Eee, luxury.

The program is pretty good, too. You know how I was always moaning about coordinate-controlled movement? Well, they’ve finally got rid of it, and bought in cursor control. The game is very slick, as strategy games go; for example, as you finish doing what you want with one unit, you are moved on immediately to the next eligible unit. You don’t actually have to do anything with the unit — if you don’t want to, there’s a ‘pass’ feature — but it’s a nice touch, not having to do all the donkey work in between moves.


There are five scenarios, increasing in difficulty and length (in playing turns) from seven turns (which takes about an hour) to 26 turns (which apparently takes eight to ten hours)! The scenarios progress through the physical playing area, which is a long thin strip, roughly 30 x 100 units, with the first (easiest) being the approach to Eindhoven, the fourth being the assault on Nijonegen and Arnhem, and the fifth being all four previous scenarios rolled into one. The object of each scenario is quite specific; in the first you have to clear the main road to Eindhoven of Huns, and if you don’t succeed in doing this you lose, even if you’ve wiped out the vast majority of the Krauts in trying. The other objectives tend to be fairly similar, capturing bridges and so on.

When you start playing the game you are presented with a fairly large (20 x 20) map window, an identification of which unit is to go, and a menu of options for that unit. The units are represented on the map as squares with symbols in them. Each unit initially covers an area 2 x 2, but it can be put into a component mode, which gives faster travelling, but makes the unit more vulnerable to attack. ‘Compacted’ units cover only one map square. The map graphics are remarkably clear and effective,and although there is no specific command to search the whole map area, it is possible to survey quite a bit of it by using the ‘travel’ command (a sort of automatic movement order — you can use it to set a piece moving in a given direction, and it’ll carry on until you tell it to stop).

There are fifteen types of unit, ranging from tanks to gliders; depending on the type of unit, the menu of options available will change slightly — eg, artillery units can ‘bombard’ over a certain range, while all other units can only attack when adjacent to an enemy unit. Units can also ‘dig in’ which gives them a virtually impregnable defence position — a favourite trick of the Huns is to dig in on one side of a bridge, so you can’t get across.

It is clear that a lot of thought has gone into programming the computer intelligence here, since I’ve not been able to even get to Eindhoven yet — perhaps it’s just lack of thought gone into programming my intelligence! There are quite a few different terrain types, and the map presentation is very pleasing — especially the ‘black and white’ mode, which is handy because it means I can play it in bed (well, Radio Rentals finally sent the bailiffs round for the colour telly).


The game has a save facility, which is obviously vital if it takes eight hours to play — I mean, can you imagine it? It must be like reading the entire Mills & Boon library