Product Reviews

For years the best computerised table-top war-games have been pure hex. This is because the maps the toy soldiers move over are divided into hexagons, allowing six-way movement. Technically hex-based games have been superseded by titles like Command & Conquer and Close Combat, which allow total freedom of movement in real time. Despite this, hex games still have plenty to offer military tacticians. The Five-Star General titles by SSI are perhaps the best of the hex breed, and the latest in the series, which includes Allied and Pacific General, is Panzer General II.

You take the role of a WWII general. Your view is mostly of icons of tanks on very nice hand-drawn maps; your commands could change history. Play is turn-based, organised in 30 scenarios of eight to 20 turns, most based on historical actions. Scenarios can be played individually or sequentially in a campaign, in

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which case your army goes with you. You don't have to be the Hun, though; there are UK, US and USSR-led campaigns too.

The secret of command, as Napoleon demonstrated, is concentration of forces. You may be weaker overall, but you can win each local battle by focusing your units before the enemy can send in the cavalry, the very essence of blitzkrieg. So you locate the enemy with reconnaissance vehicles, pin them down with ground units, reduce them with bombers and artillery, then finish them off with infantry. The juggling to make best use of each unit's abilities is the game's main fascination.

If you have the cash, or prestige as PG2 calls it, you can buy, reinforce and upgrade units. Prestige comes from gaining territory, by eliminating enemy units, or by completing campaigns. Naturally, there's never enough, so you soon learn to be careful.

PG2 looks and plays better than its predecessors. Unit classes are simpler, but there are more nationalities. The effectiveness of combined arms is greater, of air power less. Restrictions on the number of units you can have are looser, making it easier to keep infantry. Best of all, your pieces can move and shoot as separate actions in the same turn, simplifying staff work considerably.

There is now a scenario builder, and there's also modem and network options for up to four players. It's easy to play, but Panzer General 2 is hard to play well. Take care, though - you could become a hex fiend.