[{"TitleName":"The General","Publisher":"CCS","Author":"Ian Williams","YearOfRelease":"1989","ZxDbId":"0002010","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 74, Mar 1990","Price":"£1.7","ReleaseDate":"1990-02-22","Editor":"Oliver Frey","TotalPages":52,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Oliver Frey\r\nFeatures Editor: Richard Eddy\r\nStaff Writer: Mark Caswell\r\nEditorial Assistant: Viv Vickress\r\nPhotography: Michael Parkinson\r\nContributors: Nick Roberts\r\nProduction Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nProduction Supervisor: Matthew Uffindell\r\nArt Director: Mark Kendrick\r\nReprographics: Robert Millichamp, Tim Morris, Rob (the Rev) Hamilton, Jenny Reddard\r\nDesign: David Western, Melvin Fisher\r\nSystems Operator: Ian Chubb\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Neil Dyson\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executives: Caroline Blake, Christian Testa\r\nAssistant: Jackie Morris [redacted]\r\nGroup Promotions Executive: Richard Eddy\r\n\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\nSubscriptions\r\n[redacted].\r\n\r\nDesigned and typeset on Apple Macintosh II computers using Quark Express and Adobe Illustrator '88, output at MBI [redacted] with systems support from Digital Reprographics [redacted]. Colour origination by Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistribution by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOMPETITION RULES\r\nThe Editor's decision is final in all matters relating to adjudication and while we offer prizes in good faith, believing them to be available, if something untoward happens (like a game that has been offered as a prize being scrapped) we reserve the right to substitute prizes of comparable value. We'll do our very best to despatch prizes as soon as possible after the published closing date. Winners names will appear in a later issue of CRASH. No correspondence can be entered into regarding the competitions (unless we've written to you stating that you have won a prize and it doesn't turn up, in which case drop the Viv Vickress a line at the [redacted] address). No person who has any relationship, no matter how remote, to anyone who works for either Newsfield or any of the companies offering prizes, may enter one of our competitions. No material may be reproduced whole or in part without the written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return anything sent into CRASH - including written and photographic material, software and hardware - unless it is accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. We regret that readers' postal enquiries cannot always be answered. Unsolicited written or photo material is welcome, and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates. Colour photographic material should be 35mm transparencies wherever possible. The views expressed in CRASH are not necessarily those of the publishers.\r\n\r\nCopyright CRASH Ltd 1989 A Newsfield Publication. ISSN 0954-8661. Cover Design by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"CCS\r\n£12.99 cass only\r\n\r\nIt'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.\r\n\r\nThe 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.\r\n\r\nYour 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!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"41","Denied":false,"Award":"Crash Smash","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Mark Caswell","Score":"90","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"90%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 50, Feb 1990","Price":"£1.7","ReleaseDate":"1990-01-18","Editor":"Matt Bielby","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Matt Bielby\r\nArt Editor: Catherine Peters\r\nDeputy Editor: David Wilson\r\nProduction Editor: Andy Ide\r\nDesigner: Martin Sharrocks\r\nTechnical Consultant: Jonathan Davies\r\nContributors: Robin Alway, Marcus Berkmann, Richard Blaine, Jonathan Davies, Mike Gerrard, Kati Hamza, Tim Harding, David McCandless, Richard Morris, Rich Pelley, Phil South, Wag\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Lynda Elliott\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Caroline Day\r\nClassified Advertisement Executive: Chris Skinner\r\nAdvertisement Director: Alistair Ramsay\r\nProduction Manager: Judith Middleton\r\nAdvertisement Production: Claire Baker\r\nNewstrade Circulation Manager: Stephen Ward\r\nSubscription Manager: June Smith\r\nPublisher: Teresa Maughan\r\nFinance Director: Colin Crawford\r\nManaging Director: Stephen England\r\nChairman: Felix Dennis\r\n\r\nPublished by Dennis Publishing Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England.\r\nTypesetters: Point Five [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinted By: Riverside Press [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Sinclair ©1989 Felden Productions, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publishers. Your Sinclair is a monthly publication."},"MainText":"CCS\r\n£12.95 cass\r\nReviewer: Richard Blaine\r\n\r\nIt'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.\r\n\r\nYou'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.\r\n\r\nInstead 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.\r\n\r\nThere 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.\r\n\r\nNeither 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.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, 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.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Recreates the realism of Napoleonic war fairly well, but unfortunately lacks playability. Not of much interest to the majority of gameplayers.","Page":"88","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Richard Blaine","Score":"48","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Lumme! Bit keen these battalion chappies, aren't they? It's only ten to nine in the morning and they're already hard at it."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Life Expectancy","Score":"50%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"50%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"40%","Text":""},{"Header":"Instant Appeal","Score":"30%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"48%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"The Games Machine Issue 28, Mar 1990","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1990-02-08","Editor":"Richard Montiero","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL OFFICE\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nConsultant Editor: Richard Monteiro\r\nDeputy Editor: Richard Eddy\r\nSub Editor: Dominic Handy\r\nTechnical Editor: Robin Candy\r\nStaff Writers: Mark Caswell, Warren Lapworth\r\nEditorial Assistants: Vivien Vickress\r\nPhotography: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson (Assistant)\r\n\r\nPRODUCTION DEPARTMENT\r\n[redacted]\r\nEditorial Director: Oliver Frey\r\nProduction Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nProduction Supervisor: Matthew Uffindell\r\nReprographics: Robert Millichamp, Tim Morris, Jenny Reddard, Robert Hamilton\r\nDesign: Mark Kendrick, Melvyn Fisher\r\nSystems Operator: Ian Chubb\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Neil Dyson\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executives: Christian Testa, Caroline Blake\r\nAssistant: Jackie Morris [redacted]\r\nGroup Promotions Executive: Richard Eddy\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\nSubscriptions: [redacted]\r\n\r\nDesigned and typeset on Apple Macintosh II computers running Quark Xpress, Adobe Illustrator 88, with systems support from Digital Print Reprographics, [redacted]. Colour origination by Scan Studios [redacted] and Newsfield. Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset [redacted] - a member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistribution effected by COMAG, [redacted].\r\n\r\nCOMPETITION RULES\r\nThe Editor's decision is final in all matters and while we offer prizes in good faith, believing them to be available, if something untoward happens we reserve the right to substitute prizes of comparable value. List of winners are available after the closing date from Viv Vickress at [redacted] (please enclose SAE). No person who has any relationship to anyone who works for Newsfield or any of the companies offering prizes may enter one of our competitions. No material may be reproduced in part or in whole without the written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return anything sent into TGM - including written and photographic material, hardware or software - unless it's accompanied by a suitably stamped, addressed envelope. We regret that readers' postal enquiries cannot always be answered. Unsolicited written or photographic material is welcome, and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates - we reserve the right to edit any written material. The views expressed in TGM are not necessarily those of the publishers.\r\n\r\n©1990 TGM Magazines Ltd\r\nA Newsfield Publication ISSN 0954-8092\r\n\r\nCover Design Mark Kendrick"},"MainText":"Spectrum £12.99\r\n\r\nThe 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.\r\n\r\nThe 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.\r\n\r\nYou 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.\r\n\r\nThe 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.\r\n\r\nCCS are to be congratulated for producing such a well designed game which can be confidently recommended to any serious Spectrum Napoleonic Wargamer.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"85","Denied":false,"Award":"The Games Machine Golden Scroll","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Paul Rigby","Score":"90","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"90%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]