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OPERATION
WHIRLWIND
Ariolasoft,
£9.95 cass, £11.95
disk, joystick
only
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O Capture an enemy town in this state-of-the-art
war game |
War
games are starting to become more popular, and in the
wake of last month's Gold Medal game comes another excellent
battle simulation.
You
command a reinforced infantry battalion and have to
cross a scrolling battlefield and take control of a
town. Pitted against you are hidden enemy units and
the problems of the terrain.
The
battle area is shown on-screen through a scrolling 'window',
the overall size being over three times the window's
width and twice its depth. You start on the left-hand
side with the town to be captured in the bottom right.
On the map are woods, roads, buildings, streams and
clear ground.
Your
battalion is split into 31 groups, each with a different
rating for movement, firepower, range, and strength.
You have to control all of these and try to eliminate
the enemy forces.
There
are four levels of game, and in each one you have to
take the city in 35 turns. These turns are made up of
five phases of action.
Digging
in a unit to protect it from enemy fire.
The
first phase is the COMMAND PHASE, where you can decide
whether a unit should dig in to regain strength, or
be combat ready to advance and fight.
Second
is the MOVEMENT PHASE, where you can move any units
that aren't digging in until you want to stop or your
activity points are depleted. Be careful, though, since
a depleted unit cannot fight in the third phase.
The
COMBAT PHASE is where you can attack any enemy units
that have revealed themselves, although you may come
under artillery fire yourself. Some units have stronger
firepower than others, and their range also varies.
Next
come the ASSAULT ORDER and ASSAULT PHASES, where you
can order units to try to overrun adjacent enemy units.
However, enemy units may also move at this stage and
fire again on you.
Your
objective is to control the town, which is particularly
difficult to take, and on later levels you may even
have to defend it against a counterattack. Another problem
on the higher levels are mines which can halt a unit
in its tracks and end its movement phase.
BW
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