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Subtitled 'The Battle of the Bulge', which doesn't mean that it's got anything to do with weight loss. Towards the end of 1944, the Allied armies in the West were pushing the German forces out of France and into Germany. The front had stabilised roughly where it had been during the phony war of 1940, before the Blitzkrieg overwhelmed Holland. Belgium and France. The Germans effectively tried to recreate the success that led to the Fall of France and the evacuation at Dunkirk, by driving through the Ardennes forest and cutting the Allied armies in two.

After initial success, the attack collapsed, largely due to almost total Allied control of the air.

Now you have the chance to take command of the German force and see if you can succeed where Hitler's generals failed. At your command you have various formations, including infantry and armour. Against you is a similar force. You have to punch through the Allied armies and capture as many of the towns to the west of their lines as you can.

While such an idea should lead to a very fluid, mobile game, in this case it doesn't. Because of the combat system, one allied unit can easily hold down three or four if not more German formations. And the map is just too full of rough terrain for any real Blitzkrieg to develop.

Historically accurate, perhaps, but dull nonetheless.

It's helped by the fact that it's very difficult to tell the units apart, rather than give each type a letter designation, the author has chosen to identify them by number.

For some reason, it's far easier to remember that I means infantry brigade than that 4 does. I kept on thinking that the numbers referred to the actual strengths of the units concerned, which led to a number of mistakes.

Confusing - gets too bogged down in a crowded map. Historically accurate but dull war game.