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Napoleon can hardly be said to be one of Britain's favourite historical figures although the fact remains that he was a brilliant general. Nowhere was this talent displayed more than in the battle of Austerlitz in 1805. Napoleon had been crowned Emperor of France the previous year and basically, all the other major European powers decided to gang up against him.

The French armies had occupied Vienna and Napoleon wanted to consolidate his positions by engaging the Austro-Russian army in one decisive battle. This took place at Austerlitz and although the allies had superior numbers, the French were better trained and disciplined and inflicted such a crushing defeat on the allied army that Austrians immediately sued for peace and the Tsar went back to Russia.

Austerlitz is a one player war-game which puts you in Napoleon's boots as you try to defeat the Austro-Russian army before the Prussians join the alliance. There are three skill levels to choose from - beginners, standard and advanced. Victory is achieved by reducing your enemy to less than six units or 20,000 men.

Two unusual features make this game noteworthy. After their initial positions have been displayed, all enemy movement will be secret, this is designed to recreate the confusion of battle together with some early morning mist. Enemy units can be discovered by scouting, moving next to one of your units or if one of your commanders tell you and this illustrates the second feature, that of intelligent commanders. You have six corps commanders and you give orders to them, control all individual units yourself or any combination of the two. Typical orders might be to hold a position, engage the enemy of move.

Controlling the game is very straightforward helped considerably by a well presented instruction booklet. The graphics are large and clear and it is easy to work out what is going on. Wargames have a reputation for being horribly complex but Austerlitz belies that theory by being extremely well presented whilst still giving a good challenge to any budding general.