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A fortune can be earned by a football manager but a lot relies on the balance of skill and luck. CDS find out if you've got what it takes.

Brian Clough once described football as a game of two halves. CDS has taken him at his word. Football Fortunes is part computer game, part board game. Clever packaging has enabled all of the gameplay paraphernalia to be packed into a book sized library case. This includes the cleverly constructed board which folds out to cover an area almost six times the size of the case!

I have to admit that the case is almost bursting at the seams with the board, cassette (or disk), playing counters, fake money, 112 player cards, ten blank player cards, six immunity cards and an instruction pamphlet, which must make this seem worth every penny.

One thing that I immediately found awkward, however, is that the playing ards are supplied on eight sheets and, once each of these have been separated along their perforations to yield a pack of 128 cards, they are difficult to replace in the case after a hard day on the team bench.

As in the real game, this is a battle for survival and requires all of your cunning, judgement and a modicum of luck. If nothing else, it makes you realise that Cloughie is not an empty vessel making a lot of noise.

The board is used to determine your luck. Its perimeter is divided into 36 squares which you progress around at the throw of the computer-generated dice. Each square corresponds to one of nine categories of situations. They can force you to pay your players' wages, enter an auction, gain sponsorship revenue for a match, sell players to the bank or even give yourself a welcome day off. Two of the squares act like the Chance and Community Chest cards in Monopoly.

These squares are called Selection Problem and Manager's Luck. Any player landing here has to press the relevant key on the computer and randomly selected problem or benefit will be displayed. As you may guess, the Selection Problem square has no benefits for the unfortunate player who lands there. It always means the suspension or total loss of a player unless the Luck Square has presented you with an Immunity card. This card is also useful if you land on the single Crisis square which makes you lose your best player to the bank for three quarters of his value.

The game is played using an elite league of ten teams and anywhere between two and five players can control a club each. If your favourite team does not appear on the league table, then you can repace one of the teams when your turn arrives to log on.

Each player starts off with £200,000 and one of the players or a non-playing banker controls the finances for the rest of the game.

After team selection you are awarded values for your eleven players and two reserves (utility players). According to these ratings you select cards of the correct value and type. Each card has a current footballer's name assigned to it but your favourite player can be written on one of the blank player cards are used instead of an official card of the same value.

The game can last for as many seasons as you like but to enter the European competitions you must play at least two seasons. Each match is preceded by a move on the board and once the penalty has been paid, or the benefit reaped, for each player the round of matches begin.

Each manager must choose his strongest team for the match and enter the total strength for the defence and attack according to the face values of the selected players. These values determine the outcome of the games, though luck can turn a potential defeat into a glorious victory.

If the games are league matches, the scores are printed out in teletype style at the bottom of the screen. This is followed by the gate money for each match which is equally shared between the two teams. For Cup matches the results display appears almost instantly but the gates are shared as before.

During the season players can be bought and sold or loaned to other teams. The value of each man is calculated by multiplying his star rating by £20,000 but at auction this may not be realised, or could be surpassed, depending on the desperation of your opponents.

If luck smiles upon you, you can have a squad of as many players as you can afford. When your luck turns bad, you may find that you cannot field a full team, in which case you forfeit your share of the game money until you get back to full strength.

Compared to The Double, Brian Clough's Football Fortunes lacks the same degree of depth and the match action screens. Where it does score is in the element of competitiveness and interaction between managers who can make or break alliances as they see fit. The game is infinitely faster than The Double and I feel that my ideal football simulation would be a synthesis of Football Fortunes, The Double and International Soccer. The board game and player cards would eliminate a lot of the memory restrictions of The Double.

An optional interactive matchplay based on International Soccer (perhaps just using the goalmouth action as in Football Manager from Addictive Games) would add more excitement to Fortunes and the long-term aims of The Double would open up more opportunities for a long-running game.

Compared to Additive's ageing Football Manager, Fortunes only lacks the action screens but offers a lot more via the board side haggling.

My only real criticism of this excellent game is the lack of a one-player option. This would not have been too difficult to include if transfers were always made at face value and the computer program was beefed up a little bit.

I recommend this game for every football fan who wants to experience some of the thrills and spills of a manager's life. The problems are realistic and the gameplay is well planned. The only quibble I have is that the computer presentation could have been more exciting than the unimaginative, lack-lustre famine for eye and ear of this text only game. A few graphics would have been given greater aesthetic appeal and a competitive arcade game within the computer would have broadened the appeal of the game.

Even if you already own one of the many other simulations, this game has many differing challenges through its revolutionary presentation. A great game which could so easily have been unbeatable.