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From the Americans of SSI comes the most famous battle of the American Civil War, the complex and bloody three-day encounter in which the Confederacy lost its best chance to win the war quickly and impose peace on the Union.

The game provides a scrolling map of the battlefield, with player options to take either side against the computer or another opponent, three levels of difficulty (of which the "advanecd" level is very difficult indeed) hidden movement, a time-limit on issuing orders, changes in the balance of forces, the rate of arrival of forces for either side, the ammunition available to either side, and options to play any of the three days or the whole battle.

Such variety gives a handicapping system so that, at its most simple, this game could be played by just about anyone, and at its most difficult it presents a real challenge to the expert.

Both command-and-control and responses to combat have been very well thought out in this game. The presence of a good leader (or a bad one) could affect a unit's behaviour and fighting power very much indeed, and the advanced game encourages the player to move commanders of higher formations around, adding their leadership to whichever regiment needs it most.

The authors understand that fear and fatigue are more or less interchangeable, and prolonged exposure to fire quickly runs up "fatigue points" which will cause a unit to break.

My main criticism of the game is that it takes so long and plays so slowly - at least as slowly as a board game.

The program acknowledges this by flashing up cheerful messages to "wait a moment" and "the screen will be blank for a few minutes".

With the two player option you play more or less in real time, with an hour of game time providing an hour of battle. Saving to a disk is therefore almost essential unless you have a lot of time and patience.

These are, however, only small criticisms of a good, if very slow-moving, game.