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Every regiment or fighting unit takes inordinate pride in battles in which they have distinguished themselves. In the case of the US Marines, one of their finest hours was undoubtedly when they captured the island of Iwo Jima. It was an extremely bloody battle with some 24,000 American casualties over the 36 days of battle. Because of their reluctance to surrender, only 216 Japanese troops survived, from an original garrison of 22,000! In this beginner's level wargame from the author of Falklands '82, you play the part of the American forces as you attempt to eliminate every single Japanese unit within a certain number of game turns (this varies according to the skill level selected).

The game starts with all your forces offshore and you must land them at one of five beaches. As you land or move, the position of any Japanese forces that are within range are revealed. Not all your units land at turn one. Reinforcements are available from turn three providing the seas are calm. Control of your forces is done entirely through three keys. Keys 1 and 3 scroll through your options whilst key 2 selects a specific action. The three basic commands are land, move and attack.

Each unit is assigned four different values. These are an aggression factor which reflects firepower, morale and the reputation of the unit and a defence factor which indicates how well the unit can look after itself and is also dependent on the current terrain - it is easier to defend a mountain than open land. Movement determines how far a unit can travel in a particular turn, again terrain dependent whilst range indicates how far away an enemy force can be before you can attack it. when attacking an enemy unit, you can also summon up supporting naval gunfire in certain situations and it is advisable to concentrate this initially on the Japanese coastal batteries.

Iwo Jima is an excellent introduction to the noble art of wargaming. It is very simple to play and provides a reasonable challenge. Experienced wargamers will no doubt prefer something a bit meatier though.