Supply is always vital in wartime and especially so in a desert war. It is easy to see, therefore, why the port of Tobruk was so vital to both German and British interests in May 1942. You play the part of Rommel, attempting to regain Tobruk by force after breaking through the Gazala line. In practice, he succeeded. Whether you will remains to be seen.

Before you even start to play, there are a host of options to choose from. One or two player (the second player controls the Brits), two networked Amstrads if you have the right cable, green screen or colour (other software houses take note) and whether or not you want to include action screens of your tank battles. Unlike Desert Fox, reviewed elsewhere in this issue, the action screens are an optional extra and the bulk of the game is concerned more with strategy and tactics.

As well as the usual move and attack commands, you will also find that you have air support, re-supplying of your troops and engineering duties to worry about. In air support, you can aim for air superiority or lead an attack on the enemy's supply dumps or a specified ground target. Your engineers can be used to recover damaged vehicles, sabotage the enemy's vehicles beyond repair or lift a minefield (lay one for the allied player). Supplies are vital and you will need to take special car that your units are within reasonable distance of one of your mobile supply units. All commands can be simply entered by using a joystick - there are no complex instructions to be issued.

Should you choose to include action screens, these only occur when you are actually in a battle and your task is simple - destroy as many of the enemy vehicles as possible. You start off by steering your tank to the nearest target and then selecting either your turret or machine gun. Range indicators show how much you missed by as you adjust your elevation. As far as possible, keep your shells for tanks and bullets for machine gun posts. How many shells you start off with depends on how well you keep your troops supplied.

Tobruk is an extremely well presented game, including the accompanying booklet, and will provide an excellent challenge to strategy fans. Nor is it too complicated to put off the relative newcomer. Good value.