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Wondered just how Nazi Germany managed to invade Poland, France and Russia at such poor odds but with such success? The answer lies in its strategy and tactics, especially Blitzkrieg - Deutsch for "Lightning War".

This wargame enables you to play out the invasion of Western Europe using these tactics, taking the role of either the Allies or Germany. Choose one and your ST becomes your opponent at three difficulty levels.

Blitzkrieg isn't just a case of moving lots of little counters around a board, though. Your forces are split into 14 different armies, each with six different combat units attached to it - they can have more than this number assigned to them, but excess units are held in reserve and not displayed on the maps.

The maps come in two varieties: strategic for the big picture, and tactical for detailed views of which units are where. Flicking between them is a matter of pressing a key, but you scroll around the maps (they're big) with the mouse.

Ordering units to move is fiddly to begin with, and they're all colour-coded, so it's very confusing at first which unit is which. Each army is divided into two flanks, which you can order to move into the attack or to form up a defensive line. The distance you can send them is impressive, and it's really a question of assigning the objectives for them all and then watching the action as they move and fight accordingly. There is a discretion option that leaves it to the army commanders to decide whether to attack any enemy units they encounter. You soon get the hang of it.

This method of control is exactly the same as real army commanders use: they don't tell units to move north, then a bit west, go across a bridge and then south - they just tell individual armies their objectives. This adds realism to the game, though most people won't actually appreciate it.

It's ugly, obviously a PC port. The scrolling is fast and smooth around both the large and small scale battlefields, but it looks dull. Sound is limited to extremely irritating PC-like beeps every time you press a key.

Blitzkrieg May 1940 leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the controls are simple keystroke commands, but the game is slow and the combat system is piecemeal: each unit goes into combat on its own, and hence attacking units tend to get mauled, even attacking at overwhelming odds. That said, however, Blitzkrieg does give you a chance to play at armoured mechanised warfare, and you can make your own tactics. A few good points, too many bad points.