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Bloody great metal floating things, dreadnoughts - the most powerful fighting machines on the planet. You, as the Admiral, have to command a fleet of them which takes courage, determination and a cast-iron upper lip. Imagine the tang of sea spray and the acrid smell of cordite as your mighty flagship ploughs through the waves. Er, there's always the possibility of those foreign johnnies actually hitting your ship and you getting fatally mashed - letting the side down horribly. You take the helm in Dreadnoughts during the golden age of the capital ship - World War I.

Like the previous games in the series - Armada, Austerlitz and Waterloo - Dreadnoughts is a tactical wargame played out in 3D. You give orders to your chaps and observe the results as best you can. There are seven scenarios to play out including Dogger Bank and the mammoth punch-up at Jutland. The battles unfold in a series of rounds and, before each, you issue your commands. These are typed in and cover a wide range of actions: ships can be navigated by longitude and latitude, as well as by telling them which direction to head in or ordering them to chase after other ships.

The game comes with indispensible charts of the relevant areas. There is no overview of the proceedings, so you spend most of the game unable to see what's going on and have to use the position and sighting reports to follow the flow of battle. This "fog of war" approach gives a realistic feel, but can be very frustrating. You have to be very thoughtful and careful, since just charging straight at the enemy with all your guns blazing generally results in one wet commander.

For the larger scale battles, your ships are grouped into squadrons and you need only issue commands to the squadron flagship. Each captain acts independently unless ordered to do otherwise. Each scenario takes a while to battle through, but you can opt to save the game and come back later. At the end of the affair, you get a little debriefing showing the final scores. Unfortunately, however, there's little else, so if you got confused and lost track of things, you're none the wiser.

The interface is fairly basic - you use the mouse as a telescope from your flagship, but for everything else you use the keyboard. You need to learn the syntax for all the commands and keep referring to the chart. It's realistic, but having the chart on-screen would have been good, with the last known positions of each ship marked on it. The 3D display is constantly being redrawn, which can get a little slow especially if you are near land.

Apart from the acres of blue sea, things are detailed. It's not a game for adrenaline addicts, since nothing moves at any pace and you need patience to work through battles. As serious wargames go, this is one of the better ones - you get the impression that a good deal of research has gone into the historical background. It takes a while to get into Dreadnoughts, but you're likely to find yourself getting distinctly sea-doggish as you stand on the bridge of the ironclad flagship issuing the command to close range and open fire. Full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes - England expects and all that utter rot.

1. Same system as Armada, only metallic.
2. Much more realistic than the Impressions series of wargames, although not as well presented.
3. Serious wargame material, but not a water-borne Pacific Islands.