So you thought IBM was taking over the world? Well, Call To Arms provides a new variation on this - you get to take over the world with your IBM. Well, not the whole world, you understand, just Europe. Or even Scotland, if you prefer. Either way, this is a game where you can let your delusions of grandeur run riot.

This game is Risk, as near as makes very little difference. Up to four may place, and of them up to four can be the IBM - so you can just sit back and watch it battle it out, if you prefer. The playing board is either a map of Europe in 1942, or of the countries of Scotland in the eighteenth century - do we spot an expatriate Scottish programmer lurking in Sirius Software's California HQ?

As in the board game, countries are shared out among the players at the outset. There are 36 of them, so everyone gets fair shares. Then you decide how many armies are to be placed in each country for kick-off - anything between two and nine apiece. After thus setting the scene, play begins, and each player in turn reinforces the countries he or she - or it, in the IBM's case - controls, or attacks neighbouring states.

The winner of each battle is decided randomly, until the attacker decides discretion is the better part of valour or until one force is wiped out. Then the victor must occupy the defeated country with one or more armies, and has the option of doing it all over again, on some other front.

Despite the fact that the IBM has the advantage, since it decides the outcome of each battle, it does play fair. Twice in my first game it made the sad mistake of pitting thirteen armies against my three and losing.

Playing this game is none too easy, since to pick the country you want to reinforce, attack or attack from you must move the cursor into that country. But doing so takes half an eternity, since all four cursor control keys simply step you through the same sequence of countries in the same order. Each time you conquer a country, the map is redrawn in your colours rather slowly. You just have to sit and wait it out.

There's a certain 'War Games' fascination in watching Europe - or Scotland - change colour before your very eyes. And the game is well implemented, though the instructions could be clearer. If you like - and win at - Risk, you'll like this too.