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The American Civil War started in April, 1861 when the southern - or Confederate - states decided to withdraw from the union with the northern - or Yankee - states in protest over the abolition of slavery. Eight years of bloody battle followed.

More recently, however, the TV mini-series North And South has gone down a bomb in France (as 'Les Bleus et Les Gris'). and I've a sneaking suspicion that Infogrames' game has been more than a little inspired by it.

North And South gives you the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to relive in a wildly comical way the infamous interstate battles between the Union and the Confederates.

The main game is a map of the USA, divided up into two dozen large areas. Each of these areas can be one of four types: empty, Confederate owned, Union owned or occupied. Running through the map is a railway line with four stations. Dotted around the map at the start of the game are two Confederate armies and two Union armies. The idea of the game, like 'Risk' is to capture all the states on the map, or alternatively kill all the enemy soldiers on the map.

The game works in turns. At the start of a turn, all your occupied spaces flash. You can move all the troops in each occupied state, one space in any direction. If you try to move into occupied territory, you then have to do battle with the enemy.

As you move around occupying land, there are one or two things you must remember to do. Firstly, if you capture all the states between two stations on the railway line, the train will come along, carrying gold from station to station. With that gold you can buy new armies to replace all the old tired ones.

Also, there are one or two special locations on the map. When your opponent gets the train rolling, look where the train stops. That's his fortress. Raid it for lots of money. The state in the top left-hand corner is Indian country. Hang around there for too long and those Injuns get annoyed and throw a hatchet in your direction. On the right-hand screen, about halfway up, is a boarding point. Every two or three turns, a boat rolls up the river and drops an army off at that point.

There's more than one way of playing North And South. On the surface you can play it as either a straight strategy game, or an arcade game with strategy elements.

The strategy game is just a very simple game of Risk. All battles are decided by who has the largest army, and all other events are determined by the computer. In the action game, you are responsible for all battles, castle raids and train robberies. This is where the game comes into its own.

The battles are brilliant. You are shown a distant view of the battle and from this view you can control footsoldiers, mounted horsemen, and artillery.

Both the fortress raid and the train robbery are played in the same way. Race at incredibly high speed along a scrolling play area leaping boxes and other obstacles, and punching, kicking or knifing any guards away. All of these, including the battle, are done with the same degree of humour that really makes the game.

The graphics are of a very high standard, as is the soundtrack, and that's what makes the game an instant hit. However, I'm sorry to say that the fun is a little short-lived. For some reason, the computer is very, very easy to beat. Rather than having any artificial intelligence it seems to follow the same pattern of moves every game. Aren't strategy games the ones that are supposed to keep you going for years?!