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The panzers were the crack German tank divisions used on the Russian front during the second part of World War II. In Panzer Battles, you get the chance to re-enact a series of panzer battles: the attack on Minsk in June 1941, the invasion of Moscow in December 1941, the Russian offensive on Kharkov in May 1942, the... er, attack on Prokhorovka in July 1943, er, the... er... Zzzzzzz... [Slap, slap! - Ed]

Oops, sorry. And what jolly good fun it is too. As your flashing squares surge across the map you'll get the chance to set their objectives, examine their divisional attributes, initiate a range of different offensive and defensive stances, everything you'd hope, really. The graphics are bright and colourful, the strategy is colourful and flexible, and the only real problems are the sluggish drawing of windows and the vast array of obscure icons you've got to work out - a word's worth a thousand pictures, in my opinion.

The more alert among you will already have spotted that this uses the editable Battlefont game system, as also used by Halls Of Montezuma (which I was landed with in issue four). So in theory, you could do all this lot yourself with the editor that came with your copy of Halls - or even buy this and do your own Halls - but it would take ages and you'd probably be seeing flashing squares before the eyes by the end of it.

I'm afraid I didn't have time to explore the game's more deeply-buried intricacies, but I remember Halls vividly and feel sure that Panzer Battles matches up to it in every way. In fact, the graphics are prettier, so I'll give it an extra point.

More wargaming fun for Halls Of Montezuma lovers, and a complete and utter load of twaddle for everyone else (as usual).