Challenge Software
£9.95 cass

Back to a time when large, hairy men rampaged around the British Isles raping, pillaging and plundering - no, not Poll Tax inspectors! The Vikings invaded and the Anglo Saxons defended their lands (know your history). Patriot that you are, you're put in charge of an Anglo Saxon army with which you must beat the Scandinavian interlopers at their own game.

Two battle scenarios are on offer, and three difficulty levels. Pick between Pitched Battle, The Battle and The Easy Way. The main part of the screen is taken up by the playing area which consists of a map of the battleground with icons scattered around depicting the opposing troops. Top right is the options screen, seven in all: move, fire, scan (find out your own and enemy strengths), next (give orders to the next unit), stand, end (the current move) and quit (the game). Below this is the status screen of your chosen unit (either friend or enemy): always find out enemy strengths before attacking!

As with most strategy orientated games you take it in turns with the computer to move troops around and attack. Some troops carry spears, sling shots etc, so they can kill the enemy at a distance, but most soldiers carry axes or swords which necessitates close quarter combat.

Vikings should be of some interest to strategy players. Graphically it's no great shakes, but once you get into it it's rather playable, even though response times are on the sluggish side.

MARK [56%]

I'm not usually a fan of strategy games like Vikings, I've always found them boring and would much rather be blasting a few aliens out of the sky with a photon gun! Having said that Vikings is really good. The graphics are all small of course, but there is a surprising quality to them in colour and detail. The Viking counters you use to play the game with are also well drawn. Big fans of strategy will love it: the idea is to win the battle against the opposing army. You encounter rivers, trees and have to move each piece around them individually to succeed. Vikings will appeal to all strategy fans. Gameplay's perhaps a little monotonous though.
NICK [62%]

Challenge Software
£9.95 cass
Reviewer: Matt Bielby

Now, this sort of thing isn't normally my bag, I have to admit, but Richard Blane (who's our big YS Strategy & Wargame Expert) isn't around at the moment, so I've had to have a go. So let's see - what we've got here is a strategy wargame based, fairly accurately I'd say, on a couple of 11th century battles that took place between Viking invaders and various English armies (in one case Anglo Saxons, in the other Anglo Normans).

In the first one, the Battle Of Stamford Bridge, the Saxon army, led by King Harold, surprised a lightly-armed bunch of Vikings on their way to pick up some hostages surrendered by the city of York, while at the Battle Of Menai Straits an English army attacked a Norwegian fleet as they landed at Anglesey. The history of the battles, descriptions of the terrain, the different sorts of soldiers involved and so on are outlined fairly comprehensively in the game's very atmospheric manual - one of the best bits of the package. As for the game itself, well, let's load up one of the battles and have a go.

Right, I'm playing the Saxon forces on the left of the battlefield, represented by a lot of red and yellow squares - some archers, some cavalry and a lot of foot soldiers. There's a river in front of me with just one bridge across it, so let's move some of my men in that direction, shall we? Each unit has a movement allowance of about four or five spaces, so if I bring two lots of Huscals (heavy infantry) onto the bridge, back them up with some cavalry, stick some bowmen in a flanking position, and then end my move there, we'll see how things stand. Hmm.

The screen scrolls (very jerkily) to reveal one Unit of Viking infantry defending the other end of the bridge, while about one and a half screens further on lies the bulk of the Viking forces. Now, in the real battle, the Saxons got across the bridge without too much trouble, attacking the main Viking force with cavalry. It wasn't exactly the same story when I had a go though. "Right, let's get rid of those Vikings defending the bridge," I thought and moved two units to simultaneously attack the bridge defenders from both sides (as soon as a block of your men touches a block of Vikings both units move into combat mode). "That should sort 'em out," I thought, but no - it took about nine moves to finish them off, at quite a cost to my men, and that was time enough for the rest of the Viking force to come onto the offensive, with their archers taking position to fire at my men as they crossed the bridge! Oi! That's not meant to happen! Let's start again. So I did, and fared rather better. I had a go at the other battle too, and, what's more, rather enjoyed both, though it did seem to take an age for anything to happen. That's wargaming for you, I suppose.

Rating it is rather difficult though. To my untrained eye, graphically it looked on a par with Austerlitz 1805 - pretty primitive by action game standards but enough to do the job. The three skill levels, choice of battles and so on also make it as good as most CCS stuff, so a buying decision basically comes down to a) do these battle scenarios appeal to you (they did to me), b) does Challenge deserve your support (yes again) and c) are you a fan of strategy games (well no, not especially). Basically, if you nodded your head three times your bound to enjoy it. If not, various niggles like squeaky, 'hiccuppy' sound and the plodding pace of gameplay will confirm your doubts.

Label: Challenge Software
Price: £9.95
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

Around the time when old Harold was getting one in the eye at Hastings, the Vikings were holding a little sideshow up North. Lots of men with big red beards and names like Thorvin Skullsplitter had popped over for a weekend of rape, pillage, murder and more rape, and Stamford Bridge was the most popular spot for it. They had such a good time that thirty years later they were back for a reunion at Menai Straits, and now you can join in the fun at both events with Challenge Software's strategic simulation, Vikings.

This isn't the kind of game which is going to appeal to arcade enthusiasts: it's a realistic and complex simulation which seem to rely heavily on a good deal of historical research. For instance, did you know that mediaeval battles rarely had heavy casualties, because once one side saw it was losing, they usually ran away? Well, Vikings simulates this historical fact among others, though you can pursue a fleeing army and hack them to bits with your cavalry.

The on-screen graphics are nicely colourful and well laid-out; the backgrounds for the two battles include grass, bridges, roads, woods, walls, undergrowth, buildings, rivers and beaches. Several different types of forces including irregulars, cavalry, infantry and bowmen are represented by different icons, and using the SCAN option from the on-screen menu you can call up a display of the make-up, strength, organisation, morale, experience and armament of each unit.

As you would expect, options for each turn include moving, (joystick or keyboard controlled) firing, choosing to stand your ground and ending to let the Vikings take their turn. Unfortunately the game doesn't have a two-player option, or allow you to take the side of the Vikings.

In order to win you must have three times as many surviving units as the enemy, and you can save and reload games at any stage. What's really missing is any sense of close combat; there's no "arcade sequence" (I know purists hate this sort of thing anyway) and the computer works out all the casualties in each conflict. Sound is absolutely minimal - just the odd beep to let you know that a command has been executed, but what more do you need.

The brief instruction booklet contains a good deal of background information on the Vikings. Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-Normans, so at the very least Vikings proves to be an educational bit of entertainment.