This review first appeared in IPW, the newsletter for all discount games club members. Contact colin@allusedgames.demon.co.uk for details. Crisis in the Ukraine (Centurion Games) Everyone is doubtless familiar with the storytelling cliches of boy meets girl, or once upon a time. Without knowing it, you may also be familiar with an East Front wargaming cliche. A game set-up that invites disaster for the German or Soviet player (this game is set in 1944 so I'll be the German), a 'no retreat' order courtesy of Hitler or Stalin that prevents the threatened units from withdrawing and reinforcements that can limit the damage or even save the day. Step forward this offerring, an operational level simulation of the Soviet Spring offensive of 1944 that resulted in the pocketing and subsequent breakout of 1st Panzer Army. Okay, so the situation sounds familiar, but what about the game system? Let's see, movement, which includes overrun, combat and then mechanised movement. Rules for divisional integrity, combined arms and loads of other goodies we know and love. In fact, it's none other than a Panzergruppe Guderian clone. Innovative, it aint, but if some thing isn't broke, why try and fix it? A game turn commences with movement which, for the German player, is straightforward. The Soviet, however, has to act within certain restrictions. Units have to be within range of an HQ to move or attack. Also, each turn, he is allocated a number of supply points. These are spent on moving units and resolving combat, with mechanised units being quite a drain on resources. As the game progresses, supply points get smaller in number, effectively handing initiative over to the German player. One fact worth mentioning is that it costs the same in supply to move a mechanised brigade as a whole corps. Clearly an error and I reduce the cost by a third for movement of brigades. Overruns are resolved as combat, but at a cost in movement points and a negative column shift. Weather also affects movement on some game turns. Combat, which is voluntary, rests on odds. All terrain effects and other modification are taken as column shifts, not changes to combat strengths or die rolls. The German player has two artillery units that can give a defensive shift to units within range and some Korpsgruppen units that are created within the pocket once formed. These aid assaults and overruns and represent ad hoc divisional groups formed to facilitate control. Combat results are either step losses or retreats by the owning player. Some results make a minimum of one step loss mandatory. During mechanised movement all eligible units may move a second time, including the ability to overrun again. Affected units are marked with a disruption marker that prevents them moving or attacking and gives them no zone of control. The phasing player ends his turn by removing these markers from any of his units so affected. Victory conditions are quite different for both sides. The Soviet player earns victory points for forming the pocket as early as possible and for occupying various fortified city hexes. The German player earns victory points by exiting unils off the West map edge. One point worth mentioning is that, in this game, the Soviet pocket does not constitute a solid ring of units and their zones of control (as it was historically). It refers to the cutting of overland supply routes, in this case roads and rail roads, to the West map edge. No quite the same thing. Cnsis in the Ukraine will appeal mainly to gamers who enjoy tank battles in general or East Front battles in particular. If you already enjoy Panzergruppe Guderian, then by all means go shopping for this one. If you're uncertain, try the classic first, then decide. Alan Sharif