On October 6th, 1973, the Jewish state of Israel was attacked by the coordinated forces of Egypt and Syria, with an additional nine Arab states actively supporting the actions of Egypt and Syria. The launch of the attack came on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, which the war later became known as.

The Israelis faced overwhelming numbers; in the Golan Heights the Israeli Defense Forces numbered less than two hundred tanks, and yet they faced nearly 1,400 Syrian tanks. Along the Suez nearly 80,000 Egyptian troops attacked IDF troop concentrations that numbered not in the tens of thousand, not even in the thousands, but rather in the hundreds.

Yet against these odds the IDF not only repulsed the Arab onslaught, but took the fight outside their borders and into Egypt and Syria. In response the Soviet Union began to openly resupply these states, and in turn the United States was forced to resupply Israel. What could have very well turned into World War III though ended on October 22nd, with Resolution 338 of the UN Security Council, calling for an immediate end of hostilities.

The Star and the Crescent, from developer ProSIM and designer PanClan Game Design, allows gamers to refight key battles of the Yom Kippur War, using an enhanced version of the ATF engine. In addition to the Yom Kippur War, The Star and the Crescent features battles from '56, '67, and January of '73, along with two future hypothetical battles set in 2009.

Just as each new title in the ATF series builds upon its predecessors, so does The Star and the Crescent. Featuring the most detailed battlefield maps you'll ever play on in a commercial wargame (taken directly from Soviet-era real-world maps of the area), intense close air support interaction and fully realized air defense networks, superbly detailed combat down to the individual vehicle, The Star and the Crescent is a very impressive recreation of the conflicts fought in the Mid-East in the past few decades.

Of course everything you've come to expect from an ATF title is still present. You can play against the highly challenging AI opponent, create your own scenarios, and play against other live opponents. Gameplay remains a tense, edge-of-your-seat real time experience, with ultra-detailed real world weapon platforms, intense damage and training modeling, and deep, rich scenarios. In short, the ultimate real time simulation of modern combat.

The Star and the Crescent, another masterpiece in the only computer wargame series that's so realistic we should probably include a helmet and flak jacket with each copy.