A is for Alphabetised wargame and sim news. Every four weeks or so I hang up a streamer of industrial strength fly paper in The Flare Path water closet and see what wargame and simulation news items stick to it. Below is this month’s bag – 25 stories, most of which involve virtual vehicles and surrogate slaughter. If you’ve visited a transport museum or heritage railway in the past twelve months, or can put these battles – Kohima, Katzbach, Khe Sanh – in chronological order, you probably won’t regret clicking where it says…
]]>A is for Alphabetised wargame and sim news. Every four weeks or so I hang up a streamer of industrial strength fly paper in The Flare Path dunny and see what wargame and simulation news stories stick to it. Below is this month’s bag – 25 bite-size stories involving virtual vehicles and surrogate slaughter. If you wince when someone calls a locomotive a train, and can put these three battles – Ticonderoga, Tarawa, Trebia – in chronological order, you should probably click where it says…
]]>A is for Antediluvian art. Go to iEntertainment for your WarBirds 2020 information and you're sure to come away unimpressed. The pics on show here suggest this imminent MMO sequel is going to stick out like a Sopwith Camel in a sky full of Spitfires and Bf 109s when it appears this autumn. Confusingly, cockpit images recently tweeted by resurrected developer MicroProse give a very different impression.
]]>A is for Apology. Sorry. Wordblind and weary after two weeks of non-stop battle narration I very much doubt I'll get as far as Z today. Please spend the time you would have spent Flare Path perusing doing something equally worthwhile such as finishing that design for a solitaire board game about swallow migration you've been working on for the past seven years.
]]>A is for Afghan annihilation. A British Army defeat so unexpected and complete it caused a Governor-General of India to suffer a stroke on hearing news of it, inspires Wars Across the World's newest module. In the 16-turn Gandamak 1842 (£2) a vicious kick up the Khyber Pass awaits British players unable to overcome the overlapping challenges of rugged terrain, harsh weather, vulnerable lines of supply, and a steadily multiplying enemy.
]]>A is for Absence of Amiens wargames. Want to mark the Battle of Amiens centenary by recreating the dazzlingly successful Allied push on your PC? Good luck with that. Amazingly, no-one except the odd Open General and Panzer Corps modder seems to have deemed “the Black Day of the German Army” as scenario- or game-worthy. I can only assume that no dev has ever stumbled upon the incredible story of 'Musical Box', a (relatively) nippy Whippet tank, that, during the battle, advanced so quickly it became cut off and spent nine hours trundling around behind German lines shooting-up infantry positions, artillery batteries, and observation balloons before finally succumbing to enemy fire. If I had the requisite skills to make a top-down tank sim, Musical Box would be the star.
]]>Crafted with care and marketed without hyperbole, Diesel Railcar Simulator is that rare thing, a transport sim that transports without crucifying your wallet, cooking your GPU, and burying you under an avalanche of key commands. A conglomeration of incredibly sensible design decisions, it's been winning friends and gaining content steadily since appearing, seemingly from nowhere, late last summer. In today's FP I talk to Oskari, the man behind all those sensible design decisions.
]]>A is for A7V action
WWI armour sims are such rare creatures, I can't bring myself to say anything negative about 79p work-in-progress Cry of War. Currently boasting one tiny cosy map and three tank types (the A7V, Mark IV, and Renault FT), the game combines amateurish quirky presentation and crude forgiving movement physics with surprisingly sophisticated ballistics (shells can ricochet... system damage is determined by post-penetration trajectories) and the best 'tip' ever to appear on a military game loading screen. Disarmingly honest developer ShanghaiWindy will be coding around his university commitments, hence the 3-4 year Early Access period.
All that needs to be said about the tragicomic Flight Sim Labs affair has been said several times over. I could add my tuts to the tut heap or write something confessional about the handful of times I've found myself mingling with pirates and cracksmen, but I think I'd rather devote today's FP to sky sailing and semaphore signals, BoBing wargame makers and bobbing whalegame players.
]]>Operation Pump Handle went rather well, all things considered. Of the ten peanut-powered mechanical magpies dispatched on Monday morning, nine returned home with sim developer status reports in their leg canisters. Only Domino (destination Deadstick) is still out there somewhere. If you live in the Guildford area and have recently had a smoke or spark emitting Pica pica visit your bird table, please let me know.
]]>Like a sentry on a bitter night or the Isle of Man in a strong sou'westerly, Flare Path's birthday has a tendency to move about. Last year the champagne corks ricocheted and the streamers tangled on August 12. This year the big day is September 1. Today Rock, Paper, Shotgun's most Panzeriferous and Spitfiery column becomes a hexager. Celebrations will take the usual form – a litter of wet-nosed, bushy-tailed, berry-eyed foxers all far more approachable and, potentially, much more rewarding, than the standard co-op type. (COMPETITIONS NOW CLOSED)
]]>Where does a frazzled Combat Mission gamemaster go to get away from the sound of stuttering machine pistols and shattering molotovs? The 1960s English countryside, obviously. Lapioware's new period train sim is as soothingly pastoral as a Brian Cook book cover, and as fast-flowing as a mill race after heavy rain. If Panzergrenadiers lurk on any of its platforms then they must be in mufti as I've not noticed them.
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