Man Believes He Can Win WW2, Is Wrong

Paul Mason, Economics editor for BBC's Newsnight, has only gone and written one of the most interesting pieces of games journalism I've read in a while. In a blog post entitled "I re-fight World War Two and lose", Mason takes a shot at playing hardcore World War 2 strategy game Hearts of Iron III using tactics that some WW2 historians believe could have brought Hitler's Germany to its knees in a fraction of the time. As you may have deduced by now, it doesn't go so hot.

Firing up the "Politics" interface I was at first amused to find my president, Albert Lebrun, classified as "barking buffoon", prime minister Albert Sarraut as a "happy amateur" and my intel boss as a "dismal enigma" - but not amused to find that I could not change any of this before the scheduled election in 1940. My finger itched over the military coup button, and I immediately resorted to installing a far-right French police chief to quell dissent and abolish strikes.

Go read! Thanks to Fred Wester, CEO of Paradox for the tip-off. No, really.