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Feature: Armored Brigade inspected
Before the Su-17s showed up, the defence of Großenlüder was going like clockwork. Dug in behind wire and minefields, my Chieftains were dominating. Their poppy-brushing 120mm guns had barcoded the eastern horizon with pillars of black smoke. Nothing of Soviet manufacture had made it as far as the village, and nothing looked likely to. But then the napalm came. Tumbling canisters of molten lava delivered…
Feature: Fight me, you cowards
The development of Close Combat: The Bloody First has lasted for as long as the war it depicts, but four years after its original intended launch date, Matrix Games’ World War II RTS is due to storm the beaches soon. As well as being the first 3D game in the series, it’s the first that’s been built in publisher Slitherine’s Archon engine, but more interesting…
Ah, the Close Combat series. Over twenty years old, and still disabusing people of the notion that World War 2 was won through heroic charges through enemy fire against improbable odds. The venerable simulationist strategy series has been crushing the spirits of would-be tacticians for a very long time now, although many of the games have been out of circulation for some time. Presumably in…
As Tim Stone spent his week knee-deep in virtual fishing holes, pouting at carp and tickling their barbels, it falls to me to report than serious strategy and wargame folks Matrix Games have launched their traditional holiday sale. You won't find discounts as ridiculous as other sales, but they are cutting prices perhaps a touch deeper than they usually do. Boxed copies are on sale…
Some wargames attempt to reconstruct a single battle in detail, be it Agincourt, Waterloo or the Somme Offensive. Some attempt to recreate an entire conflict or theatre of warfare. Norm Koger's Operational Art of War series covers all of 20th century warfare, utilising a flexible set of mechanics and design tools. Today, Matrix announced that The Operational Art of War III, the sixth entry in…
Feature: Simulation & wargame blather
The appeal of trains: Rhythm. Racket. Clatter. Squeal. Sway. Jolt. Hiss. Bellow. Thrum. Gleam. Glint. Grime. Rust. Musk. Power. Precision. Toil. Stoicism. Blue-collar heroes. Uncomplaining beasts of burden. Giant steampunk millipedes. Countryside cleavers. Smoke wreathers. J. M. W. Turners. Midnight diadems. Tortured troglodytes. Reminders of a vanished world. Childhood's branchline. Life's express. Speed. Anticipation. Departure. Arrival. Exoticism. Mundanity. Predictability. Personality. Possibility. Peace. Pace. Onwards. Onwards.…
Feature: Simulation & wargame blather
Grigsby, Billings, and Brors are to PC wargaming what Stock, Aitken, and Waterman are to pop music... what Freeman, Hardy, and Willis are to shoe retailing... what Rock, Paper, and Shotgun are to outdated Anglocentric intro references. They started making hexagonal militaria in the days when Tyrannosauri and Triceratopses grappled, and dragonflies the size of Dragonflies dragonflew. Their latest release, War in the West, is…
My first thought on watching Gary Grigsby's War in the West's launch trailer was "Who the devil is Gary Grigsby?" My second was a curious, vague disappointment that all the black and white archive footage wasn't accompanied by Laurence Olivier's dulcet tones orating sombrely about World War II. It wasn't until some nifty hex-based picture editing appeared that I remembered I was watching a game trailer.
In a world where it's increasingly likely that game bundles will soon be given away with Happy Meals, people are often flabbered right down to the gasts when they see the prices over on planet Matrix. The wargaming/strategy publisher doesn't discount its back catalogue as often as some companies discount their front catalogue, so when the annual holiday sale rolls around, it's worth paying attention…
I'm expecting to be crushed beneath an avalanche of trailers at any moment as the E3 machine grumbles into action. There will be spectacle, there will be slaughter, there will be Molyneux Santa Claus. There is a trailer in this post but it has very little in common with the noise of E3, being the last of the veteran Close Combat series to utilise the…
Feature: Adam and Adama
No tease before the jump here, let’s get straight to it. Distant Worlds: Universe is my favourite space strategy game. Not my favourite space strategy game released this week and not my favourite space strategy game released this year. It’s the definitive version of the best space strategy game I’ve ever played and I want to share the excitement with everyone, starting with an old…
Feature: Simulation & wargame blather
On May 14th this year, Castello di Pavone, one of Northern Italy's swankiest strongholds, was invaded by an army of conflict-obsessed game developers. Were the devs in question... a) Laser-scanning the fortress for a level in the soon-to-be-announced Hidden & Dangerous 3? b) Laser-scanning the fortress for a level in the soon-to-be-announced Commandos 5? c) Laser-scanning the fortress for a level in the soon-to-be-announced Bella…
An exciting day. Even more exciting than an ordinary Friday. Even more exciting than an extraordinary Friday that marks the beginning of a long weekend (lot of those recently in this part of the world). Today is exciting because Distant Worlds: Universe has arrived, a standalone sequel/collection containing every previous release in the series as well as various improvements, new modding tools and a brand…
There are several reason contributing to the fact that wargames have remained a niche hobby while comic books and Dungeons & Dragons have stealthily infiltrated the mainstream. Look at the image in this link. Perhaps your reaction is to spit axle grease into your hands, rub them together and wrestle with the hexes and stats immediately. Or maybe you think the whole thing looks like…
I first heard about Pandora: First Contact when an RPS commenter linked to it as being 'maybe a bit like Alpha Centauri'. Except that's not true, because I've since remembered that I first heard about the planet-settling turn-based 4X game when frequent RPS contributor and friend-o-person Dan Griliopoulos updated his LinkedIn profile to mention he wrote for the game. Now the game is out. To…
Feature: Fulsome In Fulda
Like Autumn, the forest alchemist, I've spent this week splashing hillsides with gold and crimson. In woods, fields and towns the length of West Germany I've been tirelessly turning earthy greens into vibrant reds and yellows. Hundreds of hurrying APCs, hastily dug-in MBTs, and hovering helo gunships have flared like frost-startled beech trees as I've fought to resist Red Storm's irresistible red storm. It's years since…
Feature: Shakedown Cruise
ACRONYM GLOSSARY (Please memorise before proceeding) ASW - Anti Submarine Warfare. AEW - Airborne Early Warning. SEAD - Suppression of Enemy Air Defences. DICASS - Directional Command Active Sonobuoy System. SSN - Nuclear-powered submarine. ITWPWT - Innocent Trawler in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time. CMANO - Command: Modern Air Naval Operations. CHR - Compendious Harpoon Replacement. ESS - Essentially Ship-Shape. DSDDB - Despite Shoal of Disappointing…
Feature: Simulation & wargame blather
Toady in Flare Path: brief thoughts on the latest Matrix Games/Slitherine pricing controversy, Ilya Shevchenko reflects on the DCS WWII Kickstarter campaign, the Foxer is renamed the Fuchser in honour of Steel Beasts 3.0, and 'today' and 'misspelled' are mispelled.
Feature: simulation & wargame blather
Wargame publishing leviathan Slitherine held their 2013 press conference last Friday. Fredericksburg, Virginia was the venue and I was there! In spirit. Physically I was in a small room in Staines, Surrey eating fig rolls and reading Nevil Shute's 'Pastoral' but I'm determined not to let a minor detail like that get in the way of pithy reportage. With the help of half a bottle of Auntie…
Feature: Simulation & wargame news
Every day is D-Day -1 for the busy Seabees at Slitherine Software. An Epsom-based outfit that started life constructing singular sword-and-sandal TBSs, is now, thanks to a slew of acquisitions and a dazzlingly dynamic approach to talent spotting/signing, the dominant force in PC wargame publishing. During the coming year, company chieftain Iain McNeil will be overseeing more than fifty releases. Realising I knew little about…
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