Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943 Review

Popular imagination has a long standing love affair with blockbuster WWII battles and operations (El Alamein, Normandy, the Bulge, Montecassino, Operation Market Garden, [put your favorite here], etc.). The Eastern Front has its own share of very popular battles and operations (Stalingrad, Operation Barbarossa, Moscow and Kursk, just to mention a few). The Third Battle of Kharkov has been more or less in the realms of hardcore WWII history discussion and war gaming. A collosal struggle of men and heavy metal as any other battle in the Eastern Front, The Third Battle of Kharkov ended with the Germans capturing the city from the north and getting some morale back after the horrendous defeat and surrender of the German Sixth Army at ... (gah! blockbuster battle incoming) ... Stalingrad. Well, I hope you see my point that big stories about big battles are difficult to not love if you suck at military history as much as I do. To my defense, let me point out that even boutique war games developers who cater the most hard core and knowledgeable grognards out there are thinking it twice before meandering onto less popular WWII battles. That's why a while ago I was mildly surprised to read about this tactical game "Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943", that puts you in command of small units (company and below) in the less sexy, kind of distant southern flank of the city during March of 1943. I always thought that I would be able to find something interesting in any combat story of any unit, of any country, at any front and at any time during WWII. After playing "Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943" I can say I am still right. But the full credit goes to the way the story is presented in this game. 

Exclusive Interview with The Red Pill's Dimitris Dranidis

The Red Pill (working title) is a naval/air simulation/war game being developed by a team of independent developers. As judged by the screenshots and after action reports posted at WarfareSims.com, The Red Pill  will be packed with realism and playability. This is an interview with one of the team members, Dimitris V. Dranidis. 

JCOVE Lite: Reaction to Enemy Fire Drill

This four step drill and its variants are almost universal among armies of the world. It may come in handy at your next online coop match.
The other three steps (also presented as images) available when you click "read more"

TacNuggets #1: Overwatching and Overlooking Battle Spaces

The official line: TacNuggets is an experimental series of short entries about tactics. This series will  focus in simple tactical problems and their solution, using several simulators and games. Not intended to provide a full tactical meal, TacNuggets is just a snack to get your warrior spirit going through dull periods of time at work, the downloading/installation of your favorite game, your significant other's nagging, the music on  your credit card's customer support line or the loading time of your next DCS Black Shark mission.

The fine print: TacNuggets is mostly about: (i) blunders that consistently get me killed and prevent me to complete scenarios and write a decent after action report; (ii) over analyzing tactical axioms that most people can practice in their sleep; (iii) fattening your warrior spirit with an unhealthy snack that will leave you unfit even to command a pack of sheeps and  (iv), camouflaging the diminishing lenght and quality of the blog's entries with new names or word tricks.    

Without further addo, let's go straight into this first entry.

Simulator: Steel Beasts ProPE
Topic: Bounding Overwatch

"Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943", Tactical Combat Delivered in Manageable Chunks

The demo of "Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943" was released this week.

I'll spare you the generic and repetitive babble that you can read about this game in the mainstream media: a tactical World War II game  ... it has an "strategic" layer (that "strategic" bit always makes me chuckle) ... the battles play in real time ... it looks really pretty ... blah, blah, blah.

The question that I had when I loaded the demo: is there anything for incorrigible old farts like me who are beyond eye candy?

HistWar Les Grognards, Say Hello to my Little Voltigeur!

I just finished all the tutorials in HistWar Les Grognards (HWLG). The slow pace that I'm taking with this game is not for a lack of liking. Au contraire, I'm very excited about this game. I just  want to make sure that I get it right before venturing into battle. Also, there is some reading involved (got some books about Napoleonic warfare).

This short entry to let you know that HWLG really shines when you are in command of two or more Corps. This becomes evident in the last tutorial. With two or more Corps at your command, you have more tactical options (off course) and you have to think it twice before putting your units in action.

Cheers,

JCOVE Lite and the Urban Patrol Script

How much spoiled I became with ARMA 2 and its place-and-forget AI OPFOR units!

ARMA 2's AI OPFOR units that search, flank and swarm you from all over the map with vicious ferocity are just a click away in the editor. Now regarding this new JCOVE Lite drug I'm already addicted to, be advised that the AI is some sort of entity that lies between ARMA and ARMA 2. The question is: is it possible to give the AI OPFOR in JCOVE Lite some of the smarties mentioned above?

Red Pill: New Screenshots

WarfareSims.com has a new batch of screenshots of the "Cans Only" scenario. This naval/air war game looks absolutely fantastic and judging by the screenshots where info windows are open there appears to be an excellent engine under the hood. Read the full story and see all the screenshots here.

Cheers,

JCOVE Lite: The British Army Infantry Fire Team

Gentlemen, I am going to go on a limb when it comes to formations and TTPs in JCOVE-Lite. The UK Ministry of Defense considers all Army doctrinal publications secret, so it's going to be hard to be true to life. Any pointers and suggestions are (as always) very welcome.

Tank-Infantry Teams in ARMA 2: Securing a Foothold in an Urban Area (Part 3)

This is a continuation of past Tuesday's entry. Again, I pasted the birds eye view of the area of operations (image above) for an easier following of the action.

JCOVE Lite: Some Screenshots of As-Samawah and Nearby Places

I finally got a chance to install JCOVE Lite. Couldn't play that much yet, but I fired up the mission editor and placed myself in As-Samawah. This city offers a lot of opportunities for MOUT operations. Can't wait to get more of JCOVE Lite. Some extra screenshots inside. :)

Tank-Infantry Teams in ARMA 2: Securing a Foothold in an Urban Area (Part 2)

This is a continuation of my previous entry. I pasted the birds eye view of the area of operations (image above) for an easier following of the action.

Tank-Infantry Teams in ARMA 2: Securing a Foothold in an Urban Area (Part 1)

This is a brief after action report (AAR) of a USMC tank section-infantry squad team tasked with  securing a foothold in the port town of Chernogorsk.

The Battle of Mount Longdon from the Argentine Point of View

Click this image for an expanded view. Argentine forces are represented in blue and British forces in red.

This battle was one of the bloodiest of the Malvinas/Falklands War. Both British and Argentine forces fought bravely in a vicious night fight where even bayonet charges were seen.

The purpose of this entry is to share some notes from official after action reports by the Ejercito Argentino (Argentine Army) and other book sources.

"Combat Mission: Afghanistan", an old video I found in YouTube

This one is from back in July 2009. Comparing this old video and the new screenshots at Battlefront.com, it looks like they worked very hard on the 3D models and skins. Bravo!

Cheers,

"Combat Mission: Afghanistan" Announced

These news I got from Wargamer.com. Please see the official announcement at Battlefront.com.
Not exactly "news" (the cat was out of the bag for a some time), but given how Battlefront manages this type of things (nothing is official until it hits the frontpage, no matter how much is discussed and acknowledged in their forums) we are now officially to get a new stand alone Combat Mission game set during the Russo-Afghan War.

According to Battlefront's announcement, this new game is a collaboration with an independent studio. The announcement also makes it clear that this is not a mission pack but rahter a stand-alone game that features new units and ... (are you ready for this?) ... a new "exit" objective type plus the sorely missed "water" terrain tiles. Utterly confused right now: are these two new features just modded objectives and newly skinned tiles? Or are they really new, hard coded new features?

At the time of this writing, Battlefront's official forums are down.

Disclaimer: Image above is property of Battlefront. Used here without their permission but assuming fair use. Please contact me at realandsimulatedwars @ gmail dot com for concerns or complains.

Cheers,

UPDATE: Battlefront's forums are back and CM Afghanistan has its own forum.

HistWar Les Grognards, Screenshots

Only 6 hours after placing my order, I received an e-mail with a download link and a "key" file (this file has to be placed in the main game folder). Installation was a breeze and without any problems.

I'm not going to pass any type of conclusion about this war game for the time being. The topic is unfamiliar to me and the game is very ambitious. If you are too much into graphics goodies (I heard Napoleon Total War is around the corner), this may not be the game for you. Please take a look at these screen shots I took last night while playing the first tutorial. Make sure to click the images to expand them and see the interface.

Please click "read more" for more screenshots.

"VBS2 JCOVE", A Free Taste of VBS2 Courtesy of the UK Department of Defense

Thanks Jens for the heads up on this free simulation based on VBS2!  Please click on the "read more" link below for a short description, links and download information.


From the official website:

JCOVE Lite is a freeware game derived from Bohemia Interactive's VBS2 software - itself a derivative of Armed Assault but focused on simulated training for military purposes. JCOVE Lite was funded by the UK MOD to give the general public, particularly potential recruits, an idea of how the British military trained for combat as well as providing a more realistic combat simulation than your standard shoot'em-up. Overall it gives serious gamers an immensely modifiable platform to create, share and play their own missions using a huge range of British military equipment - from the humble Sig 229 to the legendary Challenger 2 Main Battle Tank. It is available for free from Armed Forces Careers Offices around the UK, as well as available to download publically for all registered community members at jcove-lite.co.uk.

For downloading JCOVE Lite, you will first need through an easy registration process.

Cheers,

I Did Buy HistWar Les Grognards ... Did I?

Yesterday, I posted about the (maybe) release of HisWar Les Grognards.

After seeing the official forums being back to normal, and after reading that some people were actually playing the game, I decided to purchase it.

The order confirmation e-mail I received was a bit confusing. Take a look:

Hello Jxxxx CXXXXXX, thank you for shopping with HistWarGames.
You have ordered a game in pre order. It is not immediately available. The box Les Grognards and the box Les Grognards Collector Napoleon will be shipped in January 2010. However, once the game is available, you will be able to download and start playing "HistWar: Les Grognards"!
When purchasing the game in pre sale, the title of "Grenadiers HistWar" will be assigned to you. It will give you access to a private forum for support and exchange.

So, it looks like the game is still in pre-order status. Funny thing the e-mail says the boxed games are being shipped in January 2010.

I will update this entry tomorrow. I just wanted you to be aware that if you haven't pre-ordered the game already, it is unlikely you will be doing the ordering-paying-downloading-playing thing that you may be expecting.

I'm off to call back Visa, they just called informing me of some suspicious activity in my card. :)

Cheers,

ARMA 2: Organizing a Squad into Groups with the Editor

I promise: just one more action-less entry before I head for the fields to test the tank-infantry teams mumbo-jumbo I have been writing ...

HistWar Les Grognard ... Released ... Almost ... Maybe ...

This Napoleonic game was to be released last night, at least for the brave souls who pre-ordered it.

Here is the link to the release announcement, but at the time of this writing the link is dead.

It is hard to follow the news of this game. Almost as hard as to play the demo.

Cheers,

New "Red Pill" Screenshots

Ladies and gentlemen, this naval/air war game will kick some serious ass. A new batch of screenshots has been posted this weekend at Warfaresims.com.

The stunning screenshots are the first batch from an scenario named "Cans Only".

This is a simple ASuW-centered scenario addressing a hypothetical surface engagement exercise in the western Pacific in the summer of 2010. Two USN surface action groups, one of them including the amphibious ship USS Essex, must reach the Tokyo-Yukosuka area. Two JMSDF taskgroups act as OPFOR and must prevent them from doing so. There is no land-based air support or submarines; both sides must make do with their surface ships and what they can carry onboard. The Japanese have an advantage in numbers, but the US has more Aegis ships and lots more helicopters. The setup is 2-on-2 groups so there are plenty of decisions to make!

More details and screenshots here.

Cheers,