Old Games/Sims Woes

A new entry for the "Maneuver Warfare: a Wargamer's Notebook" is in the works. I wanted it to include some combat flight simulator experience of F-86 Sabres and Mig-15s dogfighting over Korea. So I went and dusted off my copy of Mig Alley and tried to install it on my Win7 computer. It never ran ... At a certain point even other games stopped working (the installer must have overwritten some DirectX files) ... Big pain.

Installing Mig Alley in my oldest XP computer made the trick. "Setup.exe" must be ran in Win98 compatibility mode and that's it. That will probably do the trick in the Win7, but I'm not going to take any more chances.

This is me flying a Mig-15.

Yours truly practicing the flying gaits in some remote area of South Korea.

Well, it looks ugly. It's a 11 years old simulator. You may wonder why I chose Mig Alley and not any of the other add-on/mods for IL2-1946 or Strike Fighters. I read that Korean War dogfighting is nowhere more authentic in terms of flight models than in Mig Alley, but I have no proof of anything. What's your experience with the before mentioned mods?

And speaking of flight models. I messed up with trimming, climbing and descending in the F-86 until 2 a.m. last night. The F-86 Sabre, with the trim in neutral, flights a beautiful straight and level 430-450 KIAS with the engine at 83%.

I better get into some serious dogfighting now. I've lost no less than 5 hours troubleshooting this thing.

Cheers,

Less is more? - US Army Wargames Big and Small

The print version of Training and Simulation Journal (TSJ) came packed with good reading.

There is a forum type discussion about an earlier feature about Jim Lunsford's Follow me, an easy-to-learn, low-budget tactical game that is being used in the U.S. Military Academy. In this issue of TSJ, Col. John Surdu explains that simple and cheap war games are useful, but complex and expensive war games (like Warsim and OneSAF) are not to be scorched because they are validated and verified. He writes: "do we understand where there might be negative learning because the combat effects [in simple war games] are incorrect?". James Sterrett (deputy lead of the simulations group at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, CGSC) responds: "[expensive and complex war games] can provide great execution-centric learning environments, but the overhead they require doesn't support the majority of the education executed at the CGSC". Jim Lunsford gets the final words of the discussion: "no matter how good the game may appear to be, the quality of training will always depend on the instructor's ability to shape learning".

Big budgets but big requirements. I wouldn't like to be in the shoes of the contractors who design these big US Army simulations. In a lighter note, Michael Peck wrote a review of Civilization V, a game that apparently has come back to its roots. From his review, quote of the day:

"It is the peculiar nature of popular video games and rock bands that they begin with one style, swell with excess until they are barely recognizable, and then return to their roots"

Food for thought.

Cheers,

Media Warfare: ProSIM announces the publication of "Media War"

Pat Proctor, the man who brought us hours of great tactical war gaming with ProSIM, has been busy writing.


From his blog:

Media Warfare: ProSIM announces the publication of "Media War"

In Operation Iraqi Freedom, insurgent and terrorist groups have developed the capability to use small, relatively insignificant tactical attacks, amplified through the megaphone of the media, to erode the will of the American public to prosecute the war. This capability has neutralized the overwhelming advantage the US military has in firepower in Iraq by bypassing it completely.

Available as an e-book from Amazon.

Looking forward to read your book, Pat.

Cheers,

Gary Grigsby's War in the East - Shaping Operations Against the AI, Intentional and Not

I was playing as the Germans in the "Road to Leningrad" scenario of Gary Grigsby's War in the East and after enjoying the breakthrough cakewalk (should we call it "breakthrough"?) things start to get interesting once I sink the threads of my panzers in the hugeness of the theater of operations.

Under my command, Army Group North, the least powerful of all German army groups at the onset of the Russo-German War. Our objective is to capture Leningrad. Army Group North is composed of two Armies (16th and 18th, infantry), and the 4th Panzer Group (4th PzGrp, armored). The schwerpunkt for the first part of this operation is the 4th PzGrp, which will conduct a deep penetration to capture the intermediate objective Pskov, some 230+ miles beyond the start line. Because Army Group North as a whole has very limited operational mobility (too much infantry), the 4th PzGrp will capture and pause at Pskov and this city will be the springboard for the final Army Group North's attack on Leningrad.

4th PzGrp cut through the Soviets like a knife, crossed the Daugava river and now is preparing to capture Pskov.

Click the image for a better view. With the infantry hundreds of miles behind, the 4th PzGrp approaches Pskov through the east (LVI Pz. Corps) and the south (XXXXI Pz. Corps).  I wanted to approach Pskov with XXXXI Pz. Corps moving west of the Velikaya river, but as seen here, but the 6thPzDiv (outlined fucsia) has bumped into two Soviet infantry divisions. 

Click the image for a better view. Annoyed at the perspective of conducting an corps-sized attack across a river, I instead move the XXXXI PzCorp (counters outlined fucsia and yellow) towards Pskov but east of the Velikaya river (black arrow was added with an image editing software).

Click the image for a better view. Following my XXXXI Pz Corps move north, the two Soviet infantry divisions moved out. Their move was not east because the Totenkopf Motorized Division (counter highlighted fucsia) has moved through that terrain (black arrow) and didn't find them. It is likely that at least one of the Soviet infantry divisions has moved to reinforce Pskov.

Pskov fell during the week of July 10, 1941 amid substantial loss of lives and equipment. It was not wise to attack the city from a single direction and across a river. But the war gamer here is happy to see the AI in this game reacting in this way to his moves. In other opportunities I've noticed also that the AI tends to retreat when there is a threat of encirclement. Besides of an interesting opponent, the AI in War in the East offers the solo player the possibility to conduct the so-called "decisive" and "shaping" operations.

Cheers,

Gary Grigsby's War in the East - Screenshots

I finally got to try War in the East, the monster Eastern Front from 2by3 Games and published by Matrix Games.

War in the East is massive in both scale and depth. It feels like you could be playing this game for a whole year and yet find something new. There are some game design features that I am liking, like a not so restrictive fog of war that is adequate for an operational level war game, the detailed but easy to manage logistics and the flexibility to reorganize/shuffle formations.

I was a bit reluctant about how a 2 weeks turn would work (it sounded a bit too long), but all the game mechanics seem to be finely tuned for a 2 week pulse of action. EDIT: Turns are one week. Thanks anonymous for the correction.

Not so enthused about the general feel of working in the map (it feels a bit clunky) and the on-map highlighting  of formations above the corps level.

Images below are clickeable.

Cheers,

Panzer Campaigns Kharkov 43 - Keep the Infantry Moving

Operational and strategic mobility is are usually bound to the road network.

In PzC's Kharkov 43, the winter weather conditions are forcing me to conduct a good portion of the tactical maneuvers near the roads. In particular, infantry. Not that they can't move through the open ... It's just too taxiing for them to do so.

This company from the 320th Inf. Div. will be walking roads until it makes contact. The highlighted hexes are the reachable ones. Note how mobility is double if the grunts keep their feet in the road. Any movement aside the road will reduce their mobility to half. From the "Gross Deutschland leads the way" scenario.

Cheers,

Military Monday at SimHQ - ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead

A great video by Brennus on the "Military Monday" online session with ArmA2 Operation Arrowhead.

Infantry supported by a Warrior IFV, clears a roadblock and moves onto a guerrilla campground.



"Military Monday" is an online session hosted by SimHQ. The players follow a chain of command and radio communications protocols. Realistic tactics are highly encouraged.

Original thread here. Make sure to view this video in YouTube for HD.

Cheers,

P/S: anybody here joins these sessions at SimHQ? Anybody plays ArmA 2 online at a virtual unit?

Cheers,

ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead PMC - Why I am still interested

[...] private military forces offer a level of flexibility and promise of efficiency when coping with threats to global market function. An example of this was see most recently in the havoc created by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. When the federal government, because of bad management and legal barriers using federal forces, failed to act, PMCs stepped into some of the breaches. Companies such as Blackwater and others quickly sent forces to New Orleans to protect high-value for corporate clients (from looters) and provided extraction details for high-net-worth individuals and valuable corporate employees.

From Brave New War: The Next Stage of Terrorism and the End of Globalization
By John Robb

ArmA 2 is an entertainment product, yet oriented towards a niche of the gaming market. It is a simulation of infantry tactical warfare realistic enough that an off-shot of the original game engine is used for training in military forces around the globe. Popularity and media buzz-wise, the Private Military Comapny (PMC) DLC is not the hottest Bohemia Interactive module. When I got it myself I thought -Meh! What will be next ...a  Red Cross refugee-relief module?

There is an entire school of thought that is raising the flag about sovereign states no longer having the monopoly in the delivery of violence against masses of people. Violence at a scale that can tip the political stability of a whole state. John Robb is in the cutting edge of this idea that was originally put forward by Martin van Creveld. Global terrorism and the Mexican drug cartels are two examples of the new actors in this whole new game the world is witnessing. The idea of a state without the resources (legal or material) to cope with non-state threats to its existence is scary. But even more scary is the idea that anybody with enough money can pay to enter the game. And I am not talking about the "10 dollar Taliban" that can't hit a cow in a corridor with his cousin's 20-year-old assault rifle. I am talking about ex-special operations veterans armed with modern weaponry that can bring down a building in their sleep. Enter the private military contractor ...

Although the political, strategic and operational minutia of the fictional war in Takistan are out of reach for the ArmA2 OA PMC player, the tactical grind of the simulation offers a rare opportunity to experience the life of the military contractor. And I say rare not because this is the first "mercenary" shooter in the market but because is the only one that we can hope will deliver the goods in a way more close to reality. Under-manned,  under-gunned, no indirect fire support, tactical mobility not a lot better than your wife's during a trip to the mall, with a huge baggage bogging down the tactical tempo (do we really need to protect these clients? ;) ), the challenge will be there. Unfortunately, the canned missions of the PMC DLC are not that appealing. At least for me, ArmA was never at story-telling and I was not actually hoping anything stellar with this module. But the sandbox is open for mission creators!

And now if you excuse me, I have to finish my read of the FRAGO contract and send my SITREP invoice to my commander client. :)

Cheers,

Harpoon 3 ANW - Fighting the Wrong Battle with the Wrong Warships - Part 2

This is a continuation from this previous entry.

2140, May 15 1995. The green outlines of the Malvinas/Falklands and the continent are spectators to the naval battle to come. The red square icon is Port Stanley. The blue concentric circles are my task forces. From south to north TF02, TF01 and TF06. West of TF01 a Lynx helicopter (blue inverted semicircle with two small "ears") has detected some surface contacts (yellow squares) and considerable air activity (yellow inverted half-squares). One air contact (the one selected) is a fast mover (note its airspeed at 420 knots) and considering its location and bearing (far from land masses) it is possibly coming from the Veinticinco de Mayo. The two surface contacts northwest of TF01 are a bit worrying too, but so far we haven't observed any aircraft in their proximity. They may well be patrol boats. The HMS Trafalgar (blue inverted semi-circle) is west off Port Stanley.

A lone Lynx helicopter scouting some 90 nm west of the main body of our task force has reported surface contacts along with considerable air activity. These contact reports reek with the smell of the Argentine carrier Veinticinco de Mayo.

Information. How many battles lost for the lack of it? Is this the Argentine carrier and its escorts? Is it heading towards the islands? Or is it actually seeking battle with our carrier?

Decision. Is "always attack" such a strong dictum in naval warfare? Should I engage the contacts in a full-blown carrier vs carrier naval engagement? Should I just track the Argentines and relay that information to the Trafalgar for an ambush?

I settle for a small raid (AKA half-ass attack) on the Argentines. I detach a total of four warships from TF02 and TF01 and order them to a rendezvous point near their former formations. HMS Amazon, HMS Battleaxe and HMS Argyll (all purpose frigates) and HMS Glasgow (area air defense destroyer) quickly get into position and find their way west. I have divested my carrier and land assault task forces of a significant amount of firepower, but I need to know what the Argentines are up to and stop them from getting close to the islands or my carrier, preferably all at the same time.

This is a complicated screenshot and I strongly suggest clicking on it for a better view. The big map in the background ("Zoom Window") shows the big picture tactical situation. The bunched up yellow icons in the center are the surface and air contacts we have detected. Some 60 miles east of these contacts, the inverted blue semicircle is a Harrier conducting a quick scouting mission. The lone Lynx helicopter (blue inverted semicircle north of the Harrier) is still providing intelligence to our fleet. Immediately east of the Lynx helicopter, the blue concentric circles is the new mini-task force, sailing west from the two other blue concentric circles (TF01 and TF02). An expanded view of the mini-task force's formation is in the window located in the lower right part of the screenshot.

Weak everywhere and with more moving parts, my fleet is committed to a tactical plan with a flexibility that has an expiration date of one or two hours. Once the raiding formation sails 30 or 40 nm from the main body of the fleet, it will take them no less than 1 hour to get back in the event of a major Argentine attack. One likes to think that only once you get into shooting distance to the enemy is when the arms of battle won't let you out of their grip. In naval warfare, the vastness of the sea swallows your firepower and your tactical options very easily.

On the bright side, the raiders sailing west to meet the Veinticinco the Mayo need air cover from our Harrier aircraft.I set flights of 3 Harriers into CAP missions just in front of the mini-task force. Unintentionally, these CAP missions ended up chewing up a big chunk of the Argentine naval aviation assets.

The selected unit (blue concentric inverted semicircle) is a flight of 3 Harriers investigating and air contact. Their CAP waypoints are the green "X"s. The area inside the orange lines is a "threat to aircraft" I placed to avoid my own aircraft flying too close to the Argentine ships.

To be continued ...

Cheers,

Real and Simulated Wars Opens a Window

This blog has a total of 431 entries. None of my entries were never mentioned or noted at the forums of the  popular site Wargamer.com. It is very ironic that just one entry would be cross-referenced and generate this reaction at the Wargamer.com forum. I was not surprised to their reaction towards my entry. Nobody likes to be called names. Me calling them "activists" was like a stick shoveled up their digital rights sensitivities. Fair game, forumites ... I wasn't expecting kudos for that.

Yesterday I posted about closing the blog. You may think I was pissed at the Wargamer.com thread reaction, name-calling and other assorted hostilities. Nope. I was actually overwhelmed at the thought that no matter what, playing and discussing games and simulations in some online communities is getting second to chest-beating, demonstrating how awesome you and your principles (?!) are, and over-blowing every iota of imperfection a game has. Grognards! Some may call. Not really. A true grognard would give you an earful of complains, but while on the march to fight the battle of a lifetime. With you, not against you.

In such train of depressing thought yesterday I hastily decided to get over with anything online and close the blog. One day after, I am awed at the support you guys provided in the form of e-mails and comments. Really, really appreciated.

I'm not claiming the victimized hero part in this play. There is no heroics in saying "closed forever" then "well, actually not". It is more of an embarrassment to do so. But more embarrassing would be to let this blog go without a good fight.

I apologize for all of the drama of a false-alarm closing and all of the above ranting. I always want to keep this blog clean of drama and personal grievances. But your involvement in the last day or so convinced me that you deserve a proper explanation.

Let's game something ...

Cheers,