Unity of Command - Gameplay Notes - 2nd Kharkov Scenario, Operations Brief

This series of entries are game play notes about Unity of Command, which I will review in the following days. They are written as an AAR with frequent stops along the way to showcase the game's features and design.

This war game features both single scenarios and a campaign which is more or less a series of scenarios linked together. For this series I choose the 2nd Kharkov scenario and I am playing as the Germans (single scenarios can be played from one pre-determined side, not both).

This series features a lot of screenshots and if you are interested in seeing them in detail I suggest you click on each of them, then when the window for images pops up right click them and select the "open in a new tab" option. Sorry about the inconvenience, you can thank Blogger for the extra work ... :)

Command Ops Battles from the Bulge - How to Derail Your Recon Pull

A fine war gaming evening and a painful reminder of what Command Ops is all about.

It's the early afternoon of D1 and the 2nd PzD is on a tight timetable to secure a crossing over the Meuse at or near Dinant (some 20 kilometers northwest of the sector shown in this map). The first significant water obstacle is the Lomme river. An earlier recon mission of the crossing at Hargimont (A) showed that the site is well defended by a US Army infantry battalion (unfortunately a reconnaissance company got decisively engaged there and is fighting for its life right now). The crossing at Jemelle (B) is useless because it can't be accessed from the south. The crossing at Rochefort (C) was reconnoitered by a bicycle (?!) company (E) and is also defended by US Army infantry battalion. The bicycle company was ordered to reconnoiter another crossing downstream (D) so KG Cochenhausen can bypass Rochefort (C) and continue pushing northwest. Fine and dandy, the trains appear to be on time. KG Cochenhausen will be entirely on the other side of the river in 2 to 3 short hours, I thought.

ArmA 2 British Armed Forces - The Awesome Stopping Power of .50 Cal

Don't do this at your virtual battlefield, fellows. Eating and drinking too much impaired my judgement tonight, but I kicked some rebel butt nonetheless. Happy Thanksgiving ... :)

The mission was to block any rebel reinforcements from entering the area of operations five kilometers south. Down there, a reinforced company is searching an insurgent compound suspected of harboring heavy weapons, including two T-55 tanks (leftovers courtesy of the now defunct Takistani Army). We are just a tiny group of lads, half observation post, half blocking force. My vehicle is in one of the extremes of a village, and the tanks the main force is looking for are just in front of me.

Unity of Command - Postcard from Stalingrad

The 371st Infantry Division (selected in the screen below) is the only operational reserve of the German south pincer aimed at Stalingrad. In the turn before, I've already lost a Panzer Division. :(  I've never went from the offensive to the defensive so freaking fast!

Click the image for a better view.

How a game that looks so simple can offer the player so many operational-warfare choices?

A review for Unity of Command is coming up.

Cheers,

DCS Black Shark 2 - Sharks Go Downtown

Irregulars. The ragtags are outgunned and outnumbered, but they still have the luxury of choosing when and where to fight.

0500. Kutaisi, Georgia. The Russian Army is consolidating the gains of a blitz invasion. The Georgian Army has been almost overrun but hostile irregular forces keep popping up everywhere. The forward reconnaissance elements of  a Russian forward detachment are at the outskirts of Kutaisi. Me and my wingman are attached to this reconnaissance patrol. We didn't expect to fight this morning.

Squad Battles Red Victory - Dragging Men Uphill

Another 200 gallons of tough love from a Squad Battles' tutorial/boot camp scenario. :)

The game: Squad Battles Red Victory (WWII, tactical level, turn based)
The scenario: Bootcamp 1, Assault on a Fortified Position. Training scenario. Topic: fire and maneuver, use of combat engineers

Mission for today is to take a German fortified position (A) manned by a German infantry squad. Specific objectives (blue squares with a number 50) are two MG42 bunkers on a hill. I am commanding a company of Russian infantry (B). By the time of this screenshot was taken, I already advanced/infiltrated my men to their assault jump off positions. Note how I am leaning my forces on the right flank. The vegetation offered concealment for a covert approach, but all my command is in a depression crossed by a gully. I feel like I'm putting fish for a barrel shootout.  

When calculated by counting men, the odds were in our favor. The firepower/terrain calculus was a totally different story ...

Getting Acquainted with "Battle Command"

Imagine commanding each platoon of a whole battalion over a hundred square kilometers 3D battlefield rendered like Google Earth ...

That's pretty much what I am getting myself into. Battle Command is a free multiplayer, real time, highly detailed tactical combat simulation from Historical Software Corporation.

"Command" Naval/Air War Game to Nuke from Orbit

Admiral, something is watching our fleet from way up there ...



The passion of the group developing Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations knows no limit. Needless to say, looking forward to play this! :)

Cheers,

DCS Black Shark 2 - My Shark is Short on Sensors (and Targets)

I learnt about the DCS Black Shark 2 upgrade at SimHQ.com. The upgrade was a surprise to many, including myself. I have been aching to get back into the Ka-50 for a while and now I have the perfect excuse.

Yesterday I took off to a CAS mission to find out how much my rotary wing skills have rusted.

North German Plain 85 / Steel Beasts ProPE - Catching Up With the Enemy (Epilogue)

In the end, the enemy was able to reach PL Navajo in numbers enough to mess with the NATO forces in Hameln, who by then were taking a break from a tough fight against the airborne enemy forces.

SITREP at 0852. Enemy tanks have broken through PL Mohawk through Voremberg (A, D). The lead element of the Soviet column is ready to pivot north (A). One lonely Leopard has occupied battle position 2 (BP2, B) but it's having trouble acquiring any target. 1st and 4rd Tank Platoons, along with a tank from 3rd Platoon (E) can't react in time to the enemy tank threat south (A and D) and are busy figuring out if the enemy can still cross PL Mohawk (center, C).