Unity of Command - Gameplay Notes - 2nd Kharkov Scenario - The March Up North (06Jun42 / 18Jun42)

All things considered, it turns out I have trashed my operational tempo by over-sizing my main effort.

The Soviets are packing and fleeing up north!

My command is battle-weary, understrength and behind schedule to secure the two remaining objectives.

Tigers Unleashed (HPS Simulations) - Screenshots

Some screenshots of Tigers Unleashed, an impressive, highly detailed simulation of WWII tactical combat that will be released any minute now. More impressions and an AAR are coming up, stay tuned.

The USS Dale at Pearl Harbor

This entry was intended for yesterday, but it was delayed by real life issues.
Zenith Press has a great portfolio of military-themed books. Yesterday, the company's blog featured an excerpt from an excellent book about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Pilots aboard Nagumo’s six carriers awoke very early from what surely must have been a nervous sleep. Yet, despite all of the anxiety, Flight Commander Fuchida found Lieutenant Commander Shigeharu Murata, leader of the torpedo bombers who would soon strike Pearl Harbor’s battleship row, hungrily wolfing down a hearty breakfast. Murata called out, “Good morning, Commander Fuchida. Honolulu sleeps!”

“How do you know?” Fuchida asked.
“The Honolulu radio plays soft music,” Murata responded. “Everything is fine!”    
At 0600, Nagumo’s six carriers began launching the first wave of airplanes. At 0630, Commander Fuchida turned south in command of forty Kate torpedo bombers, fifty-one dive-bombers, forty-three fighters, and forty-nine Kate high-level bombers. Months of training were about to culminate in an operation that would commit Japan to a war with the industrial might of the United States.
Though most of Honolulu slept, a few were being made aware that something was up. In the early morning darkness, the destroyer USS Ward (DD-139) spotted the periscope of an unidentified submarine near the entrance to Pearl Harbor. TheWard attacked the submarine, sank it, and then reported the incident up the chain of command. Then, at approximately 0700, an alert army radar operator saw the approaching first wave of Japanese airplanes on his scope and called in a report to his superior. Both reports, however, fell on deaf ears and nothing was done to increase Pearl Harbor’s readiness for what was about to come from the sky.

There is more at the Zenith Press blog. Please take a look.

Cheers,

Unity of Command - Gameplay Notes - 2nd Kharkov Scenario - The Fall of Izium (17May42 / 06Jun42)

Izium fell on the first week of June1942 to a backdrop of ferocious attacks and counterattacks.

The human toll has been horrendous, the enemy too obstinate to give up ground.

ArmA 2 - Combat Outpost Defense

This video brought to you by BO, who appears to be having lots of multiplayer fun ... :)



From the video description:

An ArmA TvT event in which we get our collective asses handed to us. As part of the beta MP TvT campaign "A Fork in the Road" which requires ISAF personnel to conduct KLE's, route clearance, weapons interdiction, raids, clear and hold mandates, humanitarian operations (building wells and schools), etc... we establish a new COP in a contested area overlooking a valley. 

Within two hours of our patrol establishing said COP, AAF conduct a complex attack on our position. Outnumbered nearly 6-1 we hold our own, but only because of the Close Air Support provided by ADFGrunt06. We eventually abandoned the position.

Cheers,

Scenario Design Center, Contributions Needed

The Scenario Design Center is a great site for all things HPS and John Tiller software. It was founded and it is maintained by a very dedicated fellow from Australia who is spending his own money on hosting.

If you are into HPS or John Tiller software, I'm sure you know about this site. A voluntary contribution will be appreciated.

Cheers,

ArmA 2 - Bunkers Need Better Frontal Cover

Have you noticed how fast your men die if they are in one of ArmA's bunkers. Those things expose you and your men to an excessive amount of frontal enemy fire. In this entry, I added an H-barrier to the front of the bunkers.

I know it looks ugly and I am sure that there is a way to pile up some sandbags to the front of the bunker. In addition, no Marine will agree to man such conspicuous, non-camouflaged fighting position. But this is just an experiment: a Marine fire team defends against a Russian squad which is attacking frontally.

Unity of Command - Gameplay Notes - 2nd Kharkov Scenario - Operations Plan

Supposedly, the Russians blundered into a trap with their deep penetration south of Kharkov  ...

The Izium salient has a very mobile but relatively weak head (6th Cavalry Corps, the tip of the Soviet spear) and a particularly strong right shoulder (21st and 23rd Tank Corps). I'm told to "move in for the kill" into the Izium salient, but I have butterflies in the stomach.

The Goods Keep Coming - Releases, Recent and Upcoming

A a better job to pay for all the games I want? Or no job to have time to play them? :)

John Tiller Software has a new Napoleonic game out since yesterday:
Campaign Leipzig

HPS Simulations has two upcoming games almost out of the oven. The next two links point you towards a press release posted through GameSquad  (I'm not worth to be in the press list of HPS Simulations, LOL).

Roman Civil War
Tigers Unleashed

There is one more release coming up, a massive update for Steel Beasts ProPE. More details soon.

Cheers,

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 ... :)