Flaming Cliffs 3 - Eagle Dynamics Puts Whole Portfolio Under the Same Roof

For around $40.00 you can now get the beta version of the survey combat flight simulator Flaming Cliffs 3.

All things considered, very little in Flaming Cliffs 3 is  significantly different from Flaming Cliffs 2. In an official forum post, Eagle Dynamics producer Matt Wagner explains that the release it's aimed at bridging the gap between the Flaming Cliffs and DCS Warthog/Black Shark communities. So Flaming Cliffs 3 now runs inside the unified simulation engine DCS World.

Intermission Will Be Over Soon

The perfect storm … Although I was spared of any headaches or losses
from hurricane Sandy, I haven't been able to get back on my feet from
other real life issues. Nothing serious, just a bunch of minor issues
by themselves that when they add up end being not so minor …

Although writing has been sparse, gaming has been intense and pleasant.

Moscow'42, the latest from John Tiller Software, had me busy since its
release last Friday. The first strategically significant
counteroffensive the Red Army -fought from either side- turned out to
offer gigantic grand-tactical and operational challenges. This is not
my first Panzer Campaigns game fought over a frozen portion of the
Eastern Front and I'm not talking about mobility only. It's the lack
of resources while playing the German side and the underpowered Red
Army units while playing the Soviets what's kicking my rear end. Soon
I will be posting about some of my in-game misadventures and an
interview with the lead designer of Moscow '42.
http://www.johntillersoftware.com/PanzerCampaigns/Moscow42.html

Matrix/Slitherine Games and Norbsoft have released Chancellorsville,
which is a standalone game or an expansion depending if you have or
not the original Gettysburg game. The real life battle has been one of
adroit maneuver plans horribly executed by the Union Army of the
Potomac and allegedly Confederate General Lee's finest display of
military genius. Chancellorsville is packed with scenarios big and
small and I have been focusing on the small-sized ones to brush up my
Civil War era command skills. I am aching to play the big scenarios,
which I've been told are played on a 25 square miles map. I hope some
of the maneuvering mentioned above can be war gamed, at least some
significant portions of it. A review of Chancellorsville is on the
make.
http://www.matrixgames.com/products/447/details/Scourge.of.War:.Chancellorsville

The "Insurgency in the North Caucasian District" series is alive and
well but I found that such an specific title (insurgency and North
Caucasian District) is not adequate for the whole story that I
envision. Sooner than I thought it was possible, the story will move
west and south of the North Caucasian District and will involve
engagements between conventional forces … The series has already some
of you already confused and scratching your heads. Changing the title
while keeping the whole thing tied up will be a challenge. Yikes!

Cheers,

Insurgency in the North Caucasian Federal District - War Stories From the Front Lines: # 3 Bombing an Insurgent Roadblock at Novopavlovsk

Mayór Vitaly Studitsky, 6971st Aviation Base (temporarily operating from Mineralnye Vody,  4th Air and Air Defence Forces Command) presents a debrief of his ground attack mission against insurgent forces around Novoplavlovsk.

The Pursuit, Entrapment and Escape of the SMS Goeben - Part 1 - An "Steam and Iron, The Great War at Sea" AAR

This naval engagement became famous because it never happened. The outcome of the simulated-reality alternative would have generated no less regret and recrimination among the Royal Navy admiralty.

Click on the picture for a better view.

The declaration of war to the German Empire by the British is just hours young. Both the German Imperial Navy and the British Royal Navy are eager to secure the first blow.

No Easy Day, by Matt Bissonnette (AKA Mark Owen)

If you live in the US and take a look at the military history section of your local bookstore you will surely notice the enormous availability of books about contemporary special forces and special independent small teams. There is a market for these type of books -Deltas, SEALs, SAS, Spetsnaz, snipers ... Woohoo! ... Why we do even need a regular army?-.  If you have visited this blog more than once it's likely that you are a pretty well rounded fellow in war matters, on the war-nerd far side of the audience spectrum. I'm afraid you are not part of the massive market that will blindly buy everything that has the words "SEAL" or "Delta" in the cover. So here comes No Easy Day, which is a Navy SEAL's autobiography that includes the most detailed account of Operation Neptune Spear, the operation that resulted in the killing of the most notorious terrorist of recent times. This controversial book has been widely covered in the mainstream press and I'm sure it didn't escape your radar. The purpose of this mini-review is to share a few pointers  about its value in the understanding of modern conflict and -let's not forget this is a gaming blog- its worthiness for our hobby.

Insurgency in the North Caucasian Federal District - War Stories From the Front Lines: # 2 Firefight at a Crash Site Near Novopavlovsk

Starshina Innokenti Engovatov, a quartermaster with the 135th Motorized Rifle Regiment (Russian 58th Army), explains how his team engaged a group of insurgents near a helicopter crash site.

Insurgency in the North Caucasian Federal District - War Stories From the Front Lines: # 1 Helicopter Attack in Novopavlovsk

Captain Vasily Kashlev, 118th Independent Helicopter Squadron (Russian Air Force), recounts his first mission against insurgents in the town of Novopavlovsk.

High altitude holding station. Waiting for orders.

Iron Front Liberation 1944 - Hasty Counter-mine Action

This is a short tale of shooters and targets. Today I am the latter.

The thick woods provide great opportunities for the German infantry to ambush this Russian forward detachment. The Red Army tries to tip the balance with the speed of its armor. The first ambush to break through is at a crossroads which has been mined. In the image above, a Russian T-34 has just hit one AT mine. I'm the sapper in the foreground.

Achtung Panzer Operation Star, Volokonovka -1942 - The Crossroads I Could Have Lived Without

Short entry today, folks. The workdays are getting longer ...

US Department of the Army Pamphlet 20-234 (Operations of Encircled Forces, 1952) says that "an encircled force can ill afford loss of terrain." Let me add one more: it can ill afford a gain of terrain if such gain has no impact in the relief of the encircled force. In this war game scenario, I'm neither completely encircled nor I gained any real estate. But certainly I can't afford more defeats like this one.

In this scenario, elements of the 79th ID (Germany, blue) are just a couple of kilometers short of completely encircling my forces (343 ID, Russian, red).

The game du jour is one of the most underrated 3D tactical war games of recent publication. Achtung Panzer Operation Star (now playing the Volokonovka add-on) is a hybrid of 3D continuous time and 2D turn based tactical game play with many virtues and the only recognizable sins of being short of a proper user’s manual and goofy translations in the user interface.

DCS: Ka-50 Black Shark - Observation Post "Baltika" - Rendezvous (Musings About What I Learned Slow and Wrong)

The mission time is a couple of days before the one featured in my previous blog entry. In this one, my flight of two Ka-50 was tasked to rendezvous with a supply column coming into our base of operations (Mineralnye Vody Airbase).

0600 local time, clear skies and almost no wind. Time to go and greet the guys bringing out the bread and ammo.

This mission is the background for some reflections about things I wish somebody would have told me back when I started learning to fly this attack helicopter.