Calm Before the Storm at Zugdidi - DCS UH-1H Huey

After the Abkhazians' incursion at the Inguri dam, the Georgian president promised to "flood the Inguri valley with Georgian forces". So far, the region has seen an anemic increase in Georgian units. Near the key crossing over the Inguri river at Zugdidi, the ramp up of Georgian military presence is in progress. A tactical command post for a combined arms battalion has just been built some 15 miles from Zugdidi, and equipment and personnel are slowly pouring in.

I am a pilot of a utility helicopter and I have been originally assigned to haul materiel into the battalion's command post. Just a day into the job I find myself with the almost certain prospect of flying combat support missions.

Rise of Prussia - Pimp my Operation, Your Excellency! (Imaginary Conversations with Frederick the Great, #2)

I'm done! I have managed to reduce the in-game movement and combat penalties (black arrow in the two screenshots below) by re-organizing each Corps and Army in the Prussian order of battle.

If you want to read the fine print, please right click the image and open it in a new tab or window.

The hardwood floors creak at the rhythm of a man on a mission. It's King Frederick II and even the most trivial chores transform him into a crank. I'm sitting in my studio and the door opens, un-knocked, to this conversation.

Rise of Prussia - Pimp my Operation, Your Excellency! (Imaginary Conversations with Frederick the Great, #1)

The game: AGEOD's Rise of Prussia Gold
The scenario: The Invasion of Saxony
The topic: the blog goes postal and takes advice from a dead man!

This blog entry was originally posted on 04Sep11. The idea didn't stick very well among the readers. I'm retrying it this week and crossing fingers I will get more readers now to justify continuing.

The Other Eye of Jiān - A Hunter-Killer Scout Platoon in Combat - An ArmA 2 AAR

In Chinese mythology, the Jiān bird has only one eye and one wing. Two such birds become inseparable, as they depend on each other to survive.

This is a story that I found interesting not because of what my virtual troopers and me have achieved, but because of what I have learned.

Breaking the Aerial Phalanx - Debrief - Cliffs of Dover with the Team Fusion Patch

Since I've got my wings, our commanders had made a habit of throwing the Hurricanes against the bombers and the Spitfires against the escorts. When dawn hinted a day of glorious weather, we braced for long hours of hunting enemy fighters.

The ebb and flow of battle is in full swing. We change our tactics almost daily. So does the enemy. Commanders, in their desperation to parry the next jab, try to find the most faint pattern in the enemy's behavior. As of lately, the German escorts are showing a tendency to stick to their bombers.

Historicon 2013 - Pictures

What a fantastic convention! It is the first time I attend to a convention themed around a hobby (I have attended more scientific meetings that I want to acknowledge ...) and boy, this one was fun.

I drove down to Frederiscksburg, VA (USA) for a one-day visit. This convention is for miniatures gaming, something I have never covered in the blog before. So this is not any sort of "coverage" of the convention. It's just a few pictures I took and that I want to share.

War Machines During Peacetime - DMO's Sikorsky S-92 for X-Plane 10

A couple of weeks back I received an updated Sikorsky S-92 (DMO Flight Designs' addon for X-Plane 10).

I don't know if it is because I have logged so many helicopter hours with the DCS Huey, but the Sikorsky feels very stable now and I am now able to fly it like I stole it. This a pictorial record of a short mission (maybe 20 minutes of total flight time) with a Canadian CH-148 Cyclone (included in DMO's addon).

An Apparent Tactical Dilemma - Combat Mission Fortress Italy - Gustav Line

This little devil of an scenario is as small as tough. It's a tiny scenario of the stock Gustav Line module called something like "Kiwi Soldiers" or so.

Spoilers ahead!

Mortar Section Supporting a US Cavalry Troop - Steel Beasts ProPE - Briefing

Thanks to the magic of desktop simulation, it is possible to experience or just try out stuff your read in your military books. This weekend, after going half way through Warrior's Rage by Douglas McGregor, I wanted to go to the desert and command a US Cavalry troop. 

The particular topic that interested me is the use of a mortar section (two tubes mounted in M113 vehicles) in support of the troop. In page 26 of the printed version of Warrior's Rage, there is a mention of the use of this mortars to mark the enemy's position for the other platoons and to suppress the enemy while the troop maneuvers into a firing position.

Modern Air Power for Android, Kindle and iPad - John Tiller Software Goes App

This free app has been around for a while (maybe three weeks or so?). It's the Modern Air Power engine ported to the mobile format.

I've played this in my Android tablet and it was just great to use the fingers to move flights around.