AGEOD's Civil War II - Preview

This is the sequel to the acclaimed and venerable American Civil War (AGEOD), a computer game of military strategy. With six years of nonstop improvements and new features for Civil War II, the “Adaptive Game Engine” (AGE) is at its peak of wisdom.

ArmA 3 – Enough water towers and cars with orange bumpers to keep yerselves entertained for years

ArmA 3’s official release is hours away and I know that I will fall in unconditional love with it. I’m just that hard of a critic. But before that happens, allow me to put into words my last effort of resistance.

ArmA 3 Beta, Not for Long!

The release date for ArmA 3 is September 12th! The guys who are subscribed to the development branch of the game got a lot of new units with the latest version. The tanks have arrived, and a new guerrilla faction. I have played this afternoon non-stop for 3 hours. Hopefully I will have an AAR before the release. On the meantime a few secreenshots.

Milk Run from Gudauta - DCS Mi-8MTV-2 Beta

Whatever we are asked to do by our Russian allies during the next weeks, we have done it for years: being a torn in the left flank of Georgia. Not long ago, our entire Abkhazian Air Force could have been parked in the premises of a county fair. Not so now. Russian material has poured plenty into our country, and we mean to use it.

This is a transport flight by a Mi-8 of the Abkhazian Air Force. The context of this uneventful flight is in line with two previous blog entries on an imminent second Georgian War. This single player, custom scenario is nothing more than an excuse to fly the newly released DCS Mi-8MTV2 Beta.

AGEOD's Civil War II Looks Great, Plays Even Better

The new Civil War II (AGEOD, published by Matrix/Slitherine Games) is near release. I've got access to a preview version of the game and I am sharing some screenshots and quick notes about it. A more detailed preview will be following soon.

The Troubled Shores of a Soviet "Island of Resistance" - Part 1 - Iron Front Liberation 44

Soviet anti-tank defenses in World War II were always in depth, organized in so-called "islands of resistance". These islands were interconnected, mutually supported strong points organized around fortified villages or natural accidents of terrain that were favorable to the defender.

This custom, single player scenario features of such islands and the command post that coordinates the defense from it. The other topic of this scenario is the Soviet use of combat engineers in anti-tank warfare. Upon the identification of the enemy's axis of attack, each combat engineer would carry 5 anti-tank mines onto the enemy's path and deploy them to slow the armored advance. In this scenario I'm playing as the commander of a group of 3 combat engineers assigned to an anti-tank strong point. The readers are urged to take the outcome of this scenario with a big grain of salt, as the outcome of the anti-tank gun vs. tank duel turned out to be questionable.

War Maps, Documents and Other Resources - #1 WWII Aerial Photos and Maps

Let's share some websites containing maps, documents, photos and other useful information. In this first entry, a website listed in a book I am reading.

The battle of Kharkov as viewed by German Army staff. Posted here as an example, without permission. Just contact me if this image here is an issue ...

ArmA 3 Beta: Now Featuring the Giganormous Island of Altis

If you have the beta and are subscribed to the development branch, you should have gotten a new island to play. Altis, the biggest official map/island of the series ...

Packing a lot of real estate to fight over, Altis is as beautiful as big. I booted my computer a few minutes ago with the firm intention of ignoring it but it was just too hard to resist. Please come in and see some screenshots ...

Maneuvering Towards St. James Chruch - Scourge of War Brandy Station

We are Cavalry. We live and breathe dashing and bold maneuvers ...

I suppose that is how it works for real troopers. In this Scourge of War scenario, I am in command again of the 1st US Cavalry Division and my mission is to clear the Confederate cavalry from their defensive position at St. James Church. I played this mission at "grognard" difficulty, which forces the player's view to the commander's one (no panoramic, birds eye view or free camera view). At this difficulty level, the orders are distributed by couriers.

How Panzer Group 3 Got Its Ugly Left Flank - Moscow '41

Most of the times I load a medium-sized Panzer Campaign's scenario, I get into it without much thought about the big picture or the things that historically were happening around the piece of the battle at hand. This scenario (Kalinin), was an exception.

This is the north flank of Panzer Group 3, 13Oct1941. The push for Moscow has already started and here I am in command of part of XXXXI Panzer Corps (1st Pz.Div., 900th Motorized Brigade and the 36th Motorized Division) and even less of the LVI Panzer Corps (6th Pz. Div.). What caught my interest is that we are pushing north east towards Kalinin, not Moscow (not shown here but located east). Also, what's up with such extended flanks? Our forces are spread on a 70+ Km stretch from Staritsa to Kalinin. We have the Volga shielding us from the Russians west of the river ... But a single Pz. Div. covering our east flank?