Insurgency in the North Caucasian Federal District - War Stories From the Front Lines: # 6 Improvised Building Top Entry by Russian Vityaz

Vadim Obukhov, a Captain of the 604th Red Banner Special Purpose Center explains how his 4-men team stormed a building with an improvised top entry.

This story is from game play of an ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead custom-made mission. This mission takes the very lacking indoors combat capabilities of ArmA 2 to the extreme. I made every man of the team playable to get them and move them inside buildings. In addition, after much effort I couldn't figure out how the hell to have a mortar to drop smoke at a specific location. So I had to fake/script smoke deployment with a trigger (an Alpha radio call).

Insurgency in the North Caucasian Federal District - War Stories From the Front Lines: # 5 Incident at Poti

This is the edited debrief of a medium rank officer of the Russian Naval Aviation, who by the time of the infamous incident was assigned to the 44rd Independent Naval Air Squadron. His name is withheld at his request.

This was played as a custom-made mission in Flaming Cliffs 3. The story line now takes us hundreds of kilometers south of the North Caucasian District, more specifically to the Black Sea. The so-called "Poti Incident" didn't make it to the press headlines, but didn't go un-noticed by the Russian leadership.  Individual dots started to look like having a connection ...

My Digital Gaming Cornucopia: New and Old, Free and Not

Here in the US, this Thursday is the Thanksgiving holiday. Many lucky gamers get Thursday and Friday off for this holiday and some fraction of those may sneak a bit of extra gaming into their schedule. There is plenty of new stuff out there. I will be mixing old stuff too. In my list of holiday gaming ...

Insurgency in the North Caucasian Federal District - War Stories From the Front Lines: # 4 Close Call During the Escape and Evasion of an Attack Helicopter Pilot

Captain Vasily Kashlev, 118th Independent Helicopter Squadron (Russian Air Force), had to crash land his Ka-50 attack helicopter after an attack against insurgents near the town of Novopavlovsk. During the early stages of the conflict, the Russian Air Force had almost no combat search and rescue assets and this pilot had to rely on his training to rejoin friendly lines.

Played as a custom-made mission in ArmA 2 Combined Operations. Map is the "Marine Corps Twentynine Palms Air Ground Combat Center", by Phaeden. Pardon my mess as this mission is a night firefight and most of the screenshots are dark and monochromatic.

Moscow '42 - Interview with David Freer, Project Manager and Lead Scenario Designer

Moscow '42 is the latest John Tiller Software release for the unique Panzer Campaigns series. The operational culmination point of the German Army's offensive against Moscow is just a few weeks old... The Soviets catch their breath and launch a massive offensive. Two colossi clutched in a mortal fight that spans thousands of square kilometers of frozen forests and hills west of Moscow. Nothing was small in the Eastern Front. Neither is the effort of designing and creating historically correct war games that capture the epic proportions of the real conflict. Meet David Freer, project manager and lead designer of Moscow '42.

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.