Monday, January 22, 2018

Graviteam Tactics Mius Front and Tank Warfare Tunisia - Close Engagement Mode

Not feeling like playing a campaign or a relatively large scenario? No time to edit a small scenario?



The "Close Engagement Mode" has been around since the beginning of the year, and it allows you to fight a smallish battle without the editing overhead.

Sunday, January 21, 2018

DCS AV-8B Night Attack - Destruction of a Contraband Post

A US Marines patrol has been fired at from an old outpost overlooking a previously peaceful valley. Contraband of arms from nearby countries has recently increased and the USMC is on the hunt for any troublemakers.



Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Basics of Operational Art: Centers of Gravity

Whatever game you use to get your operational level of war fix, there is a need to understand the basic concepts of fighting at this level.



Sunday, January 7, 2018

Combat Actions: Vietnam

This game was recently released by Digital Gameworks. It's a turn and hexes based game, with plenty of abstractions and focused in simplicity and fast gameplay.


Please join me in a short video recap of my initial thoughts about this game.

Saturday, January 6, 2018

Command Ops 2 - The Sharp End Gaming Blog's Alternative Scenario for Red Devils Over Arnhem

A good wargaming session with the legendary Command Ops 2 engine was long overdue and Chris from the Sharp End Gaming blog offered the perfect reason to strap my paratrooper helmet and get command the Red Devils at Arnhem.



The above video briefly describes the scenario.But I recommend to read Chris' post at his blog to understand the rationale for this scenario. In a nutshell, a variation of the 9 day long stock scenario which is shorter (2 days) and has all the brigades (including the Polish) ready for action very early during the scenario. It's more playable but still will demand a lot from your commander's skills.

Cheers,


Sunday, December 31, 2017

IL-2 Cliffs of Dover Blitz - Bury Me at the Beach

Never been a big fan of the Hurricane, but will not pass a chance to sit in the virtual cockpit of one in the Blitz edition of IL-2 Cliffs of Dover.

Quick mission: jump on a flight of Fiat G50s returning to France. My Hurricane is the one in the background.

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Tank Warfare Tunisia 43 El Guettar - M3 GMCs vs. PzIVs

The M3 GMC "Tank Destroyers" played a significant role in the Battle of El Guettar. Armed with a gun designed back in the late 1800's, it took a lot of brave souls to cope against the tanks of the 10th Panzer Division.


Sunday, December 24, 2017

Steel Beasts ProPE V4.023 - The New Camera Path Editor

A new version of Steel Beasts ProPE has been released and with it came a new goodie: a camera path editor. Very nice to make movies and relatively easy to use, it is showcased in my newest video.



Cheers,

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Panzer Campaigns Smolensk '41 Gold - How Vitebsk Ate my 7th Panzer Division

I'm playing the newly released Smolensk '41 Gold. I'm so glad I did upgrade to the Gold version and getting an all consolidated install of mods, scenarios and other loose ends that I had before.

The Panzer Campaigns engine is one of my favorites for grand-tactical, operational warfare.

Vitebsk is a great scenario of maneuver and armored/mechanized warfare. In the screenshot above you notice the 7th PzDiv (dark green icons) approaching Vitebsk head on. This should have triggered some caution on my part. It didn't, and although I did capture the objective, I mauled the 7th PzDiv almost beyond recognition.


Thursday, December 21, 2017

Steel Beasts ProPE - The Cavalry Fight or Lack Thereof

I was browsing the summer 2017 issue of Armor magazine and, besides other very interesting articles related to the Cavalry branch, I noticed an article about "fighting for information".



It reminded me of one of the toughest scenarios I played in the series (Hasty Attack by VolcanoMan) and it prompted me to re-assess the tactics of the US Cavalry units present in the scenario. In the video above, I explain why I decided it was best not to fight for information. Make sure to check it out at YouTube for HD.

Cheers,