If there’s an appetite for it, Roman will set a weekly Romanesque brainteaser every Sunday from now on. The free web version of our hexy/lexy word game isn’t as smart or substantial as the full Monty, but is more convenient. Click here, and assuming you’re using a PC or tablet (thus far I’ve been unable to get it to work with phones) you should be playing within seconds.
A is for American Revolutionary War released. The bibliography for the game I’m working on, currently consists of four tomes. I’ll need to pull my socks up if I wish to out-swank ARW’s ‘recommended reading’ list. Mike Cox, the lead designer of Wargame Design Studio’s latest offering, name-checks over 150 books in his extensive design notes!
Today’s bijou brainteaser is both accidental and personal. Beyond the break is a century-old Box Brownie snap of one of my great aunts. Can you help me identify both the photo’s location and date?
As I’ve done it hundreds of times, you’ve probably done it hundreds of times too. You’re embroiled in a virtual battle and, faced by a particularly stiff challenge or tough adversary, find yourself scouring your force for ‘old hands’ – the units with the most experience. Experience = skill and resilience, right? The more action a unit has seen, the more effective it is in combat. Computer wargame designers rarely seem to challenge or nuance this ‘truth’. Perhaps they should.
For thirteen of the Allied soldiers involved in THC’s 2025/26 play-by-comment Combat Mission marathon, there will be no joyful homecoming, no grey hairs or grandchildren. Thirty-four others will carry physical mementos of the Battle of Nottingheim until the day they die. Bearing in mind the German casualty figures (40 dead and 106 injured) and the considerable challenges the Anglo-American force needed to overcome in order to gain victory, Allied losses were, I feel, remarkably light.
Assuming that suspiciously huge woodpile by the station isn’t a Tiger about to shed an inspired disguise, or that weird waspish whine audible over the dwindling rattle of battle isn’t the sound of a Staffel of bomb-laden Stormvogels bearing down on Nottingheim at 500+ mph, the final turn of 2025/26’s play-by-comment CM marathon should be plain sailing for the Bogen bouncers.
The Comment Commanders’ confidence in the abilities of their artillery spotter and off-map 25-pounder battery is a tad scary. With the finish line of this eight month-long co-op Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord marathon a mere two turns/minutes away, and victory seemingly assured, they choose to launch four rounds of British-made 88mm HE into the midst of a dinky German hamlet alive with Allied vehicles and men!
Apart from a couple of bursts of sketchy MP 40 fire in the first ten seconds of the turn, the flow of violence is all one way in Bounce the Bogen’s thirty-third instalment. As British and American forces surge towards the village, the handful of enemy units that haven’t surrendered or ceased to exist, scamper for the eastern map edge.