Clustered

Last night one of my Armored Brigade II BMP-2s had a very lucky escape. Cluster-bombed by a marauding Phantom, it would have been dead as a doornail if the bomb in question had been a standard CBU not a training weapon packed with harmless wargaming news bomblets.

The bizarre attack left the vehicle commander shaken but much better informed. For instance, post pummeling, he could reel off the full feature list of SGS Battle of the Bulge, the latest Wacht am Rhein title to hit Steam.

Currently boasting four scenarios – and with more promised, this mid-priced offering includes a small but engrossing Bastogne-centred challenge that I managed to lose twice over breakfast this morning.

Appropriately, fuel shortages, Arctic conditions, and spirited Allied relief efforts, contributed to both of my narrow defeats.

Prior to his traumatic experience, Boris the BMPman had assumed Battle Tactics, a potential competitor for Combat Mission announced in the summer of 2023, was brown bread. Thanks to his clustering, he now realises the lack of recent news wasn’t a symptom of abandonment. While solo dev Ali Hamza hasn’t released a video update in a while, according to posts on BT2025’s Discord channel, the project is “progressing well” and new bones will be forthcoming “soon”.

The bomblet that landed closest to the Soviet IFV broadcast Task Force Admiral news when it detonated. Users of TFA’s photogenic closed beta, were provided with a prototype taskforce splitter earlier this week. Now in addition to organising CAPs, dispatching scout planes, and launching and recovering strikes, testers can subdivide their flotillas.

Can this new capability be used to keep damaged ships out of harm’s way? Aye. Can it be used to create sacrificial lambs – diversionary bait for target-hungry IJN taskforces? I’ll share my findings later this week.

The BMP-2’s blunt backside ended up bill-stickered with both Scramble and Avant-Garde snippets. Although Slitherine’s Early Access BoB wargame is still without Hawker Hurricanes, its dynamic ‘Squadron Leader’ campaign mode is maturing nicely. Yesterday’s update rebalanced and enriched the skirmish sequencer. Month-long SL campaigns are now less gruelling, leadership traits more significant, and inter-sortie screens more common and colourful.

It might provide comely clouds and weather effects, but the hexy and turnless Avant-Garde prototype isn’t out to convince players they are shaping actual Napoleonic battles. In this in-development Combat Directive: Napoleonic Wars rival, mouse wheel manipulation will reveal a much cosier reality.