G2K

G is for Game the rise and fall of a Great Plains superpower. Tired of 4Xing with fictional civs or highly stylised ‘historical’ ones? Because a free, GMT-approved version of Joel Toppen’s solitaire board game Comancheria has appeared in the Tabletop Simulator workshop, PC strategicians now have the opportunity to emulate the rise and delay the fall of the ‘lords of the southern plains’, the Comanches. Joel’s other Native American history game, Navajo Wars, is also playable in TS.

H is for He 111s next?

Releasing a Battle of Britain wargame – even an Early Access one – without Hawker Hurricanes, was a bit like releasing a Kate Bush Greatest Hits album sans Wuthering Heights. Thankfully, Spits no longer have to do all of the bandit bagging in Slitherine’s grid-spurning aerial TBT. Since yesterday’s update, Luftwaffe schnellbombers now feel like Scramble’s most glaring omission, with field patchworks and an Axis Squadron Leader mode – in my personal wishlist at least – a close second and third.

I is for I plan to try Back In Service: a Metro Driver…

…later today, so, fingers-crossed, the ‘P’ in tomorrow’s line-up will end up ‘Pleasant evening in Prague’. There’s no map or route information in the Steam blurb, but going by clues in the screenshots and elsewhere, Early Accessors appear to get Line A in its original three-mile, seven-station Dejvická to Náměstí Míru form. Developer Dominik Vojta has modelled a selection of extra-vehicular activities including closing the system’s huge flood gates. It will be interesting to see whether drivers who don’t wish to leave cabs are able to play BIS as a trad train sim.

J is for Just WASD keys and a mouse

Even an ice hockey ignoramus such as myself can admire the elegant way Puck translates the kineticism and physicality of its subject matter into an intuitive mouse-and-keyboard pursuit. If Latvian developer Nils Asejevs ever gets around to adding bots (presently matches are MP only) and those bots are up to snuff, Puck’s success is guaranteed.

K is for Kriegsspiel matures

Keep up the good work, Franzoar. Thanks to newly added order subtleties and graphical and GUI improvements, the three-scenario prototype of courier-crammed turnless Kriegsspiel – 7 Years War looks and plays better than ever.

7 Comments

  1. Tim, if you’re not too busy, could you come up with an A to Z of sensible things to name UK military materiel after.

    Irrespective of one’s feelings towards the French, ‘Agincourt’ is a terrible name for a submarine. I quite like the gravitas of HMS Authorised!, but that’s potentially a bit confusing.

      • Oh, and Tim, I didn’t feel bold enough to mention it yesterday (and I hope Don60420 will back me up), but I await the Elder Futhark edition of this article type.

        Æthelflæd FTW!

      • It’s an Astute class (I think, going by memory) so its name must begin with an A.

        There have been vessels named Albion, not sure if any are still around. Possible options might include Aggressor, Adversary or Ascendant.

        I think some interesting options (from the Iain M Banks Culture school of ship naming) could be Authority, Announcement, Alternative, Ambassador or Acrimonious.

        Or, and just putting this out there, maybe we could, I don’t know, just call it Agincourt. If the French complain then point out we’re reminding them not to complain too loudly.

        (I’ve been to Azincourt and I’ve shot with the Finsbury Mark to celebrate the anniversary)

  2. I’ve had my eyes on Back In Service: a Metro Driver for a long time. So thanks for reminding me about it. Took the plunge and bought it. Just only tried it and it does look good for an early access game. It also looks good and runs smoothly even on slightly lower spec hardware. So far it reminded me of WoS 4. You can walk around and do various side objectives. There are no tutorials in the game yet, but the controls are pretty intuitive and easy if you played any train sim, and it does have ingame help. Indeed the route is short for now, around 3 miles, but they are working on extending the route, so hopefully we will get whole Line A to drive around.
    So if you like train sims, and metro then it is a must buy. And depending on where you are and conversion rates it might be cheaper to buy it on developer’s site directly https://vojta.space/obchod/

  3. Hey ! The letter K was for Kriegsspiel ~ 7 years war. I am happy that this is the case, as well as that the efforts put into the game pleased you Tim.
    I can add three things :
    – Thanks a lot for the gentle words, I will keep up the good work !
    – The screenshot shows you may have failed in the second mission of the campaign (though I am not sure, but red army seems able to keep the western town). If so, I might step down the mission difficulty …
    – Once again, if you have any questions about this game, feel free to ask me here !

    Ps : colonel_k don’t be sad, in my opinion, the letter K is yours too 🙂

  4. Glad to hear the Hurricane has arrived.

    Also amused at the comparison. I fear only men of a certain age would dare compare Kate Bush to the Hurricane as a British historical icon.

    Sadly it led me to Youtube to enjoy the American video accompanying her single, reminding me of the stark impact it had on an impressionable pre-teen, and.. turns out I can no longer hear it without hearing aids.

    Happily the Merlin engine still needs no artificial electronic enhancement, so on balance I’m afraid the Hurricane edges Kate, gorgeous as she is.

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