V is for Very hexy. Today’s round-up is heavy on the honeycomb. All four games mentioned below either insist military units capable of moving due North and South are incapable of moving due East and West, or military units capable of moving due East and West are incapable of moving due North and South. As commentators that harp on about this distracting genre quirk have a nasty habit of disappearing without trace or perishing in mysterious accidents, I’d like to point out, personally I have no problem whatsoever with hexagonal movement.

V is for Virtual version

A faithful digital port of a proven low-complexity board wargame, Saratoga has been quietly amassing blue thumb reviews since releasing late last year. The £8.50 offering comes with two twelve turn, and one four turn scenario, art that manages to be both attractive and legible, and some lively mechanical twists such as ‘momentum’ chits that can be used to re-roll disappointing dice and influence initiative determination.

V is for Vietnam, Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East

While Cold War Battles players are likely to spend much of their time in West Germany, trips to less familiar locales such as the Golan Heights, Grenada, Angola, and Vietnam are also on the cards. An upcoming (Q3) hex-em-up from a British Army veteran who likes his hexy battle sims friendly and fleet as well as rich and resonant, CWB boasts, according to the Steam blurb, a “a tough AI opponent as competent at attacking as it is defending”. How tough? How competent? The demo available later this month should answer these and many other questions.

V is for Visual overhaul

Talking of Operation Urgent Fury, Wargame Design Studio’s free Grenada invasion title has recently benefited from a root-and-frond overhaul of the 3D graphics. The same Burden of Command-style bitmaps that now grace Squad Battles: Grenada have also been used to enhance the similarly bejungled Squad Battles: The Proud and the Few.

V is for Vast venue

Currently the Total Victory demo only lets users kick-in the Soviet Union’s ‘rotten door’. By the end of June it may also permit sweaty thrusts towards Cairo and the Suez Canal. Due in September, the sequel to WarPlan and WarPlan Pacific will have a globe-spanning map at its centre. Judging by the demo feedback I’ve been persuing over breakfast, the counters that contest this massive hexgrid should advance and recoil, rearrange and jostle, in a pretty naturalistic fashion.