O is for On War: Stalingrad. I like the sound of Tomislav Čipčić’s next operational offering. The Croatian dev behind the elegant Attack at Dawn: North Africa believes he can deliver a deep Eastern Front wargame that is also “readable, understandable, and enjoyable”. Presumably, like its parched predecessor, On War: Stalingrad will let players switch from turnless to WEGO mode whenever they please.

P is for Pilot on the run

There’s some scintillating writing in The Navigator’s Map . A free digital gamebook about a downed Mosquito pilot trying to get back to England in 1944, P. William-Smith’s creation is worth playing just for passages like this…

…and this…

I can’t say I made much use of the map plucked from the burning wreckage at the start, but aided by luck, instinct, and 40+ years of reading accounts of wartime escape and evasion and playing Fighting Fantasy paperbacks, I did eventually make it back to Blighty…

Q is for Quick quiz question

An extremely musty Flare Path flair point to the first person to tell we which game produced the above screenshot. Some clues. The mystery game entered Early Access in June, and was made in a city that, until fairly recently, was twinned with Kharkiv.

R is for Reassuringly resilient

While most Wars across the World adjuncts are engaging, novel, and attractively priced, few present much of a challenge to folk who’ve been playing Strategiae’s guerre gadfly since 2017. The fact that released-last-month Genghis 1207 managed to beat me, albeit narrowly, at the first time of asking is notable in a good way.

As it also comes with a cracking card deck and an agreeably complex theatre (The Mongols share the map with a host of other empires most of which are out-of-bounds until certain events fire) it’s no surprise this £4 expansion has been well received.

S is for Shooting Stars and Sabres

There’s a high chance next week’s Friday feature will be devoted to the launched-yesterday IL-2 Korea (or to give it its proper mouthful ‘Korea. IL-2 Series’). A high price (£71), questionable performance, and a fairly slim default aircraft selection (Sabre, Mustang, Shooting Star, MiG-15, Il-10, Yak-9) partially explain the sim’s current ‘mixed’ review rating on Steam. If Ada swoons when presented with the newcomer then a Dusty But Trusty on MiG Alley isn’t out of the question.

T is for Tanks but no tanks

Combat Air Patrol 2’s ambitious 2026 roadmap includes the introduction of dynamic campaigns and the conclusion of one of Simulatia’s lengthiest Early Access periods. Crewable AFVs probably wasn’t high on any owner’s wishlist, but the sim has gained them all the same. The most recent update lets you operate simplified M1A1s, Bradleys, MRAPs, and Paladins using a first- or third-person view.