Keen birdwatcher Bulau has a knack for spotting things that would rather remain unspotted. Five seconds before sprinting grenadiers stiffen into statues and flying lead pauses in mid-air, the sergeant by the railway bridge binoculars a British AT gun artfully – but not artfully enough – wreathed in foliage between the monastery and cafe. The 6-pounder’s position and barrel alignment give it a guilty air. If it isn’t the piece that plugged the halftrack in turn 7, I’ll eat my GM’s homburg.

I love Combat Mission, but that doesn’t mean I’m blind to its faults. Trying to turn the Comment Commanders’ intricate infantry instructions into in-game orders can sometimes feel like trying to paint miniatures with a tar brush. The game’s hidden movement grid is half the problem. In second-gen CM you can only place waypoints in the centre of fairly large grid squares. This makes fine control of squads almost impossible. Factor in absent infantry spacing and formation controls, and a TacAI hopeless at social distancing, and all too often unlikely/unnecessary casualties are the result.

That little green icon over the windmill is bad news for one of Bulau’s men. As the islanders dash across the railway bridge, a round from a scoped Lee-Enfield coaxes sparks from the damp ironwork before plopping, like an alarmed water rat, into the murky water below. A second round strikes something softer – a fusilier’s scapula.