Second Front’s five-scenario playtest build has what it takes to divert, surprise, and charm a discerning digital wargamer on the lookout for the Next Big Thing, but what happens when that discerning wargamer swaps his smoking jacket for a lab coat, and his (rose-tinted?) spectacles for a microscope? This week, with the help of the bundled map and scenario editors, I train a forensic eye on the AI in Jo Bader’s eagerly awaited Steel Panthers-like.
Every Friday at 1300 hours, Tally-Ho Corner’s cleverest clogs come together to solve a ‘foxer’ handcrafted by my sadistic chum and colleague, Roman. A complete ‘defoxing’ sometimes takes several days and usually involves the little grey cells of many readers. Don’t be shy. All are welcome to participate.
Zen sharpshooter Otto Pinkas is an incorrigible optimist, but the sight of seven T-62s rolling towards Strupnic from the east drives a sliver of ice into his breast. The Pod caravan seems to be expecting trouble. Disappointingly, every hatch is closed, every TC safe inside a dome of steel.
Ivan, the MT-LB commander, and Yuri, the MT-LB driver, fall out during this sixty second slice of action. Ivan wants an opportunity to riddle a skedaddling TOW Mutt with his turret-mounted 7.62mm Pulemyot Kalashnikova MG. Yuri wants to put a Zendoran highway embankment between himself and possible immolation.
Trade secret. Not only is Roman not in Pont-à-Mousson most Monday mornings, he’s not – in body at least – in the spots he claims to be in his puzzles. Only a few unusually fanatical/footloose foxer setters produce, on a regular basis, solo foxers as truthful as this one:
Pike & Shot in 2014? Airborne Assault: Red Devils Over Arnhem in 2002? Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord in 2000? Sid Meier’s Gettysburg in 1997?… Give me a moment, cornerites. I’m trying to remember the last time a brush with a new wargame engine left me this excited.
Every Friday at 1300 hours, Tally-Ho Corner’s cleverest clogs come together to solve a ‘foxer’ handcrafted by my sadistic chum and colleague, Roman. A complete ‘defoxing’ sometimes takes several days and usually involves the little grey cells of many readers. Don’t be shy. All are welcome to participate.
How easy is it to hit a speeding jeep with a rocket-propelled grenade at a range of around 200 metres? Stefan Popov, the Pod grenadier next to the Vostok memorial, has a splendid chance to answer that question in turn 12. Fortunately for the Comment Commanders, he chooses to excogitate not experiment.