Interview: Ezra Sidran

Right now General Staff’s most effective recruiting sergeant isn’t a smooth-talking influencer, a fancy trailer, or a feature list as long as a Chassepot rifle, it’s a collection of digitised academic papers tucked away in a dusty corner of an obscure website. The pdfs stacked here are the reason I don’t care two hoots* about the game’s frumpy graphics, familiar Nineteenth Century battle line-up, and lack of interest in campaigning. They promise something rarer than rocking horse manure – computer-controlled opponents that think and possibly even learn like real commanders.

Read More
Friday Foxer #7

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.

Read More
Brinkmann’s Bridge: Turn 3

Colour Sergeant Potter got through Slapstick and Deadstick without a scratch. It’s during Operation Bandstand that his luck runs out. Sitting in the passenger seat of a jeep skirting Van Der Voort farm at the start of turn 3, he reacts quickly to the wayward rifle grenade that opens the German ambush, but not quite quickly enough. The vehicle’s twin Vickers K guns are pivoting towards the treeline from whence the Gewehr-Panzergranate came, when the fusilier pictured below pots Potter. (Brinkmann’s Bridge is an open-to-all game of Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy in which the commenter-controlled Axis forces are out…

Read More
Solo Foxer #7

Unlike the formidable Friday foxers, the Monday kind are designed with lone truth sleuths in mind. Roman, my Chief Foxer Setter, assures me the following brainteaser can be solved single-handedly. Crow all you like in the comments section, but please don’t spoil the puzzle for others by sharing solutions or dropping hints.

Read More
Brinksmann’s Bridge: Turn 2

The maximum heart rates of selected German combatants during this turn: Oberst Brinkmann: 93 beats per minute. Unteroffizier Thylin: 116 beats per minute. Feldwebel Bulau: 130 beats per minute. Unteroffizier Meister: 145 beats per minute. Gefreiter Tappe: 183 beats per minute. (Brinkmann’s Bridge is an open-to-all game of Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy in which the commenter-controlled Axis forces are out to recapture a Dutch canal spanner recently snatched by Red Devils. Each turn covers one minute of WeGo action. For a scenario outline, click here)

Read More
A2Z

A is for Alphabetised wargame and sim news. I could have scattered these topical tidbits throughout the week in the hope they’d make Tally-Ho Corner look lively and well-staffed. Concern for your LMB dabber persuaded me to glue them all together and present them as a single Musashi-sized tract instead. (I’m always on the lookout for material for my monthly news round-ups. If you’re aware of any interesting games with Strv 103-low profiles, please drop me a line).

Read More
Friday Foxer #6

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.

Read More
Brinkmann’s Bridge: Turn 1

The only things that bark during the first sixty seconds of hands-off WeGo action are restless farmyard dogs. The only thing that booms is a faraway bittern in search of a mate. Although free of weapon reports, Turn 1 isn’t, I’m happy to say, entirely free of interest. Through gaps in the shrapnel-holed roof of the Koffiehuis De Onionmancer, concealed Luftwaffe celebrity Bernhard Brinkmann gathers some potentially useful information, and above the squeaky rumble of the nearby SPW U304(f)-10 halftrack, Feldwebel Bulau’s fusilier squad discerns the sound of an enemy vehicle on the move. (Brinkmann’s Bridge is an open-to-all game…

Read More