Lieutenant Guskov – one of the Podrabian Army’s less diligent representatives – is woken from his slumbers by the THUMP-THUMP-THUMP of an inconsiderate drop hammer. It takes him several seconds to figure out where he is (The bottle-strewn bar of the Traveller’s Rest Hotel in one-horse Zendoran backwater, Strupnic) and several seconds more to realise that the inconsiderate drop hammer isn’t in fact an inconsiderate drop hammer.
Unlike the formidable Friday foxers, the Monday kind are designed with lone truth sleuths in mind. While Roman, my Chief Foxer Setter, would be very interested to know how long it takes you to defox today’s brainteaser, he requests that the comments section isn’t used to share solutions or drop hints.
A is for Alphabetised wargame, sim, and site news. Once a month, assuming I can persuade Austerity’s Blackburn Cirrus Bombardier engine to perform the miracle of internal combustion, I spend a day or two scouring Simulatia and Grognardia for stories with the potential to fascinate, startle, cheer, dismay or amuse. Those stories are then dehydrated, alphabetised and delivered, via articles like this one, to people who’ve got better things to do than plough through puff and platitudes.
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.
Silver-haired, bespectacled, and dressed in sandals, shorts, and a John Lennon t-shirt, Viktor Somlac is an unlikely war hero. Trajanov wonders if he’s wasting his time as he shakes the man’s hand and downs the shot of eye-watering apricot brandy that’s handed to him by another member of the four-strong Strupnic welcoming committee moments after he crosses the threshold of the cottage. It’s only when his host directs his attention to a wall map studded with coloured pins, that the Major’s cynicism begins to fade.
The Comment Commanders get their first glimpse of the Podrabians in Turn #1. Given the circumstances, it’s probably a good thing that glimpse is a fleeting one.
Unlike the formidable Friday foxers, the Monday kind are designed with lone truth sleuths in mind. While Roman, my Chief Foxer Setter, would be very interested to know how long it takes you to defox today’s brainteaser, he requests that the comments section isn’t used to share solutions or drop hints.
On May 29th, 1981, after decades of dimpik rattling, the People’s Republic of Podrabia pulled said dimpik from its scabbard and thrust it deep into the eastern side of its smaller, weaker* neighbour, Zendora. Podrabia’s autocratic president, Anton Kubman, called the invasion a “border consolidation exercise” and boasted it would achieve its goals in three days. The tin-pot Ozymandias hadn’t bargained for the pluck, determination, and tactical ingenuity of the Zendorans. * On paper