A is for Alphabetised wargame, sim, and site news. Now and again, 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.
This week’s handmade co-op puzzle won’t defox itself. If you’re a dab hand at quizzes, lateral thinking, and search engine sleuthing, why not help out.
I’ve written hundreds of articles during my twenty-odd years as a games inspector. As many of these appeared in the British version of PC Gamer magazine and nowhere else, now and again something from my archive may appear as a THC post. For a spell in the Noughties PCG UK ran an intentionally provocative single-page opinion piece every month. Thanks to titles like Sprocket, Through the Darkest of Times, and Gerda: A Flame in Winter* this 2009 ‘Devil’s Advocate’ isn’t quite as pertinent as it once was, but I reckon it still contains sufficient truth to warrant another airing.
I’ll need to tread carefully while writing and illustrating today’s report. Although house rules mean each team has perfect intel on enemy AFV movements, opposing grunts can move unseen until CMRT’s sophisticated spotting routines decide they’ve been detected.
Using the following clues (the map above is purely decorative) in combination with Street View and tools such as MAPfrappe, work out my location.
Midway not only put me in a nautical mood, it reminded me that its designer, Peter Turcan, had released a game relatively recently. Launched in 2017, genre mermaid Trireme Commander garnered bouquets and brickbats in roughly equal measure. THC’s forerunner, The Flare Path, praised its unusual premise and staunch realism, but grumbled about its “curmudgeonly” ways.
Unusually, you’ll need to download today’s brainteaser in order to tackle it. Fond of glider foxers but aware that they can be intimidating when presented as jpegs or printed pics, Roman has used GameMaker Studio to create the world’s first interactive example.
For a while it looked like my temperamental PC and Task Force Admiral’s press demo were never going to get along. My attempts to heal the rift with driver changes and dll feng shui having come to naught, I had resigned myself to vicarious enjoyment when an email arrived urging me to try a new build. Freed by the mallet and grease gun of Drydock Dreams’ code maestro, Jean-Baptiste Griffo, the watertight door to USS Lexington’s rather splendid flagplot swung open at last!