Pigeon post

Marauding peregrine falcons and sparrowhawks are taking an alarming number of THC carrier pigeons at the moment. The last seven days have been especially grim. Since last Friday we have lost Intrepid, Inkspot, Introvert, Insufferable, Insurgent, and Interlagos. As Insurgent was equipped with the new Mk VII flare dispenser, hopes that the tide could be turned with improved countermeasures have taken a bit of a knock. ‘Top cover’ for every sortie is back on the table as a potential solution.

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Medal Magnet: LHX Attack Chopper

The writer of this Open October submission could well be THC’s most decorated reader. Cosstarica got hooked on sims and computer wargames in the Nineties after encountering Panzer General at an IT club. Since then he has not only played an impressive range of digital militaria he has diligently recorded his medal hauls in every title he has spent time with.

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The Lions of Lodowice: Turn 15

If this play-by-comment Combat Mission experiment was a frame of snooker, I reckon the referee would be warning the players that a re-rack was imminent if they continued in their current cagey fashion. Reduced to a single ‘tank’ apiece, and seemingly content to camp on opposite sides of the Vistula, the understandably cautious Soviet and German order issuers provide flip-all for an eager ersatz war correspondent to work with during the game’s middle turn.

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Open October

Open October is my sidekick Roman’s idea. He reckons that after listening to me evaluate, pontificate, speculate, and alliterate for getting-on-for three years without pause, some Cornerites might appreciate a short break. While I still plan to write and post during the coming month, how often I do so will depend on how many of you take up the following ‘once in a lifetime offer’. In essence THC is yours to use/abuse/populate for the next four weeks.

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Bastogne Breakout lightly lambasted

On the stormy night in 1992 when I made my fateful deal with that hoofed chappy at a crossroads north of Waterlooville, one of the contract clauses I failed to read was this: “The signee hereby agrees to review all Operation Wacht am Rhein digital wargames however shallow, ramshackle, or unoriginal.” As Mr Mephisto currently has his hands full in places like Yemen and Ukraine, I could probably get away with skipping the released-on-Wednesday Bastogne Breakout. However, just to be on the safe side, here’s a few paragraphs on a title that I can only wholeheartedly recommend to Bulge completists.

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Boat Crew’s campaign engine is surprisingly sophisticated

Back in the no-risk Noughties, dynamic campaigns stopped traffic and popped monocles in Simulatia and Grognardia. Years passed without a single new example appearing. The “They’re too time-consuming/expensive to make” myth was trotted out so often, some began to treat it as truth. Now, of course, we know different. Titles like Boat Crew prove a studio doesn’t need to be loaded or experienced or huge to fashion an imaginative alternative to Ye Olde Linear Mission Sequence.

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