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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The Lions of Lodowice: Turn 14

In Poland a person with a great sense of humour is sometimes said to “laugh like a Lodowician”. The Silesian city shows its mirthful/mischievous side halfway through Turn 14 when a Studebaker truck barrelling along Copernicus Street decides to explode for no apparent reason. Are there German infiltrators on the east bank of the Vistula already? Did a butter-fingered Ivan drop a grenade? Unfortunately I can’t answer that question without compromising the thick foot-unit Fog-of-War currently blanketing the battlefield.

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Rise of the White Sun is something else

I’ve never played a wargame quite like Maestro Cinetik’s latest TBS before. Yes, there have been moments this week when, moving armies from Chinese district to Chinese district, I’ve been reminded of AGEod titles such as Birth of America and Revolution Under Siege, and occasions in the midst of political, social, or economic engineering when memories of Paradox creations such as Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis, have surfaced unbidden, but Rise of the White Sun has qualities and character all of its own.

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Friday Foxer #143

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. All are welcome to participate.

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The Velicogna Verdict: Interceptor Ace

Professional conflict sim ponderer Arrigo Velicogna has very kindly agreed to assess some cardboard solitaire wargames for Tally-Ho Corner. In his first column the ex King’s College London lecturer takes a look at a diversion in which the player’s goal is brutalising high-flying B-17s and B-24s in the skies above the Reich.

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