Tally-Ho Corner – Page 75 – The new home of The Flare Path

September 13, 2023

Disinterred Devil’s Advocate

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.

September 11, 2023

The Lions of Lodowice: Turn 12

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.

September 11, 2023

Where am I?

Using the following clues (the map above is purely decorative) in combination with Street View and tools such as MAPfrappe, work out my location.

September 8, 2023

Peter Turcan’s Trireme Commander is actually pretty oarsome

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.

September 8, 2023

Friday Foxer #141

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.

September 6, 2023

Tim’s Task Force Admiral photo album

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!

September 5, 2023

Review Reprise: Storm – Frontline Nations

I’ve written hundreds of reviews, previews, and retrospectives 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 one of THC’s daily posts. Back in 2011, SimBin briefly strayed from the racing line in order to publish Storm: Frontline Nation, “a slick mix of Total War and Panzer General.”

September 4, 2023

Unforgiving winter and untreated wounds kill in Khaligrad…

…a five-quid TBT from the team behind Orbi Universo (a game I once described as “Civ without bourgeois luxuries like maps and movable warriors”). Set in a gently fictionalised WW2 Stalingrad, this new release sandwiches thought-provoking force management sessions between its campaign outings.