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The Flare Path: A2ZA round-up of the realistic
A round-up of the realistic
A is forAlphabetised wargame and sim news.Welcome to the cosy corner of RPS where the vehicular is valued, the historical is hallowed, and the paragraphs are shorter than 7.5 cm Kampfwagenkanone 37 L/24 barrels. While this flavour of Flare Path usually relies on the English alphabet for structure, in emergencies – in weeks when Life does its best to unscrew my monocle and turn my upper lip to jelly – I’m perfectly willing to usethe dinky letter palette of the Rotokas peopleof Bougainville.
E is forExotic ecosystem
G is forGallery gunplay
I is forIndecipherable Indonesian inferno
K is forKill or cure?
I’m pretty sure consulting a patient’s criminal record before deciding whether to treat them, breaches the Hippocratic Oath. Fingers crossedField Hospital: Dr Taylor’s Story(“Coming Soon”) won’t lose sight of realism in its attempt to present players with tough triage decisions. The screenshots on the Steam page suggest a text-heavy take on the subject matter. Personally I’d have been happier if a few of the images had shown ward floorplans and personnel stats à lathis print-and-play board wargame.
O is forOmitted vowels
If your homeland’s loftiest peak is a 171 metre high pimple topped with a millstone, and your national coat of arms features three blue moggies passant you should be well equipped to solvethis week’s co-op brainteaser. My own personal experience of Denmark is pretty limited. I spent a rather unusual week there circa 1992. Copenhagen and Helsingør weren’t on my itinerary, but a mink farm and a pork scratchings factory were.
P is forProud to be Polish
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Watch on YouTube
R is forRegiments
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Watch on YouTube
Bird’s Eye Games are happy to admit thatRegiments, their due-in-the-Spring WW3 RTT title, is heavily indebted to Eugen’s Wargame series. With the Steel Divisions it has less in common apparently, weapon ranges being shorter to encourage manoeuvre, units less fiddly thanks to platoon organisation, and task force composition more flexible because of a deckless approach. Disappointingly the trailer’s lack of Challengers, Scimitars, and Gazelles isn’t misleading. There’s to be no British, French, or Canadian units in the four faction initial release.
S is forSeat slashing
Body cavities appear to be out of bounds inContraband Police, the upcoming blend of Papers, Please and Car Mechanic Simulator from Crazy Rocks. It’s 1980s Eastern Bloc vehicles - Ladas, Fiats,Bukhankasetc – that suffer all the indignities. Interested to see how the game telegraphs guilt and manages the monotony that must surely be part of a customs officer’s lot, I’ll definitely be giving the released-last-week demo a whirl over the weekend.
T is forTeutonic takeover
A 13-scenario Axis campaign simulating German expansion up to and including the Invasion of Crete, 50+ additional unit types, a host of new specialists and HQ capabilities, rethought forts… we’ve had to wait a relatively long time for Blitzkrieg,Unity of Command 2’sfirst DLC, but it sounds like the £10 offering is no weekend wonder or shallow rehash.
U is forUnseen U-boats
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Watch on YouTube
Iron Wolf Studio look to have a higher regard for history thanTom Hanksdoes.The latest Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter dev diaryclaims sightings of U-boats will be extremely rare outside of cutscenes. Realising thatblind man’s buffcan be just as thrilling asBritish Bulldog, the Polish devs are working hard to sim the sensors and combat information centre instruments that allowed real WW2 convoy shepherds to ‘see’ the invisible. As it looks like we’re going to be spending a fair amount of our time hunched over a plotting table, it’s good to see that table looking so tactile and atmospheric in the sim’s first gameplay trailer.
V is forVirtual Vienna
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Watch on YouTube
