A is for Alphabetised 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. B is for Bloody Kriegsmarine! And bloody Luftwaffe! Here I am struggling to take London, Aldershot and Southampton in […]
Generally when a Flare Path interviewee says they dabbled in diplomacy in their younger days they are talking about their formative games. However, in Ryan Hewer’s case the lower case ‘d’ isn’t a typo. My interlocutor today is a man whose CV bestrides two parallel worlds. In one the dire consequences of a clumsy piece […]
My biggest ludological disappointment of 2019? Close Combat: The Bloody First, without question. Slitherine’s 3D take on Atomic’s gripping top-down wargame series should have been irresistible, but a host of bugs and questionable design decisions left many of the pages in its copybook looking like Rorschach tests. Curious to see what difference a year of […]
If days were centimetres the sequel to this site’s favourite tactics game of 2014 would be about this far away (I’m holding my hands out in front of me like a person illustrating the leg span of the largest giant huntsman spider ever recorded). Poke your spycam under yonder jump and you’ll spot an interview with […]
I wanted to burn the following appetisers onto a CD then sellotape the disc to the front cover of today’s column but Graham said that was “technically impossible” so links and enticing descriptions will have to suffice. Be aware that most of the demos detailed below will self-destruct when the ongoing Steam Game Festival ends […]
A is for Alphabetised 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 […]
The world’s first commercial digital wargame turned forty earlier this year. As I’ve written about Computer Bismarck previously on RPS, I won’t do so again. What I will do is mark the anniversary somewhat belatedly by borrowing the pioneer’s theme for the trial run of what I hope will become an annual or biennial event […]
The plan was a simple one. After a fortnight masquerading as Michael Portillo, return to this column’s touchstone, virtual war, without passing Go or collecting £200. It wasn’t my intention to swap driving for driving… bogies for bogeys. I never meant to lose my heart to a ramblewhack sim. And yet here I am, […]
Last week Flare Path’s tour of London Underground’s brown squiggle reached Queen’s Park, the Bakerloo’s equivalent of the Doors of Durin. Today our middle-aged TSW2 tube train plunges into a tenebrous netherworld full of mysterious parietal art, dangerous chasms, and (fingers crossed) tiny brawling rodents. Our first break from the inky blackness comes at […]
Welcome aboard this Train Sim World 2 Bakerloo service from Harrow & Wealdstone to Elephant & Castle. As the London Underground employee who should have been driving this train is a trifle indisposed following an encounter with a chloroform-soaked flannel, I’ll be whisking you into the heart of the Big Smoke today. Seeing as […]
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