Worry was already well on its way to becoming panic when a grey 'unidentified tank' icon at medium range on our 2 o'clock morphed into a Panther G. While we waited Andrasta's armour and our nerves were tested by several 50mm AP rounds. Disabled by a mine blast and pecked at by that pesky hard-to-hit AT gun, there was little we could do but sit tight and wait for our abstracted comrades (in AC your tank is assumed to be supported by infantry and other AFVs) to smoke-shell and overrun the gun. We were still basking in the glow of that early kill, still congratulating ourselves, when, a couple of hours later, we blundered into a minefield on the outskirts of a village and came under fire from Normandy's best-emplaced Pak 38. A follow-up brace of AP rounds delivered the coup de grace. Andre's first shot, an HE shell (I like to travel with HE up the spout), immobilized the dappled foe. After traversing a couple of map cells we surprised a Pz IV on the edge of a wood. M4 Sherman 'Andrasta' trundled into the bocage on the morning of July 27th 1944 crewed by commander Tim Stone (selected skills: fire direction, battle leadership, and keen senses) gunner Andre Speltzer (quick trigger, knows weak spots) loader Fred Fillman (shell juggler) driver Joe Levard (cautious) and assistant driver Jesse Leach (eagle eyed). My last Normandy tour was a classic example of the game at its permadeath-dealing best. Free low-tech WW2 tank title Armoured Commander serves up some of the most intense and evocative campaign experiences in its class. Last week while branding 2015 a wargaming annus mirablis I somehow failed to mention one of the year's best releases. A larger pragmatic part accepts that while SimplePlanes may never grow into the MSFS-scale genre-revitaliser I've been dreaming about for years it is destined to divert and delight thousands with its novelty, friendliness, and eat-your-geodetic-heart-out-Barnes-Wallis! moments of triumph. A small snobbish part of me wishes this utterly brilliant concept was in the hands of a PC-focussed dev with avgas in their veins and Putnam tomes on their bookshelves. In an ideal world SimplePlanes' construction tool would have SketchUp's power and polish, the game would come with an Outerra-calibre environment engine and challenges inspired by real aviation history. Resourceful modders have got round some editor limitations by hacking xml files (The impressive efforts of community craftsmen can be perused/downloaded here) less dedicated souls are likely to find themselves reworking designs to accommodate tool restrictions and missing aircraft components. Finding anchor points and dismantling existing assemblages can be fiddly too. There seems to be no way to temporarily limit component movement to a single plane. Right now it's not easy to manoeuvre parts with precision in the 3D construction space. While I'd like to have seen the missions glued together with a witty, character-stuffed narrative, if future updates introduce multiplayer racing and skirmishing, together with more plane components and editor options, I'll happily overlook story shortcomings. An airframe perfect for dainty carrier landings probably won't be ideal for speedy sky-hoop threading one suited to economical long-range aviation is unlikely to be any good for SAM evasion. You fire it up with the intention of cobbling together a quick dive-bomber or a serviceable STOL aircraft, and, several hours later, shut it down, the proud father of a passable Boulton Paul Defiant replica or a bizarre boomerang-shaped flying boat.įourteen combat and performance challenges together with customisable dogfight and air race modes endeavour to nudge creativity in specific directions. Incorporating weather-free but essentially plausible flight physics, Jundroo's creation triggers the same design-test-modify-test-giggle-modify-test-scrap-design cycles as Kerbal Space Program. Only occasionally have I rued the slightly clumsy airframe editing tools, the detail-deficient fantasy maps, and the rather slim and unstructured scenario selection. I've sprinkled debris over runways, carrier flight decks and mountain peaks. Using lego-style blocks, malleable fuselage sausages and flight surfaces, and placeable power plants, pylons and wheels, I've built death-traps, dodos, and drunken sky porpoises. Phillips royally entertained for most of the past week. The £10 SimplePlanes has been keeping my inner R. Until now - until SimplePlanes - curious simmers have had to imagine the terror of the De Bruyère C1 test pilot, the mingled shame and disappointment of the Percival P.74 designer. For the last four decades, aviation embarrassments like the Seddon Mayfly and Wight Quadruplane have been studiously ignored by flight sim fabricators. There is an underclass of aerodynes that even the encyclopaedic Microsoft Flight Simulator and the modded-to-within-an-inch-of-its-life IL-2 shuns.
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