E1M1 Magazine - Issues 7 to 9 review

E1M is back for another triple issue batch that continues to demonstrate the rude health of the first person shooter genre and the variety found therein. Following a third successful Kickstarter, it didn't seem like long at all before the latest three issues were at my door, very neatly packaged and sent via special delivery. 

As with the previous issues, the cover artwork is the first thing that greets you and once again, they have excelled themselves. Each issue is 72-pages in length (including the covers) and the stock used is of high quality, with a lovely sheen and a smooth finish. 

The talented team behind the magazine.

Content-wise, there are the usual sections: previews, mods, rail shooters, retro, reviews, features and interviews. The quality fo the writing is high and each issue feels like something you'd be happy to purchase from a newsagent, it's that professional. There are a few adverts in each mag, though these do not overwhelm the content. These are for YouTubers, magazines and forthcoming games, which is nice to see. 

Speaking of games, this is where you get a proper idea of how healthy and varied the FPS market is. In total, you get 66 previews, an astounding number of forthcoming titles, some of which are from solo-devs, others by teams, all packed full of promise. I have no doubt that these will keep the reviewers busy over the next couple of years in E1M1 Towers. I know I'll be adding a few to my Steam Wishlist for future reference. As for reviews, between the retro and new games sections, there are over 60 titles covered, from the usual PC fare to PlayStation and Gameboy Advance shooters. I may even give Daikatana another go based on the retro review in issue 7 - that was a game that I really tried to like back in the day but it never gelled. 

I also liked the sections on mods and it was interesting seeing how creative that community is, and the interviews are varied and informative, as was the "how to" on making a Doom map in issue 8. Truly, this is one of the best written and content filled of the "semi-professional" (and that is not meant in any negative sense) videogames magazines that have cropped up over the last couple of years.

It would be remiss of me to fail to mention the artwork that adorns the interior of the magazines. Used to separate out some of the various sections, these are excellent showcases for their respective creators. Some have a distinct line of humour, but all have specific styles and are well-suited to the videogame genre so well celebrated here.

What more can I say about these three issues? They are a great read and show that the team are learning and developing as they push out more batches to supporters. I am a fan of the three issue batch idea and I am looking forward to the next Kickstarter for issues 10 to 12. As for issues 7 to 9, they shall take up their rightful place alongside the first six. Slowly but surely, there is a comprehensive resource on period and contemporary first person shooters being built up, something that can be referenced in years to come. 

You can find out more about E1M1 here, purchase digital and physical issues, as well as sign up for email notifications to hear about the other content the team are producing.

Lift Off by Eric Berger - Book Review

Elon Musk is a divisive figure but it can't be denied that he's been quite the force for change over the last twenty plus years. From the creation of PayPal to the success of Tesla, he has achieved his self-set goals, and there is no greater symbol of that level of achievement than SpaceX. However, each one of those successes is a result of more than just Musk's effort. Indeed, each is based on the hard work and determination of many, usually unrecognised (outside of their niche areas of expertise) individuals. "Lift Off", by Eric Berger, sets out to bring a bit more recognition to those behind the foundation of SpaceX and the tale of that company's early years.

Berger is the Senior Space Editor at tech web site Ars Technica and for this book, his first, he has managed to snag interviews and recollections from pretty much everyone involved in the formative period of SpaceX's existence, Musk included. That much is obvious by the presence of the billionaire's name in the subtitle. But is this a subjective view of the start of the the company that has shaken the industry to such an extent that it now holds half(!) of the global launch market? Or is this a fawning piece of flummery that avoids upsetting the man with a famously fickle Twitter feed?

Lift Off divides itself between the four flights that finally launched SpaceX on it's successful path to accepted rocket company (Musk famously said he'd reach orbit by the third) and the background to the launches - the development of the Merlin engine, the convoluted route to using Kwajalein Atoll as the launch site, the need to sell rocket launches to ensure the company could be a going concern, the creation of a new facility in Texas, the eight week struggle after flight three to get a fourth, last ditch attempt onto the pad, and a chapter on what came next.

Berger writes well, with an engaging style that captures the drama of SpaceX's start up. The research is impeccable and where there are differences in recollections, this is duly noted and all views are included. After all, time does fade the memory somewhat. There is some humour in there too but the core tale is about achieving the ambitious goal set by Musk, backed by a large portion of his own personal fortune. 

Musk comes across as a high intelligent (he has been described as always being the smartest guy in the room), driven individual. This book doesn't give an overly glowing portrayal of Musk, though he was interviewed for it, but neither does it criticise the negative side of working for such a leader.

You see, Musk recruited who he believed were the brightest and the best, usually just out of education, and wanted these people to be as driven as he was. This means that the hours were long and personal lives were sacrificed. One individual has a daughter who hated Musk for stealing her daddy from her. Another missed out on both of their children's teenage years because of working for SpaceX. This is a repetitive thread throughout the book and whilst it is justified by those involved in it by the achievement of getting an orbital rocket launched, to my mind, it feel like an excuse. There again, it's also a personality thing and, at the end of the day, a personal choice. It feels wrong to me but then I am a tad cynical.

Berger weaves a good narrative tale that, at its base level, is a one of triumph over adversity even if the human cost is at a degree some would find unacceptable. Whether you adhere to the belief that the goal is worth the sacrifice or whether you just think a job is a job, what you will find in Lift Off is an informative read as to how SpaceX got to the point where they could start achieving the aims Musk set way back in 2002.

I still find what SpaceX does thrilling to watch, be it the simultaneous landing of two Falcon 9's after a Falcon Heavy launch, or the repeated (and finally successful) launches of the Starship SN prototypes. Just the idea of launching and landing a rocket still feels like something out of Thunderbirds. What Eric Berger's book does is provide some acknowledgement to those those who struggled to make that vision a reality, to give names and voices to those who really did the hard work under the conducting gaze of Musk. That is what makes Lift Off an essential read. 

Lift Off is available at all the usual bookshops and online retailers.

Was That Film Really That Bad??? - Resident Evil: Afterlife

Or, as it should be called, Resident Evil: The one where they gave up trying and just copied everything from other, better films. Yes, gentle reader, another Resident Evil film but take heart, we're in the back half now and there's only two more to go. Wor Paul returns as writer, director and co-producer in this 2010 release and, to be honest, it shows. Oh dear Lord, does it show. But is the film really that bad???

You'll be wanting the plot which, given this a Res Evil film, is about as thin as cheap bog roll. Oh, it starts off reasonably well, Tokyo before the T-virus spreads, then cuts to four years after the devastation, with Alice (Milla Jovovich) and her clones attacking Umbrella's HQ in Tokyo. She fights Wesker (Shawn Roberts), who injects her with an anti-virus that removes her powers and narrowly escapes a bomb that destroys the HQ and all of her clones. She survives a plane crash (no idea how) that apparently kills Wesker. Six months later, she's flying up to Alaska in a two seat prop plane, looking for the survivors in a mysterious place called Arcadia and completing a video diary of her search. She doesn't find the town but she does find a load of abandoned aircraft and a wild Claire Redfield (Ali Larter), who has been tagged with a red spider implant on her chest. Alice removes this and together they travel to Los Angeles where they find a bunch of survivors in a city centre prison surrounded by legions of the undead. We get an introduction to the survivors and the last prisoner there, Chris Redfield (Wentworth Miller). It turns out that Arcadia is an Umbrella ship and they've been harvesting the living for experiments. The undead breach the prison, the survivors make it to the ship, Alice and co fight Wesker and the film ends with the people held on the ship being released just in time for a mind controlled Jill Valentine to arrive with load of Umbrella VTOL's ready to take on Alice. 

You can't have an RE film without these bad boys. Sadly.

Now you've read that, you don't have to watch 97 minutes of uninspired, cheap looking, copycat action that doesn't have an original bone in its body. After a small, brief (relative) rise in quality in Res Evil: Extinction, we're back to the by the numbers nonsense of Wor Paul. It can look good at times, the opening scene in Tokyo before the T-virus escapes is not bad, all slow motion rain and shit, but once that's out of the way, we have another Alice monologue recapping the events of the first three films and every other trope the series has used so far. However, it's not just the repetition of the in-series tics that grate. Oh no. Wor Paul has been trawling through his DVD collection looking for stuff to "homage."

Agent Smith, I mean, Wesker, I presume.

The Matrix first and the attack on Umbrella's Tokyo HQ, doing a very poor rendition of the Lobby gunfight, with obvious wire work and shitty CGI. The Alice clones are all ninja'd up, with throwing stars that highlight another pointless film-making aspect - this was filmed in 3D so expect lots of slow motion objects heading directly at the camera. Robert's Wesker is a take on Agent Smith, with growly voice, Desert Eagle and emotionless delivery, though he gets to rock the "Neo" look at the back end of the film. They've also activated the infinite ammo cheat in this movie, seeing as it's full-auto ahoy and never a mag change to be seen - indeed, the Alice clones each seem to have about 900 rounds per 30-round mag. Oh, and that wire work - there is one part where Alice jumps into the air, loses all forward momentum and flips without in place. I know it's sci-fi but for fuck's sake, can we at least has some physics in the room, or just help Milla when her wire rig gets tangled, cos that's what it looks like - an outtake. Naturally, things don't get much better.

Like Trinity in Revelations, but two of them... twice as good? No!

As the film has already "homaged" the shit out of the Matrix series (there's a water filled slow motion fight in a shower room that copies several fights across that trilogy and the use of bullet time is both horribly naff to watch and ignores physics on a whole different level to previous RE films), it shouldn't be a surprise that the middle half of the film seems to want to similarly "homage" the Aliens films; from direct quotes ("No offence. None taken") and claustrophobic survival against an external threat, to swimming creatures, proving that nothing sacred from the wandering scriptwriting pen of Wor Paul.

Homage, my ring piece!

Speaking of scriptwriting, the plot makes little sense. There are gaps in logic so big you could drive the good ship Arcadia though them. How does Alice survive the crash when she no longer has her powers. How can she fly to Alaska then to LA as the film shows that it's all one flight? Who is the video diary for? How does she keep the camera battery charged? How...how...how... There are so many questions about how this world continues to exist considering that the ecosphere is dead, there's no replacements for any consumables used and the undead are everywhere. I understand that there will be sites out there with people explaining the convoluted answers to many of these questions but let's be honest here, the Resident Evil films have never been strong on internal logic and world-building. And that's before we get to Alice's coin-filled shotgun. You don't have to know much about ballistics to see that it's a shit idea that exists only to look and sound cool when she uses it. 

This is bullet time... apparently

Of course, you might not care and just want to watch a film with less intellectual activity than the undead in it. It certainly won't be for the characters who are walking stereotypes. You don't care what happens to them. People do stuff for no reason nor explanation: it's just to make the action look cool. Even Jovovich looks bored. At least she gets to speak using her natural voice - Miller has a husky whisper that screams for someone to give him a Strepsil. As for the rest of the cast, they turn up and act to varying degrees, but between Wor Paul's script and direction, the only comfort I feel is that, like previous entries, the cast were paid. Take the money and run people, it's at least gonna pay the bills.

Oh dear...

Production values are dire too, with the roof scenes obviously studio  bound, the CGI being passable at best and downright Warehouse 13-style bad at worst - Alice's swing from the roof top a fine example of the Dr Malcolm declaration  just because they could doesn't mean they should, and the bullet time effects, as already mentioned, are embarrassing. Where as the Wachowski siblings (and the rest of the crew) were pushing technology and film-making to deliver something people had never seen before, Wor Paul thinks a rendering farm will suffice to match that passion. No. Just no. Scenes are shot to highlight the 3D effect, which is great and all but that fad died out years ago, and there is far too much slow motion crap going on. Honestly, if they'd played the film at normal speed, the whole thing might have lasted an hour! That would have been to the benefit of the people who have watched this.

Superhero landing way before Deadpool did it...

Truth be told, this is a filler of a film, ditching the clones from the previous entry and setting up a fifth movie. Given a final box office take of $300m from a $60m budget, that was inevitable and in 2012, said follow up arrived. However, because there is no characterisation beyond cool looking jumps and snarky remarks, Afterlife can't even claim to the the "Empire" of the series. At least with the second Star Wars film, it played with the format to drive the story forward whilst giving fans the characters and action they wanted. Instead, RE: Afterlife is another nonsensical wank fest from Wor Paul that made some people a ton of cash but seriously wastes the audiences time. As with previous entries in the series, yes, it really is that bad.

And since it's so bad, here are some bonus screenshots just for you, you lucky, lucky people...

Agent Smith, I mean Wesker, with his Deagle.

It looks worse in motion. 

The first of many 3D (magic) moments.

It really does look worse in motion.

Zombie on the right has either gone full Thriller or bad Tommy Cooper, I can't tell which.

Archive Magazine - Volume 25.4 Review

It's been a while since Archive 25.3 landed and I was waiting with much anticipation for the next issue to arrive. Happily, it did so in the middle of last week so, having written little about my favourite non-mainstream OS for a while, thought it worth giving the latest issue a review.

Well packaged as usual, the first thing you notice is the rather lovely photograph of a sunset that occupies the cover alongside the contents page. As you can see from the image above, there is a lot in the latest issue which is well worth reading. The range and breadth of contributions really do make this a fantastic example of a user-generated publication and one that is great at informing, educating and entertaining the reader. Hmmm, that has a certain ring to it. 

The article on graphical coding with Python is well worth your time if you're getting to grips with this language in RISC OS, the introduction to UCDebug is a good intro into debugging tools, and the Bookmarks piece has links to three very interesting dev videos. Andy Marks (of RISCOSbits fame) demonstrates three different virtual desktop apps, USB audio gets an informative piece and there is even a small letters page. The regular sections are also up to their usual high standard.

However, there are a couple of articles I do want to comment on, as well as the future plans the editor has revealed. 

Firstly, the brace of hardware pieces. There's one on the TiX Duet from RISC OS Computers and then a comparison review between the FOURtress from RISCOSbits and the 4te from RISC OS Computers. It's especially heartening to see two budget machines in the RISC OS market that can cater for both new and existing users as well as a more bespoke machine that offers maximum flexibility. 

The Duet (you'll need to scroll down that page) is a truly niche machine, a combination of a Titanium board and the PC motherboard of your choice. You decide the spec and the price, but the end result is one that can provide a RISC OS and Windows system in one desktop. This is not a machine for everyone, but that it exists is a good thing. It offers flexibility and freedom, as well as a simple space saving solution for those who don't have acres for a computer set up. The piece on the Duet in Archive does a very good job of explaining how the system works and its benefits, as well as detailing the process of actually obtaining one. Very interesting and highly informative.

The comparison review between the FOURtress and the 4te was of equal, if not greater, interest to me as these computers occupy the lower end of the RISC OS hardware market. Short of building your own desktop using a Raspberry Pi and suitable case, these are two of the simplest and most straight forward ways of getting your hands on a RISC OS system. The piece includes a benchmarks table, price breakdowns, and pros and cons of each system. In a sense, neither is "better" than the other - they both meet the same market requirement but from different companies. I don't "need" a new RISC OS machine at the moment, though I do "want" one (damn my adult sensibilities!) and either machine would fit the bill. What was great to see were the screenshots of the supplied software, something that neither company seems to list on their websites. Knowing what ships with the machine could make it easier for potential buyers to decide upon a purchase. As it stands, either machine will get you started out of the box, though there are add-on packs for (various unlisted) commercial software and AMCOG games from RISCOSbits. The 4te website has a section set aside for software but that's currently empty. 

Kudos then for having the review piece for each machine. I do hope there will be a Pinebok (formerly known as Armbok) review because if the hardware is still available, I would like to see how it works as a RISC OS machine. Yep, still hankering after a portable RISC OS computer... 

Also of note in this issue are the thoughts and plans of Gavin, the editor. You'll find these starting on page 36 and I do like where he wants to take the magazine. The two points he discusses in this issue are the change in software used to produce the mag (although still keeping it RISC OS based) and a planned increase in size. He notes that he had three more articles that could have been included in this issue so wants to move away from the stapled format (which limits the page count to 56) and move to a bound format, thus permitting an increase in page count. This is great news and shows that even though RISC OS remains a relatively niche operating system, it still has a vibrant user base. Couple that with readily available hardware and "good-to-go" software bundles, and it feels to me that there is a great deal of life in RISC OS yet. There are two more ideas on the way, alongside a survey, to be announced in the next issue.

All in all, Archive remains a great magazine and one that any RISC OS user will benefit from reading. It's also extremely promising that improvements and expansion are planned. I know I will be re-subscribing when the time comes.

Check out the Archive magazine website here if you'd like to know more about this essential RISC OS-based publication. 

Cruisin' for a bruisin' - game report.

For the second time this year (we truly are spoiling ourselves here), there was an assemblage of Tantobie Warfare And Tactical Society members at The Commie on a Saturday for another afternoon game. Two in two months, I know! I was in the chair for this one and had decided to give the Shipwreck rules another go with some of the rather decent "click together with a dab glue required" ships I'd acquired from Wish a couple of years ago. Markers for missile fire and helicopters, well, good old pen and paper would suffice. Joining me would be Andy and Shaun, neither of whom count modern naval as their thing so this would be a very good example of a game being ran by the umpire.

A life on the ocean wave...

The scenario was US Navy versus the Soviet Navy. Two Tico-class cruisers (Yorktown and Thomas S Gates) escorting a Sacramento-class combat support ship (Seattle) which the Soviets have to stop using two Slava-class cruisers (Slava and Admiral Flota Lobov). There was no air support other than the ship's own helo's, and no submarines either. Andy decided to be a hot dog snaffler for the day, whilst Shaun was already chomping at his pickled beetroot(!). As for the table, this was seven and a half feet by four and a half, so just about enough space for the game. The Americans were tootling along at one end, whilst the Soviet Navy was skulking about some islands at the other.

A note before we get to the game itself - I had hoped that we could get two games in, one as per the rules, the other with some pre-chosen amendments to the shooting mechanics and Aegis use. However, as with all of our games, there was as much convivial social interaction (i.e. talking, gassing, wittering and piss taking) as there was game playing, so only one game was played which meant that I decided towards the end to include one of the amendments anyway (which I'll explain about later). One thing that is essential to the TWATS is that it's not just about playing the game. Indeed, often the game is secondary to the purpose of the gathering. You may disagree and that is totally fine, but we as a group have never been laser-focused on rolling dice. Each to their own, as they say, but then we do hold our gatherings in a pub... with beer... and beef butties. It's how we roll (so to speak...).

They're just a Slava to love...

Anyway, to the game, and the first movement turn was a general US advance, the Seattle between the two Tico's. The Yorktown launched a helo with it's radar on to see what was ahead. It didn't see anything but the radar was detected by the Slava, which had taken up position in one of the channels between the islands whilst the Admiral Lobov had taken the other. Turn two saw the helo move further ahead as the ships from both sides slowly closed the gap. Turn three was pretty much the same, though the Slava did launch it's sole Ka-27, whilst both sides failed to gain/maintain detection. Turn four saw the helo from Yorktown detect the Ka-27, which itself was detected by the Slava due to its radar emissions. 

Turn five saw some juggling of aircraft as the Yorktown's first helo was replaced by it's second. The Thomas S Gates put its first whirly-bird in the air as well, Andy wanting to form a reconnaissance screen ahead of his force. Slava's Ka-27 moved forward, probing with its radar and finding all three US ships. As the Americans were still not radiating, they had to rely on passive means to detect the Ka-27... which the Seattle did but the two very expensive anti-air cruisers didn't. Such are the dice rolls. Andy then decided to switch everything on. The Yorktown detected the Soviet flying menace and promptly fired two Standard surface to air missiles. One hit later and the Soviet helo was no more. 

It's not Harpoon, but it'll do for a map.

Turn six, and things became really interesting as everybody lit up (their radars, there were no smokers in the group). Shaun also launched his last helo, this one from the Admiral Lobov. The Yorktown's helo detected the Slava and was counter-detected, the Thomas S Gate's chopper didn't find the Lobov but neither was it found by the Soviets. At this point, Andy decided to have a pop at the Slava, utilising data links between the ships to fire two Harpoons each from the Tico's at the Soviet cruiser. Onto the combat turns!

The first combat turn (6.1 so to speak) saw the missiles on their way. 6.2 saw the Slava try to detect the missiles as they reached medium range, picking up three of the four and launching a pair of SA-N-6's at each of the incoming missiles. All three of the detected anti-ship missiles were downed. Combat turn 6.3 saw the final Harpoon detected at short range and shot down by another brace of SA-N-6's. 

Andy, at this point, was questioning his ability to actually sink the enemy. There then followed a discussion over tactics, the effect of air power and the differences in approach between the US and Soviet navies on ship to ship combat. Handily, food also arrived at this point: beef sandwiches with fried onions, peas and chips, and lashings of gravy too. Once again, Jean surpassed herself with the victuals. So, fortifying ourselves with another couple of pints of Consett Ale Works Pale Ale (except for poor Shaun, who was drinking lightweight pokey-pola as he was driving), we returned to the table.

Movement turn seven kicked up a gear here. A round of detection dice led to everyone knowing where where everyone else was at with the exception of the Thomas S Gates, who got ignored, and the Slava who seemed to have had dice on his side. Thus began another round of combat turns.

Combat turn 7.1 and it was SAM heaven as the Slava and Admiral Lobov each fired a pair of SA-N-6's, blotting out the two forward deployed US helo's. In return, the Thomas S Gates fired a pair of Standard SM-MR2's at the Lobov's helo, and it too made a rapid connection to the sea. 

Combat turn 7.2 was the biggie, as far as the Americans were concerned. Chastened by his lack of success with a mere four Harpoons earlier in the game, Andy decided to unload his remaining twelve SSM.s (six from the Yorktown, six from the Gates) at the Admiral Lobov. This left Andy with just the Standard SAM's as any long range anti-ship firepower but needs must.

"Authentic" (ahem) wave simulation on the table.

CT 7.3 saw the Lobov detect 8 of the incoming Harpoons, whilst the Slava detected 9. Sadly for the Slava, the geometry wasn't right for any kind of supporting fire so the Lobov had to deal with the incoming on it's own. Firing one SA-N-6 per target to maximise potential hit rolls, Shaun shot down 6 Harpoons. Not bad at all. 

7.4 saw three of the six remaining Harpoons detected and this time Shaun launched a pair of SA-N-6's at each of the offending trio. Two kills, four remaining. It was squeaky bum time for Shaun as the final four made it to very short range and, in keeping with the rules, he couldn't fire anymore SA-N-6's so was left with CIWS and chaff. 7.5 saw detection pick up only three incoming, with dice rolls killing two. With just chaff remaining, Shaun bravely rolled and managed to decoy one last Harpoon away. That final missile slammed into the Admiral Lobov, causing heavy damage and knocking the SA-N-4 system out. Dead in the water, he would need some good repair dice the next turn.

Which, in Movement turn 8, the lucky so and so got! Back up to half speed and with combat systems up and running, the Lobov was back in the fight. A duff round of detection rolls solved nothing, so onto turn 9...

The Yorktown was blind and deaf to anything (it was poor dice rolling again), whilst the Gates found the Slava. The Slava, in turn, found the Yorktown and the Seattle, but not the Gates. Shaun, using some pretty good logical deduction, knew he was facing two shooters and had detected two ships, so decided to fire every SS-N-12 he had (16 from the Slava, 16 from the still functioning Lobov) and see what would happen. 

This does not look good...

Combat turn 9.1, the Yorktown detected half of the incoming raid and the combined fire of 8 Standard MR2's between that ship and the Gates (got to love data links) shot down seven, so 25 remaining. Good shooting but not enough... 

CT 9.2 saw 14 detected out of the 25 and a further 7 kills from nine missile shots, Seattle's Sea Sparrow getting a look in.18 vampires left after short range fire.

Combat turn 9.3 was the very short range engagement and here is where I made the change to the rules. I permitted the Standard's and Seattle's Sea Sparrow to fire again. Some truly excellent dice rolls from Andy took out another 8 of the SS-N-12's, and of the final 10, Phalanx fire from all three ships (who were in close order so I allowed the Gates to fire even though she was not a target) dealt with a further six. Andy really could not have asked for better results. But that still left four missiles aimed at the Yorktown and the Seattle.

And now, the end is near, and so I face the final...

With just chaff left, the luck of the roll left Andy, and all four anti-ship missiles found their target. The two hits on the Yorktown were fatal, sinking her in pretty short order. The Seattle, however, barely flinched, sustaining light damage from the first hit though the second hit raised that to heavy damage, Still, she was afloat. 

By now, the afternoon was waning and the game was over, with a solid win for the Soviets. They had destroyed one cruiser, heavily damaged the supply ship and the Americans only had SAMs to shoot back against two ships. Ok, one of those was damaged but still able to fight. They too, like the Americans, would have to rely upon using SAMs to shoot for any longer range stuff, and they had a definite advantage if it came down to guns.

Both Andy and Shaun enjoyed playing the game, and it was a hoot to umpire too. This is where umpires come into their own, certainly in the games we play, as it is umpire knowledge and understanding that guides players who may not know the period or topic. As for the rules, well, they played well, but seem to be a bit more dice heavy than I would like. Certainly, the detection rolls for missiles could, in my humble opinion, require tweaking. One solution would be to have a single roll at initial detection range and then have that count for the rest of the flight in. If you wanted, you could bring in sea state to make things a tad more realistic and then have a single roll per batch at each range band. Just a thought, but something worth considering as the core rules are pretty sound. 

Then we come to SAM fire (not samphire, though that is lovely on salmon). Aside from the hit values, which in this game I took as absolute, rather than one under to drive off, two under to kill - nope, you get the hit roll, it kills, I have an issue with the way the game handles Aegis. With the Mk26 twin launcher, an early Aegis cruiser can loft four missiles every ten to twelve seconds. According to the rules, they can only fire four missiles per combat turn. That didn't, and still doesn't feel right given that a combat turn can represent one to two minutes of real-time. One way to take that into account was to permit SAM fire in v-short range. The other is to increase the number of missiles fired per turn. The same goes for VLS systems. This part needs work and it'll be something I'll be thinking about before the next time we play this, which admittedly won't be for a while as variety is a plus point to our group. Of course, I could just have mis-understood the rules... another feature of umpire-ran games :-)

Still, this was another good game and one that kind of played out how I expected it to, minus the inevitable tweaking that we always seem to do with rules. Hopefully you have enjoyed reading this and if late Cold War naval is your thing, try and grab a copy of Shipwreck and its add-on Freeplay '88. They're definitely worth a go. 

If you're interested in the ships used, you can find them on Wish, usually for a few quid for 8. I bought two sets, hence the multiple Slava's and Tico's. For the price, they're decent. Now, to find similar scale models to fill out the fleets...