An uncertain turn of events in a later round in my Iran-Iraq War campaign!   My first M60 campaign in SABOW is proving to be something of a roller-coaster ride. And an expensive one! Back in daylight after the opening mission during the hours of darkness, we seemed to be doing quite well in mission #2, playing our part in the Iranian counter-offensive against the invading Iraqis. The culmination of my plans in that mission was a combined tank-infantry attack on a Iranian defended locality. W

On campaign in the classic US Main Battle Tank!     Having throughly enjoyed fighting in SABOW's Iran-Iraq War campaign in a T-62, I decided it was time to swap sides and have a crack with the M60A1, fighting now for the Iranians. The latest (May 2015) patch adds some graphical and other improvements, including some new training missions. Such is SABOW's considerable and admirable depth as both tanksim and tactical wargame, I'm still a relative novice and in particular, have had little 'tre

To war in the China-Burma-India theatre with the American Volunteer Group!   There can be few more famous flying units in the Second World War than the group of volunteer fighter pilots recruited in 1941 by retired US Army Captain Claire L. Chennault to help China turn the tables in the beleagured country's air war against the Japanese. Flying Curtiss P-40B Tomahawks diverted from planned deliveries to the RAF, the three squadrons of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) soon found themselves p

Some Battle of Britain action in Il-2's new supermod!   Well, I said I would and I did. After stooging around in the dark (in both senses of the expression!) with a few missions in a Lancaster campaign in the last IL-2 mission report, I decided that I would transfer back to Fighter Command, for my next campaign with the recently-released Community User Patch (CUP) for Il-2 1946. In fact I also turned the clock back, from the winter of 1941-1942 to the summer of 1940, famous for the Battle of

Swings and roundabouts...with tanks!   My first Iran-Iraq War campaign in Graviteam's rather excellent & recently-relaunched wargame/tanksim Steel Armor - Blaze of War (SABOW) had been a bit experimental, not least as I only discovered some quite useful aspects of the wagrame interface towards the end of my assigned eight turns. My final battle had been inconclusive, resulting in a drawn campaign overall. So I decided to replay it from the get go, rather than move on to the other availab

First mission in a brand new campaign!     Apart from the occasional mission, I have never seriously tried flying bombers in Il-2. I'm quite fond of shooting them down...or trying to, at any rate. I have flown bombers in CFS3 using that sim's simplified bombing system and in B-17 II The Mighty Eighth, with its much superior facilities, including a decent simulation of the Norden bombsight.   However, having of late much enjoyed flying with Il-2's new Community User Patch (CUP), I decided

A small but satisfying battle of manoeuvre, in Steel Armor - Blaze of War!   Many sims give us a way of jumping straight into virtual battle with the minimum of preliminaries and Graviteam’s wargame-based tanksim is now no exception. The original release featured what the new version of SABOW has accurately re-labelled a ‘Battle Editor’.  This provides a fast way of choosing multiple parameters to set up platoon-to-company level armoured battles.  To this, the new release has added some ‘ins