Armour | The Download Munkey

Military Tuesday : Shotgun One – Free Military Novel + Weapon Factsheets

October 06th, 2009

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A look at several booklets of weapon factsheets accompanying Kerry Plowright‘s military novel Shotgun One. This rather engaging novel about a fictional conflict pitting Australia and the US against new military powerhouses China and Russia after the discovery of oil near Vostok Station in Antarctica, has yet to find a publisher but the 600+ pages PDF version of Shotgun One can be freely downloaded from the book’s official site at www.vostokstation.com.au.

These supporting booklets provide more in-depth information on the weapons and equipment featured in Shotgun One together with details on a few fictional near-future weapons like the highly capable F-111S flown by Squadron Leader Lance Hamilton in the book. Some information are taken directly from Wikipedia but at least it’s consolidated together for handy reference.

Nothing new in Australian Army Weapons and Systems since most of the Australian military equipment are similiar to that used by the US or her NATO Allies. The Long Range Patrol Vehicles (LRPVs) used by the Australian SASR (yes, the Aussies have their own equivalent of the famous British Special Air Service) are rather interesting modifications of the original Land Rovers though.

The RAAF Aircraft and Weapons and Systems follows in a similiar vein as the first booklet with details on the aircraft in service with the Royal Australian Air Force.

The next couple of booklets deal with the ships serving with Chinese PLAN (People’s Liberation Army Navy) and the Royal Australian Navy. There’s quite a few good-looking ships and boats in these two booklets, two of my favourites being the Australian Armidale class of patrol boats (above) and the Chinese Houbei class of missile boats (below).

The last booklet contains information on the TNI-AD, the Indonesian National Army which is equipped with an interesting mix of arms from both Western and Soviet/Russian suppliers. Not much information on the operational use of these weapons by the TNI-AD though.

Download Shotgun One and its accompanying resources from the official site @ www.vostokstation.com.au.

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Games Thursday : Theatre of War 2 : Africa 1943 Promotional Mini-Game

July 16th, 2009

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Caught this promotional mini-game for Theatre of War 2 : Africa 1943 published by Battlefront who created the very fine Combat Mission series, from the equally fine Tacticular Cancer (which would be even finer (more fine?) with a RSS feed ).

It’s time to show the world the power of Italian armour!

Choose one of four nations – USA, Great Britain, Germany and Italy, represented by the M4 Sherman, Valentine Mks I/II/III, Tiger I and Ansaldo-Fiat M15/42 respectively and wage all-out armoured warfare!

If you’ve played games like Benoit Freslon’s Nano War, Rudolf Kremers and Alex May’s surrealist Dyson or even Dreamspike Studios’ Space War Commander, you’ll know what you’re already in for – an abstract game of resource management and conquest. Each of the bases under your control generates tanks which you can then deploy to garrison other friendly bases or to launch attacks to conquer neutral or enemy bases.

Your tanks will engage any opposition in its path while on the move so take that into account when reinforcing your bases near enemy territory or when planning a major offensive deep into enemy territory – hardly advisable with a small force when you have to run a gauntlet of enemy bases to reach your final objective. Battles between tank groups on the move always favour the larger groups so it might be wise to assemble larger battle groups at bases nearer to the enemy instead of attacking piecemeal.

The game may seem deceptively simple but a population cap on each base i.e each base can only produce a fixed number of tanks, means that a wise commander will keep an eye on rear bases which have produced their maximum allotment of tanks and move thems to reinforce the forward bases to allow these bases to start production again, hence increasing the overall number of tanks in your army.

Coupled with the map layout and the occassional unfair advantage AI nations have in numbers and default base location, this Theatre of War 2 : Africa 1943 mini-game can be very challenging at times – I gave up trying to complete level 3.

It’s a pity that the nation you select doesn’t seem to make any difference to the gameplay since that would make an even more tactically challenging game – I would have expected that Germany would generate their more powerful Tigers at a lower rate but it appears that they are churned out as fast as Shermans and go down like one.

Play this Theatre of War 2 mini-game over at Battlefront.

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Tags: Armour Flash Games Military

Wallpapers Wednesday : Theatre of War 2 : Africa 1943

July 15th, 2009

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Wallpapers from the second installment of Battlefront’s Theatre of War, set in the deserts of North Africa in 1943 – the year which saw the first major engagement between the Americans and Field Marshal Rommel’s veteran Afrika Korps in the Mediterranean Theater at the Battle of the Kasserine Pass.

Probably gonna try the Theatre of War 2 demo and write about it if I like it enough – I found the interface of the first game too awkward for a RTS the last time I played the demo. I try to get my hands on the demos for every single games published by Battlefront though, my favourite game is still Afrika Korps from their seminal Combat Mission series.

Download these Theatre of War 2 wallpapers from Battlefront or check out the Theatre of War 2 demo.

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Wallpapers Wednesday : King’s Bounty : Armored Princess

July 01st, 2009

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King’s Bounty : Armored Princess is an expansion pack to the 2008 remake of the original King’s Bounty which was the inspiration the Heroes of Might & Magic series.

For this expansion (a weird name,if you ask me), we have wallpapers of the titular Princess Amelie who’s pretty, not exactly well-armored and is apparently single and has a Nordic temper (interesting details but do we really need to know all that?) If yes, head on down to the English site where there’s more information about the game but is unfortunately missing the wallpapers.

Download King’s Bounty : Armored Princess wallpapers from the official Russian site.

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Tags: Armour Games Medieval Wallpapers

Military Tuesday : IGWB (III) – Firefight – WWII Infantry Tactics Simulator

June 16th, 2009

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Sean O’ Connor has been developing games for a long time – back when the indie game scene mainly comprised games distributed on the shareware model. I downloaded the demo for version 2.0 of Firefight, his WWII real time tactics game some ten years ago and now it’s at version 4.1. And yes, this game is one of my recommendations for my Indie Games Worth Buying (IGWB) series.

If you’ve played any of Atomic Games’ Close Combat series, you find the gameplay very similiar, the only major difference being that the later Close Combat games have a strategic layer to tie the tactical battles together with troops that stay with you for an entire operation or campaign. In Firefight however, you purchase the troops you require for a mission and the survivors return to wherever they’re coming from after the mission ends.

Battles occur as an engagement of two infantry companies – you’ll control a mix of infantry sections, mortar and machinegun teams, anti-tank-guns and individual tanks attached to your company.

Troop deployment

Both sides start at opposing ends of each randomly-generated map and attempt to attack or defend the mission objective (signified by the flag). Since Firefight is primarily an infantry-based skirmish, tactical movement, overwatch and mutual support are very important since the enemy AI will often open fire at close short range and pin down the leading sections. Without suppressive fire from supporting sections, isolated sections are quickly and easily suppressed and defeated in detail.

Contact!

Individual tanks, while expensive at the cost of three (or four) infantry sections, do provide an interesting addition to your tactical options since they are almost invulnerable to small arms fire at medium to long range and provide a mobile source of heavy firepower to extricate troops in trouble or support infantry assaulting enemy strongpoints in villages. Just watch out for enemy tanks, anti-tank guns and lucky direct hits from offmap artillery. They’re not invincible though – panzerfausts and their equivalents or a sufficient quantity of hand grenades will quickly disable any tank unsupported by infantry in the built-up areas.

Calling for a fire mission on a 88mm which has just destroyed two of my tanks.

Friendly AI is excellent – soldiers will automatically fire on enemies in range and use grenades in close combat and tanks will turn and back away when fired upon by other tanks and anti-tank guns. Tank crews will escape and attempt to crawl away to safety when their tanks are disabled. Mortar teams act with equal initiative and will provide supporting fires on enemy positions. You rarely have have to issue fire orders and can concentrate on manuevering sections around the enemy flanks or calling for artillery support.

In a nod to realism, off-map artillery has to adjust fire when calls for artillery are requested. Since this takes time to prepare, commanders must plan ahead and cannot simply request for fire support and expect an instant barrage of deadly firepower on top of their enemies’ heads. Adjusting shots that land near the targeted area are a warning that an enemy artillery strike is impending so wise commanders will move their troops out of range or hunker down in cover.

To simulate WWII technology, your HQ section’s radios work to a limited range only so moving your infantry too far outside the radio range will render them unable to receive orders until your HQ section advances into range.

The butcher’s bill

Morale is an essential part of any realistic tactical game and Firefight does it very well. Suppressed troops take potshots before returning to cover while pinned or badly mauled squads cower, hug the ground and refuse unachievable orders or evensurrender when they had enough. Likewise, the enemy break and surrender when their casualties reach unacceptable levels.