A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Sometimes it's interesting to play a wargame from the "enemy" side's perspective. Graphics and game design elements from Regiments are ©2022 Bird's Eye Games and MicroProse  One of the hardest things for me to do as a gamer is to take on the role of an “adversary power” in computer games. Whether the game is single-player (my preferred mode) or multiplayer, and no matter if the setting is historic – such as in Game Labs’ Ultimate General Civil War , MicroProse’s Crusade in Europe, or Killerfish Games’ War on the Sea – or fictional – as in MicroProse’s Regiments or LucasArts’ Star Wars: Rebellion – I tend to avoid playing as the faction generally accepted to be the “bad guys.” In many of the games I own, including the single-player Regiments and Killerfish Games submarine simulation Cold Waters, I can – if I so desire – take on the role of an “enemy” power’s commander. In Cold Waters, for instance, the game allows you to command submarines from the U.S., Sovie

Although I commanded a U.S. brigade in the Skirmish from which I snapped this screenshot, Regiments now features British regiments that were based in West Germany in 1989. Here, a British light tank, supported by infantry (lower left) fires at an advancing Warsaw Pact platoon (top center). All graphic and game design elements in this and other screenshots are © 2022 Bird's Eye Games and MicroProse.)   As you know, I’ve been playing Regiments (2022, Bird’s Eye Games/MicroProse) since its release last August; it’s the first title I buy on Steam from the revived MicroProse, and I had been waiting for it since it was announced a few years ago. The revamped main menu page in Regiments.  So far, I’ve played through all the tutorials, the three Skirmish modes ( Attack, Meeting Engagement, and Mobile Defense ), and I even started the grand campaign ( Operations ). I got stuck on the West German Operation and I am not sure if I want to restart the campaign or just wait till I get better a

( Warsaw Pact troops run into heavy fire from NATO defenders in the Runway scenario.© 2022 Bird's Eye Games & MicroProse  On December 25, 2022, East European game studio Bird's Eye Games rolled out the first DLC expansion to Regiments, the Cold War-gone-hot real-time strategy (RTS) game it created for MicroProse, four months after the core game's long-awaited release in August.  The DLC, which will be the only free expansion offered by its developers, added British units and equipment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces in this reimagined version of a 1989 in which perestroika and glasnost failed and the Warsaw Pact, led by the Soviet Union, invades West Germany as part of an effort to prevent the collapse of Communism and restore the Pact to its pre-Gorbachev "glory."  In addition, the developers looked at the existing mix of forces and tweaked them somewhat to reflect the real equipment and organization of units fielded by both East and W

Regiments has detailed after-action reports that include, among other details, the level of victory you achieve and the stats that show why you earn victories, draws, or defeats. © 2022 Bird's Eye Games and MicroProse   Although I am on a brief hiatus from playing Regiments, the new real-time tactical game developed by Bird's Eye Games and published on August 16 by MicroProse, I can now report that I have gotten the hang of the game's basic concepts and won the Skirmish scenario Grasleben a few times before I decided to take a short rest break from the game.  If you read either of my A Certain Point of View blogs (one here, the other on WordPress), you doubtlessly know that Regiments is a visually stunning, fast-paced wargame depicting a fictional version of 1989 in which the Cold War goes hot and the two great alliances in the Europe of the time — NATO and the Warsaw Pact — trade blows in a deadly battle for West Germany as the Soviet Union strives to maintain its iron gri

West German Leopard 2As in action during Reaction , one of several Operations in MicroProse's new real-time tactics wargame Regiments . ⓒ 2022 MicroProse & Bird's Eye Games  On August 16, MicroProse released a new real-time tactics game titled Regiments. Developed by a small European game design studio called Bird's Eye Games, Regiments depicts ground warfare in central Europe in an alternate version of 1989 in which Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms in the Soviet Union failed, the Berlin Wall never fell, and a failed anti-Communist rebellion is the catalyst for armed conflict between the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact and the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Taking its cue from several wargames that involve deployment points, victory points, and the defense or capture of Objective Zones (think Wargame: AirLand Battle or Steel Division ), Regiments puts you in command of a battalion, regiment, or brigade-sized unit on either side of the Iron Curtain and tests yo

The wreckage of a Soviet tank platoon burns on a West German battlefield after an airstrike carried out by two A-10A Thunderbolt II ground-attack jets. © 2022 Bird's Eye Games/MicroProse  On Tuesday, August 16, the revived software publishing company MicroProse released Regiments , a new real-time tactics wargame set in a version of 1989 when perestroika, glasnost,  and the collapse of the Soviet Union never happened, and the Warsaw Pact invades West Germany. Developed by indie game studio Bird's Eye Games, Regiments is a look at combined-arms warfare at the brigade/regimental level that allows players to command units from either the Russian-led Warsaw Pact (WP) forces or the Western alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in a searing, life-or-death struggle to determine which side will win this Cold War-Turns-Hot after internal pressures within East Germany push Communist hardliners in Moscow to use force to preserve the Communist regime in East Berlin - and settle