A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Screenshot of  Unity of Command II's  main title page. Graphics © 2019 2X2 Games and Croteam Hi, there! Welcome to another installment of Old Gamers Never Die, the section in this blog where I talk about computer and video games I either own and play now or owned and played on other platforms or computers. Today I'll be talking a little about the latest addition to my modest collection of games – Unity of Command II, a brand-new game from Croatia's 2X2 Games and Croteam. It was released on Steam on November 12, and it's the long-awaited sequel to 2X2's 2011 game  Unity of Command, a turn-based operational level (as opposed to tactical level) game set during World War II. I've never played Unity of Command, but from what I've learned from watching the  thehistoricalgamer's channel  on YouTube, that game is a simulation of the German-Soviet war on the Eastern Front and covers (in the core game, anyway) the campaigns that led up to the Battle o...

A German language map showing the last two years of World War II in Europe. (Credit: Wikicommons Media) Why did the Western Allies take such a risk at Normandy? Why did they not just push through Italy? There were several reasons involved in the choice of invading German-occupied Europe via Northern France rather than from the Balkans or the Italian peninsula, all of which were based on geography and basic principles of military strategy, tactics, and logistics. U.S. soldiers wade toward Omaha Beach in Normandy, June 6, 1944. (Photo Credit: U.S. Coast Guard) The first basic consideration we must address is this: What was the mission of the Allied Expeditionary Force in 1944? This was the directive given to Gen. Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower by his superiors, the Combined Chiefs of Staff when he assumed command of the AEF in January 1944: “You will enter the continent of Europe, and undertake operations aimed at the heart of Germany and the destruction of her armed forces...