12/13/2023 0 Comments Radio commander voice recognition![]() ![]() The game seems reluctant to wield its red “DEFEAT” clipboard stamp, preferring to reduce “Veterancy” awards* for poor performances than insist you repeat a battle. Soft-edged victory conditions, persistent units with character traits, and a likeable AI add to the campaign's appeal. Allied offensives predominate but there are also scenarios in which beachheads must be safeguarded and counterattacks blunted. The Canadian sequence starts on the bullet-swept beaches of Dieppe, and, after adventures on Sicily and the Italian mainland, moves to Normandy. While the setting isn't quite as mould-breaking as the mechanics, Michael Long's decision to base the thirteen-mission campaign on the WW2 experiences of his countrymen does endow RG with extra character. Aggro accountants are tolerated but not fawned over. Unlike the subject of the last Flare Path review, this is a wargame that's meant to be played instinctively. The dearth of bald numbers (status reports tend to be couched in general terms like “Any more fighting and we'll be completely wiped out!” and “Too much heat! Getting out of Dodge”) help maintain a pleasingly fuzzy air. The glowing box of valves in your HQ tent is not only your sole source of positional information, it's also how you find out how bruised and disenchanted your charges are. Unsurprisingly, Foolish Mortals don't shroud the battlefield in 15-tog Fog of War only to cut helpful holes in it with health and morale bars later. If the missing are incommunicado then your options boil down to “wait and hope” or “send out a search party, ideally composed of scouts or snipers”. By using directional commands like “Head north” in combination with clues like “We can see a road to the west” the lost can become found. Units moving through forests or marsh run the risk of becoming disoriented and forces in pell-mell retreat are, understandably, far too busy to furnish you with coordinates. ![]() ![]() Things start getting really interesting when such requests generate anxious “I'm not entirely sure” responses, or are answered with bursts of ominous static. A good third of a player's transmissions in any engagement are likely to be position checks. Half the battle in RG is ensuring the ruckus representation in front of you is accurate. If you don't move them about the cartographic grid in response to radio reports requested and (hopefully) received, no-one else will. The NATO counters, or, if you prefer, dinky figurines, that dot the battle map are not bound to the combatants they represent by invisible threads. We are cast as slightly frustrated, slightly baffled microphone clutchers miles from the action, not omniscient whirlybird passengers marshalling armies the way grandmasters marshal chessmen. Rather than perpetuate The Helicopter Fallacy, a distortion inadvertently promulgated by hundreds of wargames over the years, RG strives to paint a more truthful picture of WW2 generalship. Very similar in concept to Serious Sim's debut title but in development long before that project broke cover, Radio General's central twist is also Radio Commander's. It's novel noggin warmers like “Where on earth is Easy Company?”, “Do I have time for a quick puff on my pipe?” and “How do you tell a mother that she'll never see her son again?” that mark out designer Michael Long as a revolutionary not a reiterator. You will have encountered them countless times before. ![]() Is now the moment to commit my reserve? Should I send my infantry down the road or through the forest? Do I have sufficient resources to take both villages or should I settle for just one? Many of the questions Radio General asks are as old as the Apennines. ![]()
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