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  Entering the village, the first sign of the enemy’s presence was an armor piercing shell glancing off the curved hull of the lead tank. The shot arced wildly past Sergeant Burnett’s own Sherman, the man whipping his head around to follow it as crashed through the corner of a building and buried into a hillside a few hundred yards behind him. That was when he spotted the Panzer IV rolling up behind them from the side.  “PeeZee Four behind us, we’re boxed in, ambush, ambush!” he shouted into the radio, which was only adding to the chaos as Beginner’s Luck, the lead tank, reported an AT gun in front of them and someone else was saying something about an MG team. True to it's name, the lead tank had gotten lucky, it was an M4A1 Sherman, built with a cast-metal hull. Thicker and curved, the front hull armor could, on rare occasion, deflect shots that would penetrate a standard M4 Sherman like Burnett's, which had a flat, welded hull. “Douglass, get this turret turned around!” Burnett shouted as he threw a smoke grenade overboard. The smoke would make it harder for the enemy to hit them, but it wouldn’t last long. “What about that AT Gun?!” “Let the lead tanks worry about the Pak, we’ve got AP loaded, we’re engaging the Panzer!” Burnett’s tank, the Berlin Express, swung its turret around to the rear where the Panzer IV had come to a halt behind a small ridge with only its turret visible. The Panzer IV was roughly comparable in firepower and armor to his own M4 Sherman, and with both of them hull down from the other, it was anyone’s guess who’d win in a shootout.  The Panzer IV fired, missing one of the other Shermans behind the Express. “Alright, let’s get his attention! Target is the enemy Panzer, close range, 200 yards. Open fire!”  “Damnit, we hit dirt! Reload and adjust upwa-” The Panzer IV’s cannon barked again, another shot streaked past the Express and Burnett heard it impact on something close behind him. Turning around, Burnett was just in time to see every hatch on the Beginner’s Luck blow outward with jets of flame. The M4A1's frontal hull armor may have been a bit tougher, but the rear armor was just as weak as any other Sherman, and the Pz IV had just delivered a shot straight to the back of the turret, setting off the tank’s ammo storage. The whole crew likely died instantly. The AT gun also opened fire, slamming a 75mm shell right into the front armor of another Sherman, Bucket of Bolts, with the surviving crew immediately bailing out in case the stricken tank caught fire. Burnett’s loader threw another 75mm armor piercing round into the chamber. “Gun up!” “Fire!”   Burnett watched as the AP round slammed into the Panzer’s thick gun mantlet and bounced off, leaving a small gouge in the armor, but nothing more. “Gun up!” “Fire!” Another shell went hurtling towards the panzer, but this just impacted into the dirt in front of it like their first shot had. Burnett watched as the Panzer's turret adjusted slightly, taking aim at his own tank. Before it could fire though, a shot from one of the other Sherman’s slammed into the German tank. The panzer exploded magnificently as the tank's ammo set off. So powerful was the force of the explosion that the turret was blown upwards, clean off the tank, landing a few feet away from the burning hull.  “Nice kill Boop!” Burnett shouted into the radio as he looked over at the successful Sherman nearby. Betty Boop sported a longer barreled cannon and a risque depiction of its namesake. Another explosion sounded, Bomb Here, the fifth tank in his platoon, reported the destruction of the AT gun. A tense minute passed as the remaining Shermans strained to notice new threats, but none presented themselves. “You know sarge, I wish we had one of those Seventy Sixers, the fives can’t kill tanks for poo poo.”  Before Burnett could reply to his gunner all hell erupted around them as enemy artillery rained down on the village. The artillery was accurate, pre-plotted fire, but was mercifully brief, the Germans must’ve fired only a single salvo before packing up to retreat. It’d done enough damage though, radio reports from the task force’s infantry platoons reported over a dozen casualties.  Surveying the burning village, the wrecked panzer, and the flaming pyre that was Beginner’s Luck, Burnett sighed to himself. “Gonna be a looong war…”   Armoured Commander: The WWII Tank Commander Roguelike Hello and welcome to one of the more unique Roguelikes I've ever encountered! As you can see from the battle above, Armoured Commander (or ArmCom for short) is a Roguelike that puts you in the role of the commander of a single Sherman medium tank in occupied France as you battle your way towards Berlin and, more importantly, do your best to survive! I find this game quite fun and challenging and I want to show it off to people who might not have heard about it. In addition, I plan on explaining various game mechanics (as I understand them) and the strategies I use to survive the ordeals of armored combat. While based on the 1987 Avalon Hill solitaire board game/wargame "Patton's Best", ArmCom has evolved in many ways, with the game's solo developer, Gregory Adam Scott (also known as Rev_Sudasana), adding new features and changing others. The game is still in early development and Mr. Scott is making frequent updates, sometimes daily! Currently ArmCom features one campaign (the US 4th Armored Division), 17 Sherman variants, and a large variety of German Tanks, SPGs, AT Guns, and assorted infantry and infantry support vehicles. If you're interested in playing the game yourself, you can find it here. Oh and don't worry, my future posts will not use the awful fiction prose I used above.  Join the War Effort! The primary goal of the game is to survive from late July 1944 to May of 1945. That is roughly ten months of combat, and like any good roguelike, I will die, probably a lot! While each tank holds a crew of five unlucky bastards, the tank's commander is considered to be your character, and its game over if he suffers a tragic fate. To be honestly I rarely make it later than the end of August before dying or being sent home with terrible injuries. Sometimes I have upwards of a half dozen tanks shot out from under me during that period of time. My last career ended in early September when I was sent home due to injuries received when my tank, Cannonball Six was knocked out during an ill-advised shoot out with a Panther. The good news is, you can be one of those unlucky bastards, as a recent update by the dev allowed crew to be nicknamed! In order to avoid the RL Megathread getting cluttered with "dwarf me" posts, I've set up a Google Form for anyone who is interested in taking the fight to the Nazis. Just fill in your name here and you'll be burned alive in a wrecked tank in no time!  Updates: Update 1: Starting a new game and DIE, PANTHER, DIE! Update 2: Day 1 concluded. Pack it in, Pak! Update 3: Day 2, On Track to Avranches Galaga Galaxian fucked around with this message at 04:16 on May 21, 2015 |
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