![]() ![]() On the other hand, I admire Radio Commander’s narrative ambition as it attempts to tie together threads of context about Vietnam and its era. It’s not that these things don’t belong in a game about Vietnam, but they come so thick and fast that Radio Commander sometimes reduces itself to a series of tropes. You get a warning that an airstrike has been ordered in your area, and a few minutes later, one of your men describes a grisly scene as he comes to a burned village full of women and children. No sooner do you hear a black man with a southern accent on the radio than the character is introduced as “Preacher” and he goes into battle saying something like, “If you wanted to win this you shoulda just sent the black folks in from the start.” Meanwhile, Kovacs falls in love with a Vietnamese sex worker and isn't sure how to break things off with his sweetheart back in Texas (“You white boys,” the worldly Preacher huffs at him). ![]() The only times I had to worry about friendly fire was with artillery and aircraft.Įven more sympathetic subplots have a tendency to come across like a war movie cliche. Units don’t get confused even if you order a flurry of contradictory orders, and they always seem to identify who is who in the midst of chaotic jungle firefights. Commanders report exact coordinates for enemy positions, giving you easy targets for artillery and aircraft. ![]() Tell a unit to move, it’ll be underway within seconds. A unit under fire will always be ready to send a full rundown of its situation, letting you track firefights almost blow-by-blow if you wish. While there are simple 3D animations of life going on in the forward operating base outside your command tent, the vast majority of the game may as well unfold via text as you try and convert disparate reports into a coherent picture of the battle, and then send back the correct orders.Īs daring as the idea is, Radio Commander still hedges its bets with units that respond instantly to prompts. There have been other wargames that attempt to knock make-believe generals off the god-like perch that most games place them on, but few commit to that idea as much as Radio Commander. I don’t think I’ve ever played a game like Radio Commander. Then I ask what enemy forces his platoon is in contact with. It’s a far cry from the panicked, scripted radio call of a few moments ago. A procedurally generated, stapled-together radio message comes back with his number of troops, wounded, ammunition level, and fatigue level. You have to update it yourself as information comes in, marking out enemy positions as they’re reported, and drawing markers indicating where you have dispatched troops or fire support. Even the map that you keep in your headquarters is merely a visual aid. You only know what they know, you can only see what they see. You have a radio, a list of callsigns that correspond to different units like infantry platoons, artillery batteries, and attack aircraft. There are no hexes, no strength bars or combat odds tables that you can see. Radio Commander is a narrative wargame where you lead your troops through the early days of the Vietnam War from a distant command post. ![]()
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