Command Live: The King of the Border has gone through a extreme makeover, and I can hardly recognize it now.

The new version came along a hefty upgrade of the CMANO engine, mind you. But that’s not the reason for the change. The King of the Border is now more challenging to play from the US side.

The change log is available here. The new positioning of US assets adds significant new difficulties for the US side. In particular, the previously very convenient forward deployment of B1-B bombers in Puerto Rico is gone. Out of the four B1-Bs the US player had in the previous version, now he has only two. And they are based in the Naval Air Station Key West, some 1,000 nm north of their potential targets. Closer to these targets, the National Guard base in Luis Marin International Airport has some 24 Harpoon missiles, but I have not found aircraft able to launch them. One solution is to ferry the B1-Bs from Key West to Marin -the bombers will bring along 48 long range anti-ship missiles- and have them ready for a strike once the Russian fleet is located. But this long trip comes with a huge liability: there are no escorts available for this flight.

The US Eisenhower CSG has a lot of power projection punch (both anti air and anti ship), but be aware that the fuel hungry F/A-18s will require often refueling.

One of the greatest news is that the defense of the Colombian homeland is now a bit more feasible. 24 F-16 Block 50s are available at the Captain Moreno Air Base (Colombia). That’s a lot of great air superiority to aid the beleaguered Colombian-US troops in Arauca and Cucuta. Both cities still will likely fall (the Venezuelans run a blitzkrieg that can’t be blunted no matter what). But the persistence of those F-16s may clear the situation on day 2.

Cheers,