“Colonel Von Luger, it is the sworn duty of all officers to try to escape. If they cannot escape, then it is their sworn duty to cause the enemy to use an inordinate number of troops to guard them, and their sworn duty to harass the enemy to the best of their ability.” ~ James Donald as Capt. Ramsey from The Great Escape (via James Clavell and W.R. Burnett)

I have been fighting a particularly nasty flu bug and, as such, have been sleeping long odd hours. The other night while watching The Great Escape for the six hundredth time, I feel asleep and proceeded to have: THE. BEST. DREAM. EVER. (well…the best PG dream ever).

In the dream I was playing a game (shut up) that was a SIM of The Great Escape. The game had three phases.

In phase one, I picked my prisoner “team” from classes like scroungers, tailors, engineers, etc. I had the option to customize their stats (charisma vs technical skill, vs health, etc).

Once I confirmed my team, the game went into phase two — a crafting phase where the planning of the escape went into effect. This was, in the dream, the best part, but that’s probably because I’m a freak when it comes to crafting in gameplay. Resources had to be managed and committed to each section (security, scrounging, tunneling, teaching basic German, creating clothes, shoes, papers, weapons, and other supplies for those escaping, etc). How good I did on the crafting section determined how many men got to actually escape the facility. There were also mini-phases of this phase which were determined by how far along the tunnels were, etc. In one of my early attempts at the game I actually lost because I’d taken so long trying to build tunnels that the war had already ended.

Finally, I entered stage three where I controlled my escapees to try and get them to various safe points along the map. There was an “overview” where I directed them individually or in groups toward rail stations, borders, safe houses, etc. I could have them steal cars or motorcycles or hide and hike in the woods. Whenever an escapee (or a group of them) encountered opposition, the overview paused and the game changed to a zoomed-in zone of the area where I could opt to pew pew or use diplomacy.

It. Was. Awesome.

Unfortunately, all the fluids I’ve been drinking caused me to wake up and have to use the little girl’s room, after which I rushed to the computer so I could continue my game, promptly sat down, and only then realized it had all been a construct of my flu dreams.

/cry

It was the best non-MMO I’ve ever played and it doesn’t exist. Even my own mind hates me.