Friday, July 12, 2013
Still alive
So it's been a month since I posted, and I apologize. I've been busy getting stuff set up for returning to university, and have started summer classes. The odds that I'll be posting much in the next few weeks is minimal, but I'll do my best.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Events
Something I noticed when doing my most recent read through of Gust Front was that a lot of the story revolved around commanders handling unexpected situations. Not unexpected like the enemy charged before we were expecting, but unexpected like bad orders from on-high. Blue-on-blue (friendly) artillery fire due to a virus in the system. The vagaries of artillery in general.
I figured there were a couple of ways to deal with such things. The first is to just use dice rolls and possibly tables to address the random elements of the war. Roll a die each turn - if it's a 5+ you have artillery. Roll a series of dice for events that might give you less forces than you expected, more forces, control over terrain, etc.
The other way was to introduce cards. Each side would have an "event deck". Earth forces would contain things such as Artillery Strikes, Sniper Strike, ACS Arrival, etc. The Posleen deck would contain things like IVIS Virus, Lost Units, Cocked-up Orders, etc. At the start of each turn the players would draw a card from the Event deck and could choose to play it that turn or hold it for later.
I'm personally in favor of the deck mechanic as it adds some interplay. Earthforce might play an Artillery Strike and the Posleen would counter with IVIS Virus, allowing the Posleen player to then position the strikes as s/he chooses.
I feel this would also go a long way towards mitigating some of the issues of scale - event decks could simulate things happening at the higher level and allow the game to focus on the smaller unit engagements. Reinforcements, for example, would generally represent forces falling back from a previous unit (see the 10th Corp remnants reinforcing the 9th Corp in Northern Virginia) or the redistribution of forces based on where Landers were (and weren't).
I figured there were a couple of ways to deal with such things. The first is to just use dice rolls and possibly tables to address the random elements of the war. Roll a die each turn - if it's a 5+ you have artillery. Roll a series of dice for events that might give you less forces than you expected, more forces, control over terrain, etc.
The other way was to introduce cards. Each side would have an "event deck". Earth forces would contain things such as Artillery Strikes, Sniper Strike, ACS Arrival, etc. The Posleen deck would contain things like IVIS Virus, Lost Units, Cocked-up Orders, etc. At the start of each turn the players would draw a card from the Event deck and could choose to play it that turn or hold it for later.
I'm personally in favor of the deck mechanic as it adds some interplay. Earthforce might play an Artillery Strike and the Posleen would counter with IVIS Virus, allowing the Posleen player to then position the strikes as s/he chooses.
I feel this would also go a long way towards mitigating some of the issues of scale - event decks could simulate things happening at the higher level and allow the game to focus on the smaller unit engagements. Reinforcements, for example, would generally represent forces falling back from a previous unit (see the 10th Corp remnants reinforcing the 9th Corp in Northern Virginia) or the redistribution of forces based on where Landers were (and weren't).
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Scale
In the books, the combat occurred in large scale. By that I mean you had entire Corps doing battle. A Corp, if you aren't familiar, is between 40 and 80 thousand troops. You can see more details about general ground force organizations here. The enemy usually masses with a ratio of about 100:1 in favor of the enemy. That's 4 to 8 million troops against 40 to 80 thousand. Engagements occur in areas described by miles.
I briefly considered using 6mm (1/300) scale for this, but then realized that a distance of one mile would be 17 feet, 7 inches (roughly). That's a big board. Realistically the only way to model a mile in scale would be to use 2mm scale (1/914) which would put 1 mile at roughly 6ft, the long edge of a standard board. For perspective, that means that a three story building would be less than half an inch tall. The Washington Monument (555 ft) would stand a little more than 7 1/4 inches tall.
The other option is to go the Avalon Hill route and simply put it all on a (potentially hex) board and look at it from the strategic level. Each unit would be denoted by a marker as shown on the previously linked page. This would allow just about any size engagement to occur, but generally will take it more in the direction of simulation and away from game.
Alternatively I can focus on smaller engagements. At the 1/300 scale, a 6'x4' table represents a field of battle 1800' x 1200', or about 549m x 366m. 1/600 scale (3mm), the field doubles to 3600' x 2400' or roughly 1.1 km x 0.73 km.
More than likely I'll stick with 1/300 scale as that is the NATO standard scale for sand-table war-games involving micro armor. This, however, realistically limits the engagement size. A potential solution is to hybridize the scale using an operational scale map to denote force movements and placement, while using the 1/300 scale board to fight out actual engagements. Adjacent forces would have positive effects on the battle for the allied side, negative effects for the enemy.
I briefly considered using 6mm (1/300) scale for this, but then realized that a distance of one mile would be 17 feet, 7 inches (roughly). That's a big board. Realistically the only way to model a mile in scale would be to use 2mm scale (1/914) which would put 1 mile at roughly 6ft, the long edge of a standard board. For perspective, that means that a three story building would be less than half an inch tall. The Washington Monument (555 ft) would stand a little more than 7 1/4 inches tall.
The other option is to go the Avalon Hill route and simply put it all on a (potentially hex) board and look at it from the strategic level. Each unit would be denoted by a marker as shown on the previously linked page. This would allow just about any size engagement to occur, but generally will take it more in the direction of simulation and away from game.
Alternatively I can focus on smaller engagements. At the 1/300 scale, a 6'x4' table represents a field of battle 1800' x 1200', or about 549m x 366m. 1/600 scale (3mm), the field doubles to 3600' x 2400' or roughly 1.1 km x 0.73 km.
More than likely I'll stick with 1/300 scale as that is the NATO standard scale for sand-table war-games involving micro armor. This, however, realistically limits the engagement size. A potential solution is to hybridize the scale using an operational scale map to denote force movements and placement, while using the 1/300 scale board to fight out actual engagements. Adjacent forces would have positive effects on the battle for the allied side, negative effects for the enemy.
Statement of Purpose
Welcome to Fuscrito'uut - Demon Shit, essentially. This blog will cover the potential development of a tactical war game based on the Legacy of the Aldenata series of books by John Ringo. The first two books, A Hymn Before Battle and Gust Front, are available on Kindle for free at this moment. I highly recommend downloading and reading if you're a fan of military sci-fi.
The basic formula of the series is that of heroic stands by humans against an enemy of vastly superior numbers but less than stellar tactical acumen. The enemy regularly loses a million troops at a time, to give some perspective of scale. The humans are insanely out numbered. However, they have two things going for them - human tenacity and the Armored Combat Suit; powered armor. Suits are few, regular military is numerous. Cock-ups are common and the obliteration of entire Corps happen with alarming regularity.
The goal of this project is to produce a game that emulates the conditions of the books while staying as far to the "game" side of the game/simulation scale as possible. The intent is that the game is fluid enough that most battles can be fought in an hour or so. I'm not looking to create a multi-day monster.
If the system works out and seems to have real potential, I'll contact Ringo about actual development - without his blessings this thing doesn't exist at all. The only reason I'm doing anything before contact is that I want to have a good idea of the system in place before pitching it.
Assuming the green light from Mr. Ringo, I'll be contacting various teams about the actual creation of models and molds.
Following all of that, we'll take it to Kickstarter as that seems to be the best way, currently, to raise the capital for a project such as this.
That's it for now, more later about actual game concepts.
The basic formula of the series is that of heroic stands by humans against an enemy of vastly superior numbers but less than stellar tactical acumen. The enemy regularly loses a million troops at a time, to give some perspective of scale. The humans are insanely out numbered. However, they have two things going for them - human tenacity and the Armored Combat Suit; powered armor. Suits are few, regular military is numerous. Cock-ups are common and the obliteration of entire Corps happen with alarming regularity.
The goal of this project is to produce a game that emulates the conditions of the books while staying as far to the "game" side of the game/simulation scale as possible. The intent is that the game is fluid enough that most battles can be fought in an hour or so. I'm not looking to create a multi-day monster.
If the system works out and seems to have real potential, I'll contact Ringo about actual development - without his blessings this thing doesn't exist at all. The only reason I'm doing anything before contact is that I want to have a good idea of the system in place before pitching it.
Assuming the green light from Mr. Ringo, I'll be contacting various teams about the actual creation of models and molds.
Following all of that, we'll take it to Kickstarter as that seems to be the best way, currently, to raise the capital for a project such as this.
That's it for now, more later about actual game concepts.
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