So, I set up a quick game, the OHW of CS Grant's Flank Attack from Scenarios for Wargames. It took about 1/2 an hour to play and was OK for a quick diversion but not terribly satisfying.
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| Quick and Easy. VERY quick. |
I decided to leave the table up and on the weekend I doubled the forces and had a slightly longer, even less interesting game which I
almost abandoned.
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| Game 2, Same scenario, twice the units, and a long firefight with little thought or excitement. |
My instinct was to beef the rules up and add even more detail, complexity and "historical reality" to my fictional toy soldier wargames.
Umhh.... that's not where this was supposed to be going.
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| Game 3. Fast and furious. |
One of the things that finally occurred to me is that a number of the current rules were designed primarily to prolong the game while others were added to try to make various tactical practices overt rather than assumed to be happening without being shown which was the original idea. Others were inspired by various other published rules and I can only guess at why they were originally designed the way they were and question why I think them them a good idea in my own context. The result was going back 2 years to the drastic War of 1812 rewrite that I was quite happy with and start again. Then they needed testing of course.
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| Game 3: Same moment from a different angle. |
I meant to play the game in a few days time but somehow I'm already 1/3rd of the way through and was late for evening chores. Luckily, the soldiers are patient even if I'm not. The game will continue.
Looks very impressive! were you still using OHW with bits added on or your own set of rules?
ReplyDeleteI only used the OHW rules for a few initial test games and then decided that I would want to make some changes that seemed to me to violate the principles they appear to be based on and that it would be better if I just kept plugging at my own.
DeleteThe simplified scenarios are handy for a quick game but anytime I've have compared the boiled down original, the original gives a better, more nuance game BUT they take longer to set up and to play so I use both.
What I've done here is essentially to double the size of the table and double the units to keep the unit:ground ratios intact.
Whatever the rule amendments your games always look fun!
ReplyDeleteThe ones that aren't rarely get written up! The secret is I play a lot more games than when I was working 60 hour weeks!
DeleteIt's always a disappointment when a game fails to satisfy. However, on the plus side, the game looks exciting and is great visually.
ReplyDeleteThe 1st game was OK, just too quick. The 3rd game is what I was looking for.
DeleteI know what you mean about unsatisfying. There comes a time sometimes when a game doesn't feel like it has enough decisions in it.
ReplyDelete