Armchair Dragoons Forums
Wargaming => The Modern World => Topic started by: BanzaiCat on April 15, 2022, 04:45:18 PM
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I am happy to say I'll be working with DVG to design a new game, B-52 Leader.
If you'd like to join, there's a Facebook page for this game: https://www.facebook.com/groups/505988737676227
I've invited a few of you but I might not be friends with everyone here on FB, so feel free to join. Right now, I'm just exploring how this is going to be organized and trying to come up with ideas to make it not the same as previous Leader iterations. I already have some (what I think are) exciting ideas to expand the game, especially for solo play. I have a few books on the BUFF but if anyone has particular knowledge or info they can share, feel free to send it my way! I'd be grateful.
(https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/06/22/09/31/b-52-stratofortress-2430077_960_720.jpg)
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I'm in :bigthumb:
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Put me down if you need one extra
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Man, where do you start? Talk about an aircraft with a career.......... You might need a really BIG map. (Or a bunch of little ones.)
I've been interested in SAC since before I moved to Omaha. I'll see what I can dig up on that aspect of the BUFFs service.
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Man, where do you start? Talk about an aircraft with a career.......... You might need a really BIG map. (Or a bunch of little ones.)
I've been interested in SAC since before I moved to Omaha. I'll see what I can dig up on that aspect of the BUFFs service.
Very much appreciated, thank you!
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Wow, lots of possibilities- Operation Arc Light, Cold War feigns along enemy airspace ('Will they attack or won't they?) , Hot War deep penetration nuke delivery...
Are you going to have some tree-top level mechanics? That would let you introduce surprise terrain and SPAA ground fire threats.
I'd be interested in following along. I may not have much to contribute but I'd like to see the process at work.
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Are you going to have some tree-top level mechanics? That would let you introduce surprise terrain and SPAA ground fire threats.
At the moment, I have a lot to learn about B-52 tactics and deployment. I have some (what Dan thinks are) great ideas in general for this, but a lot needs to be fleshed out. I've ordered a bunch of books from B&N to help me get up to speed. Luckily too, there's you guys to provide insight, and I even had an ex-B-52 navigator reach out to me on FB to offer his insights, so I'm grateful for any and all ideas. I'll consider anything at this point.
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Was going to say my dad lived a book called ploesti, always used to tell me tales from it as a kid including tree top shenanigans - alas - wrong plane
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I just want to say that this is excellent use of a thread icon :)
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I remember reading a description of the 'Arc Light' strikes, may have been in '13th Valley', not sure now, but they were pretty scary.
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I finally had a chance to work on my 'wish list' per a suggestion from designer Chuck Seegert. Between work trips, dead PCs, and other challenges, I've just not had time to wrap my head around it, but I've been wanting to get more ideas on paper.
I turned three bullet points into more than two pages' worth of content last night, so I'm off to a good start.
I might need to boil the ideas down somewhat, but for now, I want to offer campaigns such as in the other Leader series games. Some will be normal conventional campaigns, while others may have a chance to cross a nuclear threshold. There will also possibly be a 'grand campaign' where the player can control a B-52 - the plane itself, not the crew - from it's 'born' (build) date as an A-, B-, or some other model type, all the way through decommissioning (if the player fails to gain enough points at a certain point), or destruction (by being destroyed, naturally), or even the game ending due to global thermonuclear war.
In that larger campaign, we'll follow the life of their B-52 from the base model through 'upgrades' which will be akin to leveling up. I know this is NOT normal for a B-52, but it's a game, and the idea of using an aircraft as the center point of a game rather than the crew appealed to me. Crews will come and go, but imagine having a B-52 from the late 50s through 2020 or so and surviving all the campaigns. It will see some sh*t. It may be the cause of nuclear war. Who knows.
The player will be able to choose a commitment level for some campaigns; a higher level will mean more resources and more targets, but there's also a higher chance nuclear war may be triggered. For example, a hypothetical NATO-Warsaw Pact shooting war campaign may see the B-52 having access to more conventional frontline missions, or it may see it doing deep penetration raids against Soviet airfields. The former may not escalate things, but the latter certainly may; you will risk gaining enough points to 'win' a campaign before it ends, though the trade-off is stepping ever closer to "the line" without, hopefully, crossing over it and destroying the world as we know it.
The player will therefore be responsible for choosing missions within a campaign, and executing them, all the while 'living a life' (such as it is) through their own B-52 bomber. So there will be some strategic control as well as tactical mission control.
That's the initial plan, anyway. I just need to flesh it out some more.
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About the thermonuclear war thing- does pulling a nuke mission actually signal the end of the game or are you considering some tac nuke stuff with standoff weapons or such? Would the latter then require a modifiable roll as to whether it trips off the big kahuna?
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About the thermonuclear war thing- does pulling a nuke mission actually signal the end of the game or are you considering some tac nuke stuff with standoff weapons or such? Would the latter then require a modifiable roll as to whether it trips off the big kahuna?
For now, I'm considering the nuclear option to be an endgame result for the base game, but an expansion will allow you to fight through it and try to 'win' it. As no-win as that really is, it might be more of a 'do unto others more' of an ending result than an actual win condition, if that makes sense. It will likely start small then potentially cross over into full blown end of times.