Origins Game Fair, 21-25 June in Columbus OH
Armchair Dragoons Wargame HQ Events
Recent Posts
1
History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on Yesterday at 03:51:31 PM »1541. Margaret de la Poole, 67, beheaded for being catholic and royal.
1606, the False Dmitri, usurping tsar, butchered by the people of Muscovy.
1610, Francis Ravallaic, 32, hung, drawn and quartered for the murder of French king Henri IV.
1661. Archibald Campbell, chief of clan Campbell, beheaded.
1941. Admiral Gunter Luytjens and approximately 1,500 crew of battleship Bismarck.
A busy day.
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Intel Dump / Re: Weekend Gaming!!!
« Last post by BanzaiCat on Yesterday at 03:49:45 PM »Back on topic (and whoa, what a concept, right?), I played some Cruel Necessity, the updated version from the VPG game that was published ten years ago.
I did an unboxing comparison between the new and old versions, for the Front Page.
Suffice it to say, the new version is certainly several steps up, but I find it lacking in a handful of places.
I did an unboxing comparison between the new and old versions, for the Front Page.
Suffice it to say, the new version is certainly several steps up, but I find it lacking in a handful of places.
3
History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on Yesterday at 10:31:08 AM »1541. Margaret de la Poole, 67, beheaded for being catholic and royal.
1606, the False Dmitri, usurping tsar, butchered by the people of Muscovy.
1610, Francis Ravallaic, 32, hung, drawn and quartered for the murder of French king Henri IV.
1661. Archibald Campbell, chief of clan Campbell, beheaded.
A busy day.
1606, the False Dmitri, usurping tsar, butchered by the people of Muscovy.
1610, Francis Ravallaic, 32, hung, drawn and quartered for the murder of French king Henri IV.
1661. Archibald Campbell, chief of clan Campbell, beheaded.
A busy day.
4
Intel Dump / Re: Post your screenshots! Share your game stories!
« Last post by Undercovergeek on Yesterday at 07:09:03 AM »The growing new refinery town
The scale of the plastics operation by night - this is the industry and infrastructure just to support the electronic components sector
Sunset strip - these are the homes and businesses for the guys working in the refinery and plastics sectors - by either design or good luck a train arrives and takes 450 to the chemical plants and plastics area and the second one arrives exactly halfway thru the cycle to take about 400 to the refinery and rinse and repeat - almost the exact numbers required
The chemical sector - 4 chemical factories providing the chemicals for the plastics factory alone
The whole operation
Unlike the main town where proper planning didnt occur the industries are almost self reliant - the chemical plants need oil, wood, crops and gravel to produce chemicals - the oil is been piped in underground from the refinery, this is the gravel factory providing the aggregate.....
Which relies on stone from the local quarries.....
.....and the sawmill out of town providing the timber
The plastics factory and the electrical components factory in white
The new refinery/plastics/electrics town at dusk
This area steel needs steel components and crops of our own to be entirely cost free - steel components are on the other side of the map so a new steel mill be built here as soon as a seam of iron is discovered, and a new farm area will be built
None of this industry actually makes a profit - nothing it produces is bound for the border to be sold - its all a continuous food chain of production to feed the next rung on the ladder which will be electrical goods
These will be then sent back into the state to provide the workers with radios, televisions and satiate their demand for electrical goods that are currently imported at a cost to the state, production will be increased with a second factory to supply the vehicle production market where licences will be bought to produce our own vehicles for sale to the workers and eventually exported
The scale of the plastics operation by night - this is the industry and infrastructure just to support the electronic components sector
Sunset strip - these are the homes and businesses for the guys working in the refinery and plastics sectors - by either design or good luck a train arrives and takes 450 to the chemical plants and plastics area and the second one arrives exactly halfway thru the cycle to take about 400 to the refinery and rinse and repeat - almost the exact numbers required
The chemical sector - 4 chemical factories providing the chemicals for the plastics factory alone
The whole operation
Unlike the main town where proper planning didnt occur the industries are almost self reliant - the chemical plants need oil, wood, crops and gravel to produce chemicals - the oil is been piped in underground from the refinery, this is the gravel factory providing the aggregate.....
Which relies on stone from the local quarries.....
.....and the sawmill out of town providing the timber
The plastics factory and the electrical components factory in white
The new refinery/plastics/electrics town at dusk
This area steel needs steel components and crops of our own to be entirely cost free - steel components are on the other side of the map so a new steel mill be built here as soon as a seam of iron is discovered, and a new farm area will be built
None of this industry actually makes a profit - nothing it produces is bound for the border to be sold - its all a continuous food chain of production to feed the next rung on the ladder which will be electrical goods
These will be then sent back into the state to provide the workers with radios, televisions and satiate their demand for electrical goods that are currently imported at a cost to the state, production will be increased with a second factory to supply the vehicle production market where licences will be bought to produce our own vehicles for sale to the workers and eventually exported
5
The Modern World / Re: Mr. President - P500 - GMT
« Last post by BanzaiCat on May 26, 2023, 05:56:47 PM »I just received notification a couple of days ago that this is charging. It should be shipping soon.
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The Modern World / Re: Command Control and Unit Integrity
« Last post by bob48 on May 26, 2023, 05:32:38 PM »I knew I could count on you 
Yes, you and I have talked about this before, and I do understand the reasons. However, I wanted to throw it out to see if we can generate some discussion.
Yes, you and I have talked about this before, and I do understand the reasons. However, I wanted to throw it out to see if we can generate some discussion.
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The Modern World / Re: Command Control and Unit Integrity
« Last post by Barthheart on May 26, 2023, 05:28:14 PM »We have had this discussion before Bob. I’m on my iPad right now but will give detailed opinions when I get to my PC.
Short version, it’s abstracted for playability. But yes it could be done. Last Hundred Yards comes closest to what you want.
Short version, it’s abstracted for playability. But yes it could be done. Last Hundred Yards comes closest to what you want.
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The Modern World / Re: Command Control and Unit Integrity
« Last post by bayonetbrant on May 26, 2023, 04:01:43 PM »I will have thoughts, I promise. But they're unlikely to be found at the bottom of the bottle I'm about to crack open for the weekend, so give me a day or three (holiday weekend here) and I'll try to be coherent for you
9
The Modern World / Re: Brian Train's Scheldt Campaign!
« Last post by bob48 on May 26, 2023, 03:46:04 PM »Just been playing this again after quite gap - it really is an excellent game on a little covered campaign. Well worth adding to your WW2 collection.
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The Modern World / Command Control and Unit Integrity
« Last post by bob48 on May 26, 2023, 03:37:25 PM »In particular here I'm talking about WW2 tactical (squad level) games although it applies to other periods as well. Note that I do not include card type games here and I would add that I have never played such games, so we are really looking at hex and counter stuff.
Its an aspect of tactical games that has always somewhat frustrated me, although I also understand that, in order to make a game playable, some abstraction are inevitable; however, the fact remains that I feel is not always very well represented.
From my own reasonably extensive playing over the years, I think we can categorise some well-used similar systems as follows;
Individual leaders that, depending on the game, enable various command functions to be carried out. These games include titles such as Advanced Squad Leader (ASL), Advanced Tobruk System(ATS), Band of Brothers (BoB), Lock and Load (LnL), Combat Commander (CC). No doubt folks will think of others that I have omitted.
games that use Command Points or Action Points such as Conflict of Heroes (CoH) and Assault '41, but do not have individual leader counters.
Games that use a mixture of the above such as Old School Tactical (OSL).
Several common issues I have with the above are that those game that give us leaders do not follow any authentic command structure.
'Select 7 squads and 3 leaders which can be assigned to any squad' or something similar. What happened to command structure? Platoon leader? Squad leaders?
But then, where is the formation integrity?
How about instead of that we had a platoon HQ section and three squads, maybe each squad has a different 'sergeant' level, and the platoon HQ has a Lt level.
If the squads are identifiable to the platoon HQ (does The Last Hundred Yards do this?) then we can formulate rules that make it beneficial for the squads to operate within the command radius of the HQ and not wonder off all over the map. Push this up a level to Company level, or Battalion level.
Its possible, I think, to have a method that assigns support to a platoon from company/battalion assets - HMG's or mortars being obvious additions.
I suppose the big question here is the old one of balancing 'realism' against playability whilst still retaining some degree of authenticity. Nevertheless, I maintain that its an aspect of tactical games that designers tend to gloss and go with older and more established methods.
Discussion?
Its an aspect of tactical games that has always somewhat frustrated me, although I also understand that, in order to make a game playable, some abstraction are inevitable; however, the fact remains that I feel is not always very well represented.
From my own reasonably extensive playing over the years, I think we can categorise some well-used similar systems as follows;
Individual leaders that, depending on the game, enable various command functions to be carried out. These games include titles such as Advanced Squad Leader (ASL), Advanced Tobruk System(ATS), Band of Brothers (BoB), Lock and Load (LnL), Combat Commander (CC). No doubt folks will think of others that I have omitted.
games that use Command Points or Action Points such as Conflict of Heroes (CoH) and Assault '41, but do not have individual leader counters.
Games that use a mixture of the above such as Old School Tactical (OSL).
Several common issues I have with the above are that those game that give us leaders do not follow any authentic command structure.
'Select 7 squads and 3 leaders which can be assigned to any squad' or something similar. What happened to command structure? Platoon leader? Squad leaders?
But then, where is the formation integrity?
How about instead of that we had a platoon HQ section and three squads, maybe each squad has a different 'sergeant' level, and the platoon HQ has a Lt level.
If the squads are identifiable to the platoon HQ (does The Last Hundred Yards do this?) then we can formulate rules that make it beneficial for the squads to operate within the command radius of the HQ and not wonder off all over the map. Push this up a level to Company level, or Battalion level.
Its possible, I think, to have a method that assigns support to a platoon from company/battalion assets - HMG's or mortars being obvious additions.
I suppose the big question here is the old one of balancing 'realism' against playability whilst still retaining some degree of authenticity. Nevertheless, I maintain that its an aspect of tactical games that designers tend to gloss and go with older and more established methods.
Discussion?