Startup on Wargame

Hey Otto,

Yeah this is a tricky one in wargames. You want to get into the 'fun stuff' (the fighting) early on, but not too early, and not before you are ready for it. But then part of the fun is building up and preparing for the actual fighting.

It may be worth checking out some Session Reports over at the BGG, especially for games similar to what you may be looking at creating. Check out 'Gangs of New York' and read a few session reports to get a feel for how the build-up part of the game goes, and then the fighting.

Many wargames have small skirmish types battles to begin with, while players jostle for territory, then as they build up and get more forces etc, the battles get bigger and more intesnse.

It also depends on how much 'other stuff' you want to include in the game. What do players do apart from fight eachother? It sounds like your combat system is pretty basic, so you have the opportunity to make other parts of the game interesting as well.

What is the focus of your game? How do you win? What is the aim? Are you just trying to wipe out the other players or are you trying to control a certain amount of territory etc? I have found that the winning conditions of a wargame can affect the gameplay a helluva lot. The players ned to be aiming towards something, otherwise all they do is wander around fighting eachother - there needs to be a purpose for the conflict.

I havent played GONY, but what I hear (and quite like the idea of) about it is that border are fairly fluid. With certain vehicles etc you can move quite fast. This works well in this kindof theme. Units will be in vehicles most of the time, so think about how far your units will be able to move each turn.

How long do you want the game to be? How many turns do you think the game will last? 10 turns? 20? Then think about at what stage of the game you want conflict to begin - a quarter of the way into the game? Half way? Or from the beginning? How long does it take to bring in reinforcements, all that kinda stuff.

Once you get a feel for how the overall game should play, then you can start breaking it down some more. Try and think about the flow of the game.

Ok, so more practical thoughts -

Sure you can have 'Neutrals' in the game, but it is never as satisfying fighting them, and what happens if you get beaten up by the neutrals?

Part of the game could be your forces heading into the city and recruiting neutral gangs. They could start in different places each game, and be different from eachotehr in some way. So the game could start with the players heading into the city and setting about hiring local gangs to fight for them (hiring or 'persuading' etc.). Maybe you can bribe enemy gangs to join your side. Depends on what 'level' your game is.

'Who' or 'What' does a player represent? Maybe the players represent a single gang who set about recruiting individual members. Maybe a player is some dodgy corporation who is funding the gang warfare. Etc etc.

Could you have hidden movement or other hidden info? Maybe players do not know exactly where each other are before they start fighting, but once they 'stumble' across eachother then its all out war...

Also, what era is your game? Modern? 80's? 20's? etc etc...

Anyway, ranting on, blah blah blah, keep the thinking flowing...

Nestalawe'

Jeff's idea is interesting (as Jeff's ideas usually are)... allow players to decide where they begin, and let them work out the pace of how they interact with each other themselves... of course a good game design will "guide" the players into conflict along a reasonable timeframe... you should never have an eternal stalemate where players abut each other but choose not to interact... conflict must be prompted by some demand, eventually.

Letting players choose their start points means that the map must be well-balanced to support that.. For example, areas of quick gain potential should be seeded with negative factors such as poor defensibility or more resistant civilians. (without being certain of the framework of your game, more specific examples are tough to offer.)

A different option could be this:

The city is already under the control of an existing but weakening criminal syndicate. You and the other players represent new gangs from out of town that smell blood and want in on the action. This way, there is an enemy to be fought early in the game - and along the same sort of lines that players will be fighting each other - but players will have to contact and conflict each other eventually in order to win the game.

~Josh

You could always have a randomly built map from a deck of "streets" similar to the mechanic in Zombies!!! byt Twilight Creations. Basically (In one of the game variants) each player draws a street at random from the deck each turn and places it on the existing map. From there the city is slowly built allowing the players to venture further and further into the city itself.

well, they could "make trouble", independant factions could have a random chance of launching raids into your territory each turn.

Also, maybe smaller factions will be able to "gang up" on larger player factions, maybe every independent territory in base to base contact with a hostile bordering your area could lend support to the "raid", the severity of which could be determined by how nasty you've previously been to them and thier neighbours!

Just some thoughts.

#Phil

If I take again my "wizard's quest" example ( I am starting to love this game) look at the map.

The map is divided in 6 regions which are also divided in 6 territories. All region and territories have a number from 1 to 6. As you can guess, the number are used to select a territory by rolling 2D6.

In this game, at the beginning of each turn, each player roll a die, the rolled region get 1 additional orc on each territory occupied by orc. When a territory has 4 orc, it goes on rampage.

Now how do you determine where it rampage? You select the adjacent territory within the same region which has the lowest number. If the orc occupies a castle, you select the lowest number of the adjacent region and then the territory.

As I look back at this game, there is a lot of interesting features for a game designer. The game is not too complicated, the combat resolution is simple, the AI or the orcs is cool and the division of the map is clever.

Another game to look at it Vinci.http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/60

Each territory starts with a neutral token, that you defeat like any other token. It provides some resistance at the beginning, but without allowing the neutrals to actually win.

How about a police force which every player controls? They could use this to shield their area whilst they build and stop another player running away with the game.