Some simple questions for (war)gamers

And who knows what comes forth from this.

Mechanical RPS is in the sense of 100% on small, 50% on medium, 25% on large versus 50% on small, 75% on medium, 100% on large.
Or a simple +5 damage against massive. Things like that are mechanical RPS. They are build in the game with stats.

every single one of them :)

I think I am going to talk mostly about the similarities and differences that I noticed compared to my hobby version. Further, perhaps what unique aspects the game has that I never have seen before.
And of course how I view things. Whether it is for the game mentioned or for my hobby game.
It might be a long "didn't read" post. But at least I thought of said aspects. The post follows a video that I watched.

I watched this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwzS6EfKNGg
Here is the manual:
https://cdn.1j1ju.com/medias/72/2c/bc-878-vikings-invasions-of-england-r...

2 Teams
First thing I hear is that there are only 2 teams.
Vikings and the English.
This is similar to my hobby game due to the fact that 3 or more teams/individual players. Create favoritism. And thus a game that could cause conflict between people, not the players. Also, with only 2 teams, there is a clear target. The opposing team.

All factions are used
I understand this decision. In my case, we got RPS effects between factions with certain missions. In the 878 Vikings case, without a faction, that team is simply weaker.

Learning curve/cards
Wow, I see that the cards 1 to 12 are used only if the players are beginning players. We have a similar thing where Event Cards are selected on an individual mission. Or difficulty.

Map set up/placing starting units
This is an aspect that I understand is nessesary for the game starting balance. Although we never like to start up like that in our game. Only missions start like that. But other game modes have us fairly distributed with starting locations and the EXACT SAME composition of starting structures that are equal.
What I have seen in 878 Vikings, and what I love. Is that a couple of shires are empty at the beginning. Logically speaking, it is english territory.

Another deck of cards
The invasion deck is something that I don't have. It is also semi randomised. A shuffle, yet order.
I find this very interesting. And have never seen this before. Perhaps an invasion deck can be used for one of my missions as well. I did attempt in a randomized campaign before the next draught.

Limited in rounds
7 rounds, that is it?
Although, I have 7 action points per round. The number of rounds we like to play is going into infinite. Obvsiously things come to an end sooner. Because players give up. Or a players faction has gone extinct. We play missions for shorter games. The longest game we ever played was going over a month. Those times are gone.
I think that the "public" version should be limited as well in a number of rounds. I do have some idea's about this. And the main part would be, no base building and resource managment.

Random turns
I love this aspect a lot. I am happy there are more games out there that have a random turn order. We too have a black bag for the exact same purpose.
IMHO, I find a random turnorder having more fairness than an entire game turnorder. The best moments are when a player can go twice or is forced to wait a double ammount of time.

Reinforcements
On location. Which is also similar.
I don't like how in some games (cough, Risk, cough cough), the reinforcements can suddenly all pop up in the same place where needed.
I do like when there is a logical location where they begin. Then they have to travel to where they are needed.

Movement card
And this is where our games are totally different.
I know that these kind of cards are used a lot in games. We however have action points. And use action points to decide if a squad moves. Then the slowest unit in the squad determines how many places the squad can move at most.
The limit on how big the squad can be is depending on what obstacles there are on the map. A player can also choose to move less units and thus splitting the squad into 2 new groups.

Dice
There is a limit on the dice.
Of course, a fast game should not have bucket'o'dice rolling. I also like the fact that you have strict rules on which units are removed.
Personally, I don't like it when the dice limit the concequences. Either the die has an effect on multiple units, or each unit has at least 1 die.
With that in mind. Limiting the number of units is another method of limiting the dice.
Our current maximum is 12. Which count as simple hit or miss results, based on accuracy rolls. Sometimes different colours are used due to different tiers of weapons.
The targets that are removed are decided by both players. The defending player had to put the units in a front line, middle and support line. The attacking player can only target units in the fornt line. The other lines are only accesable to the attack if the front line becomes to small during the battle. Or a certain Event Card is played.

Fleeing units
A morale based event.
My game has something similar.
An unit doesn't retreat by itself or a dice roll. But instead, it is chosen by the player. After the combat phase, if a next combat takes place on the same squad. The damaged units can now move to the middle or support line.
OR...the player saw a chance of these units actually using an action point or 2, on moving back to the base where they can get healed or repaired.

Did units do their action yet?
Putting them on their side...
Each player has action points in our game. These action ponts are placed on the units that have used the action points. This also helps tracking the cumulative effect of doing more actions in the same round.

Playing Event Cards
This time I see that more than one event card can be played. As long as they don't have the same name.
I like this. Although, we can use the same event card multiple times. Only to see some effects being stacked.
For example, we have a card that allows the player to attack the support line of the opponent. An extra penalty on their part is added. The penalties can be stacked, resulting in the target having less and less chances of survival or victory.
The con is that the player using multiple event cards, can't use them anymore in following rounds. In the example, the other effect of attacking the support line, can be used only once. Thus losing any additional chance on having this ability.
And there it is, the pages where every event card is being explained in more detail. Unfortunately, we too have found this nessesary to be true. Although, I tried to quantumize the effects on the cards a bit. The whole Event Card deck needs a rework though. Due to the game rules slowly chaning over time.

Paradox
It is said that if there are no movement cards. The 3 cards are shown and a reshuffle takes place.
What if there are no movement cards any more in the deck? Is it impossible for this to happen due to a make sure distribution? What if there are 3 movement cards in the hand after each draw? Players need to notice, right?

Games like 878 Vikings and Britannia are frowned upon, where i live. Don't blame me for it though. And getting my hands on a wargame while playing it all alone. Is not worth my time and money.

And that is one heck of a big map :)

Reminds me of the ASL days. Where I belive he had 12 segments joined together.
We played only 2 ASL games. But started using those maps for the early days of your hobby game.
Unfortunately, at a certain point, he got rid of the game.
Also, it was to our understanding that most hexagon based games would play the same at that time. Nowadays, no time. And I suspect there are many differences between the games.
Most of us kept meeting up online for RTS games.

Again some thoughts on the next game.

Well, the bear was dreamy, so I didn't really get it. But I thought of looking at a more basic tutorial first.

I watched this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSwTh_2CB_w

Setting up right away
There are a lot of miniatures. But what caught my attention was that there are squad pieces. Not sure if I describe this properly. But I see some sort of flat piece, on which smaller pieces are added. This is kinda cool. Because this way you control a squad size. AND: you can easily move all the smaller pieces at once on the board. Very cool concept.

Command Points (CP)
I love that this is used. I got something similar.
The game uses 3 CP per turn. And 3 turns in total per player. This means a total of 9 CP for each player. And there is a maximum of 3 CP per unit/squad. For each CP, the squad can move 1 position(?) After every 3 CP, another player is in turn to use 3 CP. A player cannot share or spare CP. I like this too.

The difference with my hobby game.
We use Action Points (AP). Each player gets a total of 7 AP per round. (Or a different ammount depending on the mission or upgrades)
A player may spend as much AP per turn as it likes. However, there is a maximum of 1 action per turn.
During this action, all other players may respond with an action as well.
The player in turn has to spend at least 1 AP.
A squad/unit can get exhausted if it does multiple actions. So the second action will cost the AP this unit/squad already paid and the AP required for the second action. This way, it is still possible for a squad/unit to move 3 times per round. But the rest of the army will sit idle.

Special moves
Some units/squads can move further, without spending CP.
Or, they are not allowed to move again after making a special move.
We kinda like having the movement and attack phase at the same time. But we have a mechanic to bring order to all the special moves and reactions.

Damage phase
I guess I need to play this a bit. Before understanding it completely.
Where we are used to roll dice that mean a hit or miss, based on a numerical comparison.
In CoH the dice have a picture. Some are certain damage. Others are blocked by the type the unit/squad has.
There seems to be a lot of RPS going on here. Which makes it very interesting for me. By the way, this is a mechanical RPS.
I find the video explaining this a bit too short. But perhaps it is that simple?

Sight
Don't get me started on this one. I had an entire topic (or 2) on making it FAIR without the rope.
Short sighted seems to cut away so many problems. Altough....
Do I spot the exact same logic here in the video as what we used to do? That method wont do much good as soon as longer weapon range gets involved.
And there it is. Spotters for the mortars. I think I have missed out on this game. It looks fun enough to play by myself.

Damaged
It looks like that an infantry squad looses health by removing the guys from the flat squad piece.
For tanks, cubes are added to that hexagon.
For my "public" version. I was thinking of pegs. But perhaps cubes work as well. As long as I keep a part of the miniature open for cubes :D

Pinned and Stealth
So a pinned squad can't do anything about it.
This is something I don't like much.
I don't see this happening in other games tbh.

A stealth unit cannot be seen.
This is something I do like.
And we had something in the works. Perhaps I should pick it up again.
The plan was to have 3 levels of stealth and 3 levels of detection.

Resource managment
4 Resources: manpower, ammunition, fuel and victory points.
The tracking has been simplified into a good comprehensible system.
I on the other hand, have credits, experience points (XP) and strategy points (SP). The credits are with big numbers in the hobby game. I hope to have it into only double digits with the public game. But seeing as how CoH uses single digits. Perhaps I should reconsider?? The "public" version will also get rid of XP. SP will remain in order to bring balance.

Reinforcements
Perfectly done in CoH. There are fixed points.
We have something call a production facility. Where barracks are for infantry and factories for tanks.

Repairing and healing
Different than my game for sure.
It kinda goes automatic in CoH.
I did it clumsy. Players need to spend AP in order to get things repaired or healed. Also, we too have specialized units for this task.

Victory points
I am sure this is only for preventing long games and impasse situations.
I now understand why the resource managment is so simple.
Why not having the resources being depleted after a number of rounds? I dislike VP a lot nowadays. It feels like a cheap and simplified way to make sure a game can end.

Still, this is one of the games that I missed out on. I am sure.

Things like a scout and how it fits with mechanics from my game is progres. It is either that or simply looking at other games now. To see how things can be simpler, or done differently.

I did a lot by comparing with RTS games. It is the board games turn. Despite NO ONE being able to play any other War game with me where I live. Period.

Then you get the "you need to playtest" comments. I got really tired of those comments. Often giving me the feeling that those didn't read the topic as a whole.

So I started this topic to see how much there is even known about RTS design in the first place.

Well, we fell in love with the RTS games that we played so much. We tried to get a RTS board game. At least one that will copy most aspects of a RTS, even though it is mostly turn based now.
See it as a super slowed down RTS game. Where each calculation is done manually. Thus one piece moves while another shoots. The order is simply by how the program runs.

We tried timers too. But that doesn't work well.
So we got a simple "take that" rule. The player in turn may think before taking an action. At the moment he declares the action he is going to do. Everyone else may interupt with whatever they have to say. No time for those who are hesitating. This includes their action and event cards. Event cards can even be played anytime during any phase where the card is of use. Once the player in turn rolls his/her dice, or is moving the squad in question. Others may not interupt anymore (except for some event cards).

If a player doesn't say a thing. This player will mostly not do a thing. If this player is defending, some mechanics might still occur. Like for example, the units may take a formation.

Then... all the happenings will be ordered in what has been said. However, some things are switched in order.
It is only a small RTS part of the game. The rest is really just an illusion of randomizing the order of players.