There are lots of interesting subjects in Black Elk’s latest post – too many for me to comment on all at once, so I’ll focus just on a couple of them.
There’s a strong advantage to restricting ourselves, at least in principle, to just the boxed materials, (or some new riff on the box materials), because everyone has access to them. It’s generally easier to tweak an existing unit or existing mechanic than it is to create an entirely new one. So those would probably be the best places to start. <<
I agree fully. The G40/2 map (perhaps with a few roundel modifications) and the unit categories supplied in the box as sculpts and markers are a good baseline because everyone can be assumed to have them on hand – so a redesign built around those elements is a good idea. This basic redesign can always be expanded later in more radical ways, for instance to include new unit types or new player powers, but for starters I think it’s very sensible to focus on a basic redesign.
I really like this idea, or at least the general direction of the idea. I think something like this is possible. […] Does anyone else feel that the game might benefit, from some form of randomization to starting income? Randomization within certain limits, of course, but some way to alter those values slightly as a way to create more dynamism in the opening round? <<
I’m not as rushed as I was last afternoon, so I’ll take a shot at developing more fully the very general concept I sketched out yesterday.
In the very abstract example I gave previously, I alluded to the fact that each player power’s starting position is defined by a number of variables. Some of these variables are purely quantifiable: for example, the number of units of each type a power has on the board, how many IPCs it has in the bank, what its starting IPC income is based on territories held, and so forth. The turn order specified in the rules is arguably another “purely quantitative” factor. Some other variables, on the other hand, have “values” that can’t be quantified directly because they involve factors that are qualitative or positional or political in nature. Examples of these include: where the power’s units are positioned on the game map; what special OOB rules (if any) either give the power a special allowance or place it under special restrictions; what national objectives or national advantages a power has (or might have); and how easy it is for each side to achieve its defined winning conditions. That last one is a whole subject in and of itself, and as I’ve argued before it’s a fundamental feature of the game that has to be considered at every step of a redesign process; the only thing I’ll say about it now, as far as the quantification issue goes, is just to point out that the OOB rules are built around a huge difference between the Axis and Allied sides. In pursuing their victory conditions, the Allies are given the challenge of capturing three enemy capitals that more or less equate to capturing most or all of three enemy countries. (Japan is the most extreme case: by capturing Tokyo, you’re in fact capturing the totality of Japan’s home islands.) The Axis, buy contrast, has a whole gaggle of Allied “victory cities” to choose from – many of which aren’t even capitals.
Anyway, getting back to the subject at hand: let’s assume that we have some sort of system for quantifying these different variables, or at least for expressing their importance. The next step would be to calculate how much all of these factors “add up to” for each of the player powers under the OOB rules. This will give us a rough idea of how “balanced” the OOB game’s starting setups are, in a very general sense. The next step would then be to decide by how much we would want these different values to potentially vary under a semi-randomized redesigned setup system.
To explain this, I’ll use a more concrete example than I had time to write yesterday – but an example that will still be purely for illustrative purposes. It’s not an actual proposal, and it will only focus on one element (unit types) in order to keep the example simple. The same principle could be applied to the numeric variables I’ve mentioned (IPCs being an obvious candidate) and perhaps be adapted in some way for application to other variables . The example I’ll use will be France, since it has only a few units at its disposal at the start of the game.
Leaving aside ICs and bases, and ignoring the consideration of where these units are placed on the map, France starts out the game with:
15 Infantry
0 Mechanized Infantry
1 Tanks
3 Artillery
1 Anti-Aircraft Artillery
2 Fighters
0 Tactical Bombers
0 Strategic Bombers
0 Aircraft Carriers
0 Battleships
2 Cruisers
2 Destroyers
0 Submarines
0 Naval Transports
Now let’s assume that we want to replace this starting setup, which uses precise and unvarying numbers, with a setup that offers range brackets. Using some purely arbitrary figures (which are just meant to illustrate the concept I’m talking about), let’s give France this new setup table:
13-18 Infantry
0-1 Mechanized Infantry
1-2 Tanks
1-4 Artillery
1 Anti-Aircraft Artillery
1-3 Fighters
0 Tactical Bombers
0-1 Strategic Bombers
0 Aircraft Carriers
0 Battleships
1-3 Cruisers
1-4 Destroyers
0-1 Submarines
0 Naval Transports
There are several possible ways these brackets could be used. Here are the options I’ve been able to think of, though of course there may be more:
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The French player is allowed to choose which figures he’ll use in each category, and there are no limits on the total unit value (TUV) to which these choices can add up. Obviously this option won’t work because the player will simply choose the highest number in each category.
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The French player is allowed to choose which figures he’ll use in each category, but the TUV of his choices can’t be higher than the TUV of the OOB setup. On the plus side, this option would require more thought and involve more compromises than option 1. On the minus side, this option may eventually neutralize the goal of making the game more variable: players will probably figure out the optimal choices and stick with them from that point forward.
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The figures are determined by random dice rolls, without any restrictions on the TUV (except of course the built-in restriction that the figures in each category have to stay within a bracketed range). This could result in individual powers (in this case France) starting out a game with a significantly stronger or significantly weaker opening position than in the OOB setup.
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The figures are determined by random dice rolls, but the TUV resulting from these random rolls can’t be higher than the TUV of the OOB setup. This is probably the best option for generating variety from game to game without produding wildly stronger or wildly weaker opening positions. To make it work, we’d need a mechanism to control the TUV. I can think of a couple of possibilities for this:
a) Once the random rolls have generated a semi-randomized setup, the player calculates how much unit value has to be subtracted to bring the TUV down to the required level, then chooses himself which units to delete. The subtractions would not be allowed to bring any category outside its bracketed value.
b) The unit deletions are accomplished randomly by successive dice rolls (combined with some sort of results table) until the required TUV is reached. Rolls that would bring any particular category outside of its specified bracket would be disregarded.
