Re: Very Large Scale Wargames

From: tommyk@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Tommy Kelly)

Date: Fri, 22 Jun 1990 13:29:04 +0000

In article <1990Jun21.102735.3615@gdr.bath.ac.uk> pyppad@gdr.bath.ac.uk (P A Dale) writes:
>i) PBeM yes I would say it was possible so long as the players
>   had reasonable maps. The remote players could be used to direct
>forces with the moderator and friends fighting the tabletop

This is a good idea.  I'd actually thought that a PBM version would have
to do without the miniature level stuff.

>
>ii) Game considerations
>   You are setting out on a very ambitious project. I would suggest you
>first of all decide a few basic things mainly to do with scale.
>Time
>  How long do you have to fight a battle and reach a conclusion that
>will be useful ?

TABLE-TOP ... half a day, ish.
WHOLE GAME ... months (a year?, indefinite?, till the war is won?)

The whole point of devising such a game is to give purpose to miniature
games, and fine detail to map games.  I would see a map game running
indefinitely (a map move a fortnight, or a month) with lots of table-top
miniature sessions being incorporated (e.g. a miniature game every month?).
Not every map-level conflict need be resolved with miniatures - in fact
that would probably be the exception rather than the rule.

>Ground/unit scale
>   Are you interested in small or grand tactics ? Do you want to pit
>corps against eachother using divisional building blocks or go lower in
>scale ? The higher the scale of unit on the tabletop the more abstract
>the rules will probably be. At the same time there will be more strategy
>and higher command emphasis.

I want to be able to implement almost all levels, from army-group, and even
country level - down to infantry section and individual tank).

NOTE: The proportion of the game played at a given level would probably be
      inversely proportional to the scale factor.  So most of the game
      would be at map level - moving armies, divisions etc.  With multi
      levels, slightly less time would be taken resolving battallion level
      stuff.  And finally, only a small proportion of map conflicts would
      go to table - this would still give plenty of table-top actions.

I wonder if a multi-level system would work?  Maybe two is optimal?
>
>If you can get a firm idea of what you want then I'm sure you'll get
>there.
>
>I look forward to the developement of this and hope a *real* discussion
>may get going :-)
>Paul Dale
>p.s. 1/300th is a must, painting is so much easier :-)

I think so too.  But I'm currently undecided about 1/300th 'v' 1/200th.

Do you have 1/200th in the U.S.?

tommy

References

Very Large Scale Wargames
tommyk@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Tommy Kelly)
Tue, 19 Jun 1990 16:18:22 +0000
Re: Very Large Scale Wargames
pyppad@gdr.bath.ac.uk (P A Dale)
Thu, 21 Jun 1990 10:27:35 +0000