[Mustang]

IF this is an issue for you the solution is to play smaller point games on smaller maps with game turns set to max and take all the time you like but there are quite a number of things in the game that are linked to "magic numbers" around 98 and 99 and that's why 90 is max turns


Don

It doesn't bother me that much. Thanks for the idea however.

(Andy) In real life - you lead your gaggle of scouts off to where you think the train is. If Little Johnny wanders off to the newsagent stand, you may not realise till (if) you do a head count. In a wargame, he will be "on map" and on the "roster" shown as "wandering" status most likely.

So essentially, MBT combat mechanics- shooting, sighting, accuracy, etc- are accurate once you've actually contacted the enemy and confirmed where they are, the game design just smooths over the operational difficulties that make real warfare so slow when getting to that point.

Most dead time is of the "Where are you, callsign Alpha Bravo 23?" variety... And AB23 is currently off the radio net, standing at the (wrong) crossroads while Lt Snuffy tries his map reading skills and heads off to Alpaville instead of Bravoville in complete 100% confidence (until the enemy half way to there ambush his platoon). And of course the first you as the commander will hear of this is when (if) Lt Snuffy reports in on the radio, and since he thinks he is on the rad to Alphaville (when he is on the road to Bravoville) then you will send the reserves to support him half way to Alphaville of course. The reserve commander will eventually report no sign of Lt Snuffy's lads where he was expected, and so the confusion of reality goes on. Unlike a helicopter-view wargame.

Glad I've never been in a war. It sounds like an MBT game where your units go under AI control every other five turns and head off in a random direction.

So the gist is that time limits have to be kept under 5,000 turns to make a workable game. Thanks for the post, really clears it up in concrete terms.

There is zero market for those in the "civvy" market since it is not perceived as "fun". Such a game might interest someone who has for example spent some time in his local Territorial Army unit, and so knows that POV is far more realistic. Civvies want the Hollywood or "battle chess" experience rather than the realistic staff command model.

That would be a submarket of the "tactical turn based wargame market" SPMBT has already cornered. As a matter of fact I have never, ever seen the sort of command post exercise type of game you described. The closest thing is what I have heard of (not tried) people playing Avalon Hill games by phone, relaying orders through a game master who is the only one with the board. It might be amusing though. You could probably get the same effect playing MBT with copious amounts of gin.