Summertime
has distracted me from my numerous game projects with several family visits,
excursions, Historicon, and a few friendly gatherings at the house. Nonetheless
I managed to find game-related inspiration in a number of occurrences I hope
can fuel my enthusiasm in the coming weeks.
Tank Game Playtesting
Frequent
GaDeJo readers might recall I’m developing a kid-friendly tank battle miniatures wargame. Last year my young 10 year-old nephew stayed with us for a week,
during which time we played a few sessions of the tank rules, which he
remembered and wanted to play during this subsequent visit. While running rules
through my head -- and even playing games against myself on the basement
wargames table to test rules firsthand -- helps solidify game concepts and
rationales, nothing tops playing the game with a member of the intended
audience: in this case, a young kid with little experience with miniature
wargames but an enthusiasm for games in general. During a family visit this
summer we once again set up tanks and terrain on the wargaming table and
blasted away at each other’s units, consulting rules, rolling dice, and racking
up “hit” markers.
In an
open-minded view of the experience I realized through playtesting I needed to
develop a few additional game elements. Defense values need a one-point boost;
I’d initially added 3 to the armor-based value for a static defense number
attackers had to exceed to score a hit, but this resulted in lesser-armored
tanks taking too many hits too quickly (an issue when pitting slow German tanks
with strong firepower and armor against faster but lesser-well-armed/armored
British tanks). I should work out rules for capturing an objective in a
scenario. I need to sort out the particulars when an attacker rolls critical
failure (1) when shooting a target near an explosive objective (fuel or
ammunition dump). And, in my modeling endeavors, I need a massive explosion
terrain piece to mark the detonated fuel/ammunition dump.
Overall
these playtest sessions reinforced decisions and revisions made after last
year’s games and opened up new areas to consider and develop. This experience
might just fuel my enthusiasm to push the project to the forefront of my
limited development time; the potential to feature the game at distant
wargaming conventions in early 2014 might also serve as incentive to fast-track
development.
Reiner Knizia’s Palazzo
During my
nephew’s visit we pulled out Reiner Knizia’s Palazzo as a rainy afternoon activity; my older nephew, now in his
teens, seems interested in real estate, architecture, and the process of building
structures, so this game seemed to offer at least some thematically appealing
elements. The game reminded me how, while seemingly complex at first, the
game’s subtle mechanics at several different levels drive gameplay, increase
tension in the final rounds, and leave everyone guessing who will come out on
top of Knizia’s elegantly intricate scoring structure
Inspirational Soundtracks
Lately my
toddler son has been getting into everything Star Wars, inspired not only by Daddy’s “toys” but his observation
of a Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game
at Historicon, as well as other Star Wars bits evident in our household (such
as my vintage 1980 mug featuring the faces of Darth Vader and “Bobo” Fett…).
Now he’s demanded to have Star Wars
music played in the car (giving us a much-needed break from listening
incessantly to the B-52s’ “Love Shack” whenever we’re in the car). So I dug out
a mix CD I made featuring Star Wars
music for use in different stock scenes when running the roleplaying game. He’s
three and a half, so we haven’t show the Little Guy any Star Wars films yet (though I intend to start with Episode IV…it’s just good parenting),
though I have read him my Star Wars
Pop-Up Book once or twice. So the Little Guy naturally started asking
what’s going on during each musical track.
Listening to
the tracks from the original three Star
Wars films rekindled the excitement I felt as a kid. In the days before
Netflix, DVDs, streaming video over the internet, or…shudder…video tape
players, listening to the soundtrack (on vinyl records, no less) remained one
of the few ways fans could relive the action in the films at the time of the
original movie releases. I need to prep an all-Episode-IV CD just for him, condensing the tracks in order so we
can listen to the movie scenes in sequence. The experience also reminded me how
much music contributes to my creative process (both focus and ideas); whether
I’m listening to a Mozart violin concerto, Basil Poledouris’ Conan the Barbarian soundtrack, or other
thematically appropriate tracks, music helps blot out real-world distractions
and allows me to concentrate on the project at hand.
X-Wing
Miniatures Game
Continuing
my Star Wars theme, I finally found
some time to break open the Star Wars X-Wing
Miniatures Game produced by Fantasy Flight Games I bought from a friendly
dealer at Historicon. The components have the high production value one expects
from a high-end game from FFG: cards, thick cardboard turn templates and tokens,
and, of course, extremely well-detailed, painted TIE fighter and X-wing
miniatures (far better than the fine Galoob MicroMachines available 15 years
ago we used as props in the roleplaying game). (Unlike Reiner Knizia’s Palazzo, however, only some of the
numerous components -- the starship minis and stands -- actually fit into
custom forms in the box.) A quick read-through of the rules brought a few
interesting elements to mind, particularly when compared to the Wings of War/Wings of Glory game which
broke ground in this field of casual miniature wargaming:
Graduated Rules: Several rules levels
gradually draw players into subsequently more complex stages of gameplay. The
“Quick-Start Rules” -- a four-page flyer separate from and situated on top of the
“Rules of Play” booklet -- introduce the most basic elements to playing the
game, most of which translate in some form to the general rules. Beyond the
main rules readers also find “Additional Rules” and “Advanced Rules” expanding
on earlier game concepts to increase the complexity level and cover specific
conditions during gameplay.
Dice: The game comes with six
eight-sided dice, three red “attack” dice and three green “defense” dice, each type
with different symbols on them. They add an extra step (from the method used in
Wings of War/Wings of Glory),
determining whether an attacking craft hits a target ship within its field of
fire and range. I’m not sure how I feel about this; it seems an obvious ploy to
sell more separate sets of dice to gamers and capitalize on gamers’ natural
predilection for nifty new dice; but the mechanic also allows for increased
complexities in other stages, usually alterations to the number of attack and
defense dice used or the conditions under which they’re re-rolled.
Ordered Actions: One element that often
lends itself to confusion in Wings of War/Wings of Glory games is the
simultaneous hit mechanic; target aircraft take damages in no particular order,
with hits (and kills) simultaneously resolved. The X-wing miniatures game
relies on the pilot skill value for establishing an order for revealing and executing
maneuvers (lowest skill to highest) and in resolving hits (highest to lowest),
resulting in situations where two craft might have each other in field of fire
and range, but one shoots and scores a kill before the other gets a chance to
attack. While I like that it resolves the order in which movement and hits are
carried out among numerous players on a large playing area, I’m not so sure I
like the non-simultaneous hit resolution system. I do understand, however, that
variable pilot skill adds to the game, especially in its organized play format
relying on different factors when calculating point costs for squadrons.
Expandability: The game offers several opportunities
to expand the action, from addition ships from the classic Rebellion era to
“upgrades” one can buy (for additional points in game set-up) to increase a
ship’s capabilities.
The game
seems easy enough to learn and teach to gaming newcomers, especially with the
basic “Quick-Start Rules” and the essential concepts in the main rules. I’ve
not yet had a chance to play the game (we came close with my nephews in the
house), but the Little Guy’s been pestering me to play it, so we might try out
the “Quick-Start Rules” to give him a chance to play with the starship minis
and see how things work.
As always, I
encourage construction feedback and civilized discussion. Share a link to this
blog entry on Google+ and tag me (+Peter Schweighofer) to comment.
