Parents, Surgery, & The State Of The Game

Self Portrait; Pablo Picasso

Howdy everyone! Thought I'd put out a quick update on what's going on with me and the game right now.

Indefinite Hold

The blog's been quiet for a while now; and now that I finally have a bit of time to write, I feel like I owe everyone an explanation. Long story short... I'm currently buried in family responsibilities. Forcing me to put the development of WarStrike on hold while I deal with them.

When To Test Leadership

Ok, so here's some thinking on when, under the new "I go, you shoot" system, we should test leadership to clear suppression.

Simplifying Things Some More...

Sorry for the long break in posting, but I've been dealing with some serious health issues that demanded my full attention. I'm having a 'good day' right now though, so I've actually been able to sit down and think about the project in detail. Instead of in little snippets here and there.

As part of that, I've been having a desire to simplify the game some more. Which mostly boils down to simplifying close-combat and shooting. While keeping a bit of the feel that we had in the last game sequence test. Where we experimented with a set of phases that were similar to those in the old Squad Leader game.

Concept: Leadership Failure Levels

Still from Paths of Glory- Kubrick 1957

Eriochrome here today to talk about some ideas for the morale/leadership system. Unit morale is a key factor in war and while interspecies wars can be genocidal that does not mean everyone will fight every engagement to the death.  Units under fire might start keeping their heads down more than the general on high would like or they might even run away to fight another day.  We would like a unified leadership system which can cover this whole range without being too complicated or constricting.

Do Base Sizes Really Matter Now?

I was at the local FLGS last week, when I spied a box of the new Dreamforge 'Eisenkern' troopers for sale. The Eisenkern line is widely seen as an attempt to offer cheaper/cooler Imperial Guard options than GW does. At just $21.95 for a 10-man squad, I said "sure", and grabbed one. When unboxing them though, I was surprised to see that they come with (very nice) 30mm bases. Which is 5mm more than the 25mm standard that GW and Mantic use.

I'm not sure what Dreamforge is up to, as buying a $4.50 pack of 10 GW bases to be '40K legal' with these actually erases a little more than half of their price advantage. But it did get me thinking about how much base size matters in the game now. Given that we intend to facilitate the use of anyone's minis with our rules, differing base standards are a potential problem. But how much of one?

Buildings & Shooting

As I'm going through and re-ordering the rules, I've decided to pull some of the 'advanced' rules (Woods, Buildings, etc.) out into their own sections. In an effort to make the 'base' rules simpler and easier to follow. While doing that, I've had some interesting ideas on how buildings should be treated in regards to their own evasion/armor/toughness. For when you're trying to shoot the building itself, instead of the just the guys inside it.

Making Officers More Heroic

So here's an interesting idea I had while outlining the Shooting rules today...

Mission Outline: Meeting Engagement

Here's the outline for the Meeting Engagement mission, which is more or less our 'standard' mission. I'm going to let HighlanderBurial polish it up.

Testing The New Game Phases

I went down to the local club yesterday and got a test game in with Nick. Who's followed the project off and on since its inception, but who hadn't actually gotten to play a test game yet.

A Very Handy Outlining Tool

One of the problems I have with creating detailed rules outlines in Word is that eventually I reach the point where I can no longer deal with the volume of info I end up with. Meaning that I can't think about stuff like chapter order, with all of the section/detail info in the way. At that point I always end up abandoning the outline, and writing rules up in full. Before I've completely worked out all the interrelations and dependencies. But then I keep going back to the outline because of how slow that is...

Concept: Adapting Squad Leader's Turn Phases

My alternating Action Phase idea didn't gain any traction, so I'm leaning towards continuing on the classic Movement Phase -> Shooting Phase as a replacement for our currently overcomplicated Action Phase. It's the safe bet.

But I keep thinking about something more Squad Leader-ish overall in terms of turn structure, and Oblivion_Necroninja has gotten interested in the general idea (but not my last take). So here's another take on the idea. One that I think Eriochrome might actually like too. Since it's not too different from the current structure, and would go a long way towards simplifying close-combat.

An Alternate Phase Idea...

We've discussed going back to a traditional movement->shooting phase structure for the game. But I've had another idea. One that might address a few concerns that I've heard voiced and streamline the rules as a whole.

Tweaking Assault

Solid Snake vs. Hulk, Hokunin

Eriochrome has some thoughts on improving close-combat. Let's have a look!

In A Nutshell: The Imperial Republic

http://mohzart.deviantart.com/art/Pbs-356332883

Hey, it's Oblivion Necroninja! I'm not dead! Really! And to prove it, here's the rulebook description for The Imperial Republic!

Suggested Faction: Nekrophants

I'm getting slammed with mundane family commitments right now. But Highlander Burial sent in a summary of a faction idea that he and Oblivion Necroninja have been working on. So let's take a look at what they've got.

Some Artillery Ideas From HighlanderBurial

F. Usipenko. Guards fighting back

Here some cool ideas about artillery that HighlanderBurial sent me.

Shooting Tidbits

Gun 1982, Andy Warhol

Here are some neat ideas that are occurring to me as I work on restructuring the chapters.

How About We Just Have Standard Phases?

Spoogy Headache, Jorge Riverol

Ok, I've got a question for everyone. Would anyone cry if we just had standard movement/shooting phases instead of the combined Action Phase? The current system plays fine (up to a point), but it's twisting my brain into knots trying to figure out how to present the info coherently. Plus I'm seeing some potential gameplay issues with the current system that I've not come up with a good solution for.

Where We're At

Man Writing, Oliver Ray

With Gencon going on this past week, I haven't been able to do much in the way of writing specific rules. But I was able to do some higher-level work on their order/structure. Particularly after I realized that the targeting rules really needed their own section. One distinct from the actual shooting rules. This resulted in a flurry of chapter/section re-arrangement, after which I settled on the following order for everything done to date. Which also allows us all to see where we're at in terms of getting the game's first draft done.

Rules: Targeting (Ver. 0.58)

Target With Body Parts, Jasper Johns

I've broken the LoS/Cover rules into their own 'Targeting' chapter. Which cleans up their conceptual separation from 'Shooting', which will be all about the rolling of the dice, weapons, and whatnot.

Concept: Skylining

Admiral Drax had an interesting comment on the LoS rules I posted...

Rules: Shooting Intro & Finding A Target (Ver. 0.57)

With My Lethal Eye; Steve Mitchell

Here's the first 4 pages of the Shooting Chapter. Which define some key terms, and integrate Visibility, Cover, and Gone To Ground with the LoS rules I posted last month. It should now be apparent, after reading this, how the full LoS/Visibility system works.

Moving Forward Again

Hey all, just checking in with everyone. All of the project leaders have been busy as hell lately with work, vacations, kids, health, home repairs, or some combination thereof. But the logjam is starting to break. I'll be posting some new rules this week to start finalizing the rest of shooting, and Eriochrome is working on cleaning up the close-combat sequence. Interest in the project is climbing as 40K rots, so we need to make some progress. :)

Rules: Line of Sight (Ver. 0.57)

Here it is at last! Eleven pages (including 22 photos/diagrams) of LoS rules. Each of which has been worked, and re-worked so that they're all consistent with one another.

Still Here... Still Working... Here's A Teaser...

No, I haven't died or been hit by a bus. I'm just working on the LoS/Visibility rules. Which I want to complete all in one go, instead of dribbling them out in disconnected pieces that we hash over uselessly. It's taking some time.

Line of Sight & Visibility

Ok, Eriochrome and Ryjak have been working me over on visibility. So here's another go at it. With what should be a simpler set of concepts to explain.

Refining Visibility Some More

Ok, so the new visibility system was all well and good... until I had to sit down and write clear rules for the terrain effects. Block city. If the rules are too weird/complex for me to easily figure out clear rules for, then it indicates a problem. So I'm taking the weirdness down a notch, and de-coupling the visibility of a target more from the terrain Evasion modifiers. In a hybrid of the old and new systems.

Free Discussion: Grenade Ideas

Ryjak's been wanting to talk about grenades, so let's talk.

Find Me A Word For This!

I need a good word for a concept, and I'm coming up blank. Help!

Yes Finally... A WarStrike Battle Report

I went over to Games 2 Die 4 on the west side for testing yesterday. Where I took pictures of the game we had, so that I could finally (yes finally) make a proper Battle Report for everyone to see.

Quick Terrain Summary

I'm off to go do some testing today. But here's a table that provides a quick summary of what I'm thinking for terrain effects on visibility. Still working on the wordy version.

Rules: Unit Visibility (Ver. 0.56)

Here's the basic visibility rules, updated with some of the changes that I outlined the other day.

Unit Card Revamp

Here's what I'm working on for a re-vamp of the unit cards.

More Thinking On Visibility

Ryjak had some concerns about units being able to shoot through hills/buildings at range. While I'm finding in testing that adding GtG/Firing modifiers to the standard visibility modifiers gets tedious fast. So here's what I've thought up to solve both problems at the same time.

Fire Priority?

How would you all feel about having a target priority system in WarStrike?

Rules: Unit Visibility (Ver. 0.55)

Sorry this took so long, but I've spent 3 days writing and re-writing these two (bleeping) pages. As it took forever to get the clarity I wanted. I started out describing Awareness, and then kept hitting a wall when talking about concealment. So I ended up flipping them. Describing concealment first, and then awareness. Which worked out much better, and required far fewer words.

Ryjak Talks Bugs

I'm too busy writing rules to work too much on fluff right now. So I've let Ryjak take point on developing the Turids as a faction. He's come back with some interesting ideas. Let's have a look and discuss!

Rules: Measuring Distances (Ver. 0.55)

Explosion of Joy, Amy Giacomelli

Sigh... It's been a rough couple of weeks. Still a bit sniffy, but I've finally gotten the antibiotics out of my system that were seriously screwing with my ability to concentrate. It's also helpful having the kids back in school, and some actual spring-like weather for a change. :)

Anyway, here's the rules that I've been working on for Measuring Distances.

The Week From Hell

Pestilence, DH666

Yikes, what a week from hell. The only member of the family who's not sick as a dog with the flu is... the dog.

Rules: Models, Units, & Strike Forces (Ver. 0.55)

Did some updates to these rules, and described what we have planned for the Strike Force Organization Charts (SFOCs).

Rules: Rolling Dice (Ver. 0.55)

Soldiers Playing Dice, Michelangelo Cerquozzi

Here's an update to the Dice Rolling rules. The pass-all tests will be going away, so they've been removed. I've also defined some things that needed defining. Like Re-Rolls and Salvos.

Rules: What You Need To Play (Ver. 0.55)

Here's the 'What You Need To Play' section of the rules. I'm going to try something different this time, as I'm tired of copy-pasting from the rulebook and then reformatting everything for the web. Instead, I'm going to offer a link where you can download just this section of the rules as a PDF. Which should be easier to read anyhow. We'll see how that goes.

Testing The New Visibility System

CaulynDarr and I tested out the new visibility system with a straightforward battle today (Meeting Engagement). How did it do?

Vehicle Movement Outline

I've been working on the formal writeup of the new Visibility/Shooting rules. Which will get tested today with CaulynDarr. But while I work on that, here's a rough outline of my thoughts for how vehicles should move. I've tried to add just enough method variation between the types to make it interesting, with meaningful tactical differences. But not so much detail that it becomes a naval sim. :)

A Very Interesting Email: Part 2

Here's the second half of that email that Ryjak sent me, and my responses. This one's going to be quite interesting, as I compare the result ranges of D6 and D10 dice rolled in series, and why D10 isn't as much of a better choice for a wargame as people tend to think it is.

Visibility: Re-Vamp II

My last re-vamp of the visibility/to-hit system was interesting, but it didn't work out in testing. I'm taking another go at it though. Keeping in mind Ryjak & Eriochrome's suggestions, I've eliminated 2 levels of visibility, axed all range bands beyond the first, and instead instituted standardized Evasion modifiers at long range, based on terrain. With straight modifiers for shooting & GtG, but not running.

Testing Results From Saturday

At the Indy Open a few weeks back, I was invited to come down and demo the game to a club of 20+ guys that meets on the south side of Indy at a private home. I didn't take any pictures (because it was a private home), but I did get in two good test games with some players at the lower end of the competitiveness scale. They enjoyed themselves, and it was interesting to see what they appreciated the most about the game compared to the more hard core competitive types.

A Very Interesting Email: Part 1

Ryjak sent me a long email with a lot of heartfelt suggestions/criticisms about the game. The discussion of which I thought would be of interest to most of our readers. So here it is...

Another Visibility Option

Here's another refinement that might strike the right balance for our visibility system. This time, each range band is a multiple of the short range.