the franco-prussian war - Strategy & Tactics

13SUGGEST -ED ADDI' TIONAL S 'CENARIO,gets 1 point fc ,r each A. .7 that gw ts back (#3) PC ;e scenaric 3'sThe follow ing scenar-.10s were a dded to ttIe from the targe t area and I 1 point fc Dr each are intrucgame ~y some Trfends ana ml F, -. "..L-& A F-- -LI-LI snor aown. ror rnls scena--.- . -..Mlg-no you3 F-104's or three British Li ghtnings i are(#I) 2P hantoms p ~rotecting : 2 A-7's on a had l better plan your moves far in ac dvance. interceptitactical bl ombing n nission. 3 Mig 21 's One false move can benginterceptin9.Special Rules: In! stead of the norr nalc----*:--Intruder_secrer~y cnooses a11 area w~rr~ I 2 Phantoms try to protect ct bomber ..-- A C___&I__ _L.IUIIII~LIUII, uae r GaiU-7's. Tt ley,--I'..",,V."F -.radius of six hexes in a hex pal Tern no le! atter npting the rescue of a downed pilot. 3 arrive at level 5 and speed 5. ~ney maythan 24 hexes (center measure 21's try to prevent t move in any manner the player desires, but!merit) fro1 m Mig-he rescue and soany board edge. This is the ure the pilot. they must move in formation (i.e., all planestarget are, a. captimust make the exact same maneuvers atA-7's (which may not fire) enter me ~oal-. O,.+hp ""ul I players stake out a target area wn-z rn8-zin Scenar'- ' ":- is staked the same time). No fire is allowed from theat level five and speed five. These drop 1 to one 10 1. l 111s out inSU-7's unless the formation is reduced tozero altitude and disappear in this "Target tl# blanl k counters #. Neither : side is cor sider redone plane. Victory conditions are the samearea (drop below the cloud cover) for or le the intruder 1 'or spottir rg or mo lvementas normal point defense (1 Mig-23 pilot isturn. The A-7's then reappear at "C reasc 31-15. inex~erier --"altitude and attempt to leave from sam be 2 ~ h antoms , arr ive at the South edg e of themap edge they arrived on.map at 2 les s than level maxin ium atMirage Ill'Phantoms enter the board at le\ re1 "15 at 2 level 10.interceptiA -.A -0. e+ -3." :- -1,-less than level maximum speeuIU LI s airive -.J IVI2 turns later ileave the board before game's en d. maxi imum speed and level 10 (#5) 3 F-5 Tigers intruding.Phantoms are bound by intruder sightir lg boar d edge).regulations and follow a preplanned fligl3 SU-11's defending (SU-11 may not usepattern until they sight a Mig-21. ht Vict( pry Conditions: The Mig-21 player radar missiles).recei ves 2 points for each Mig-21 thatMig-21's E trrive at a ny map e ~dge at arBoth plal (ers have 2 inexperil enced pila ltS.!: reacl nes "0" altitude in the target areaaltitude dc asired one turn afte !r the A-7This sce nario is very tricl ty and i In-(gett in? back makes no difference).arrive.predictab le.Mig- 21 s are obliged, however, to attempt-- A-vrcrory ~ona~oons: I ne lnrercepror player ru return -. to the north edge. The "':-' IvIIy-A I(#6) 3 A-7's intri ding.receives 2 points for each intruder A-7 he player also receives 1 point fo r eachshoots down before it reaches the target Phantom shot down. The Phantom r player 3 SU-7's ng (just fc ~r fun).area. He receives 1 point for any other plane gets 1 point for each Mig-21 shot down. This- -.scen.ario is real ly wild anc I reminds me(including returning A-7's). The intruder This scenario is difficult for either player. ot k~ytng C~~PIIS ,.,-,.LDesigner3 Notes (continued from page 10)others). The Chinese have ADM's (AtomicDemolitions) with which to slow the Russiansup. For example, a 50KT ADM, properlyplaced, would create a hole in the ground 1100feet wide and 340 feet deep (enough for athirty story building to fit comfortably). Not tomention the general destruction for a few milesin all directions. The Russians may also usestrategic nuclear weapons, which makes theoperation less a war and more a form ofgenocide. All in all, a potentially veryunpleasant situation. Unfortunately, the actionspresented in this game may well be thefirst act of World War Ill.Another gaming oddity arose recently. Whiletesting Warin the East our systems analyst gottired of doing all the paperwork associatedwith Russian production and army/air forcerebuilding. His work was made more tediousbecause he was also trying to develop anoptimum "building" strategy. An obvious jobfor the computer. A few hours devoted towriting the program, a few more hours testingand debugging and, there it was. War in theEast (or part of it, at least) was computerized.Now we were able to test various buildingstrategies (as well 3s which arms andpopulation centers the Russians could affordto give up). The idea of using computers in thedesign of games has been around for a longtime. More complex "machine" gamesactually require the use of a computer.But the type of game we produce (knownin the trade as the "manual" game) isstill more art than science. We have kickedaround variousideas for using the computer indeveloping our games. We already have somepretty definite concepts in mind. We also haveour own computer. But the biggest stumblingblock is, again, money. Any computerapplication requiring more than ten or so hourswill cut into our regular computer work (ofwhich we presently have more than we canhandle). This Warin the East application was afortunate coincidence. Perhaps in 1974 we'll beable to afford some "standard" programs touse in games. A "standard" computerapplication (or, rather, a "family" of applications)which could be used to aid thedevelopment of most games would cost a fewthousand dollars to produce. And part of thisR&D work would be true "risk" work (some ofit would probably have to be thrown out aftercostly development). This at least showsthat we're moving in the direction of usingwhatever means available to develop more andbetter games.While an article on Seelowe (Sealion, theplanned German invasion of Britain in 1940)appeared in S&T 40, our game of the samename won't appear until April of 1974. Thiswas a result of the change in publishingschedule brought about by our unexpectedsuccess introducing our games to the retailmarket. The general slowdown in ourpublishing schedule also allowed us toimplement some long needed game developmentprocedures. The main one is what we call"end testing." This involves actually doingall the artwork for a game and then, beforeprinting, making photostatic "prototypes" ofall the game components. We then test thegame again. We test it rather intensively at thisstage. What happens is most unusual. Flawswhich escaped the most rigorous "preartwork"testing of the game now becomeobvious. We can only attribute this to the factthat, when a game is put into its finalorganizational format it becomes much easierto "use" the game. This increased "ease ofuse" enables flaws to be more easily spotted.This "end testing" procedure requires muchmore time (and money) than we have hadpreviously. But now that we don't have toproduce so many new games just to keepahead of ourselves we can take theseadditional pains. Moreover, our R&D staff,after having produced over three dozen gamesin the past two years, has become ever moreexpert at what they are doing. This may not beall that noticeable to anyone who has beenwith us all the way. But if you "step away"from it all in your mind (as we have done) youcan see the changes. We try to explain someofwhat goes into producing these changes. Butthis is difficult because the myriad elementswhich go into game R&D are not easilyexplained. In future issues of MOVES we hopeto start a series of articles showing muchmore detail on this subject.Four more games are in the preliminary(research and "concept") stages of design.First, there is the Civil War. A strategic levelgame covering the entire war. Will probably usethe same sort of system as the World War 11game. This game will published in SBT 43(March, 1974). Our game of tactical warfareduring the age of sail, Frigate, will appear inJune, 1974. This one will follow "CA" in manyparticulars. In August 1974 we will publish theAlpha CentauriCampaign. A futuristic game ofstrategic space warfare with many unusualgame features. In October 1974 (if not earlier)we will publish Patrol. An outdoors Sniper1with improvements in the Sniper! gamesystem as well as new design features(continued on page 27)