Next War India-Pakistan: An After-Action Review

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Pakistan started it. It was supposed to be a short, sharp push over the border into the disputed territory. Pakistan had prepared well, both militarily and diplomatically. Initially, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (IROP) gained tactical surprise over the armed forces of the Republic of India (ROI). Diplomatically, Pakistan secured the support of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

That was three weeks ago. Now? Well, it’s all over now. As radioactive clouds still hover over the war zone, a new regime is being established in Islamabad. Beijing is facing the most severe diplomatic pressure it has faced since the Korean War, and an international team of soldiers and specialists are preparing to move into the region to help with the ecological disaster now unfolding.

How did it come to this?

Talon Tuesday Issue #19: The Newest Ship in the Fleet

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“Talon Tuesdays” is an article series appearing on InsideGMT periodically on Tuesdays.  It features articles from the Talon development team regarding the game’s design, development and upcoming release.

Issue #19: The Newest Ship in the Fleet by K. Patrick “Shadowmeld” Barley

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One of the challenges we had to overcome in Talon was balancing fleet strength across the factions. We have several areas of fleet imbalance between Fighters, missiles and the Talon Dreadnaught, but as a whole the fleets needed to be able to field large or small forces that at least feel balanced. Through the first year of playtesting we started with a central ship the Heavy Cruiser (CA). Our first battery of play tests had us pitting three CAs against each other to test Talon tools versus Terran tools. It was this testing that rooted out the need to add afterburners and eventually lead to some Talon structural increases. Wave after wave after wave of Talon CAs clashed into their Terran counter parts, disruptors alight. Phasers and torpedoes fired back and as the dust settled, our win rates came closer and closer to even.

We then slowly folded more and more ships into the scenarios, first Scouts and Frigates, then Terran Light Cruisers and both factions’ Destroyers. The Talon Destroyers had us adding missiles for the first time, and while we were trying to weigh this unconventional weapon system it seems another issue flew under the radar. The Light Cruiser.

An Informal Introduction to “Gallipoli 1915: Churchill’s Greatest Gamble”

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The following summary is like a five minute run down of the rules from an experienced player. This won’t tell you everything, just enough to get you pushing counters and giving you the bones on which to hang the details.

Talon Tuesday Issue #18: The Player Aid Cards

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“Talon Tuesdays” is an article series appearing on InsideGMT periodically on Tuesdays.  It features articles from the Talon development team regarding the game’s design, development and upcoming release.

Issue #18: The Player Aid Cards

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One of the challenges of making a war game more accessible is trimming the number of tables.  STOPPING play to reference something goes against making any kind of streamlined game.  Not that I have anything in particular against tables: as a developer they are a fantastic tool.  With them you can add a great deal of depth, flavor or choice to an action (see the article on the crit table from last week). As a player, I love them too, in moderation.

I remember the first time I picked up an AD&D player’s handbook and being totally awestruck by the fact that there was a (serious of) table(s) delineating what my 9th level fighter’s household guards have equipped.  They’ve thought of everything!  Simulation and theme!

Talon Tuesday Issue #17: The Critical Damage Table

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“Talon Tuesdays” is an article series appearing on InsideGMT periodically on Tuesdays.  It features articles from the Talon development team regarding the game’s design, development and upcoming release.

Issue #17: The Critical Damage Table

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Hull damage is serious business. If given the opportunity, you always want to deal damage directly to a ship’s hull. An exposed shield side can turn the tide in battle and subsequent hull damage can lead to dramatic effects.  Yes, when a ship’s hull is reduced to zero (all the red hull boxes get marked off) it is destroyed and it explodes, however, this is not the only reason you want to be firing on the enemy’s hull.

Destroying hull boxes also means the ship will have less power. Not only are important parts of the ship that regulate power usage damaged but more power is re-routed to life support to keep the crew alive. Since power (and the AP it generates) is one of the most precious resources in the game, damaging a ship can have big effects on its offensive capabilities.  Also if a ship is traveling at a high Speed and suddenly takes a large amount of hull damage, reducing its Power, its drives may overheat and the ship can break apart.  You can never have a negative Power number written on your ship so unless the ship can slow down to a safe level during the Power Phase, it will overheat.

MBT Command and Control Example of Play

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Command and control is a common element of most tactical games for good reason. Force management is a necessity to properly model low scale combat where each counter represents just a single unit up to no more than a few, not to mention supporting infantry units. It basically comes down to who can do what and when. Its modeling can take different forms, e.g., command points, chit pulls, or cards.Screen Shot 2015-12-25 at 9.59.16 PM

MBT is no exception. At its scale, with each counter representing a single vehicle, aircraft, towed gun or infantry squad, half-squad or section, command and control is an integral part of the game.

Talon Tuesday Issue #16: The Play Book

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“Talon Tuesdays” is an article series appearing on InsideGMT periodically on Tuesdays.  It features articles from the Talon development team regarding the game’s design, development and upcoming release.

Issue #16: The Play Book

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As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, we wanted the Talon Rulebook to be thin and streamlined. This way, new players can pick up the game and understand the system as quickly as possible. As such we’ve moved not only the scripted scenarios into the Play Book but also some of our other “chrome-y” features: Transports, Terrain randomization, Design your own scenario outline, Empire War, Space Empires Crossover, other Battle Modes… When I get a new game, I always like having a thick scenario book. It means I’m going to get a lot of replay out of my purchase. We hope you feel the same.

Like we’ve talked about in previous Talon Tuesdays, there are a bunch of different ways to play the game.  Last week I discussed our default win condition – Last Ship Standing.  It’s an important game structure for Talon but it is just one of many ways to play a battle. We call the other options Battle Modes. They’re alternative victory conditions and objectives, some of which are used in the scripted scenarios and all may be used in Design Your Own Scenarios.

If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium: Shunning the Schlieffen Plan in Fields of Despair

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Part One

For the past several months, I’ve been involved in the latest round of playtesting for Fields of Despair.  I’m playtesting with a couple of my regular wargaming buddies (Phil Mowatt and Dave Moseley) using VASSAL and Skype. After about 7 or 8 games, in which each of the short scenarios as well as a couple of campaign games were played, we were impressed that this is a game that invites repeated plays.  This is at least partially due to the great variety of possible strategies and outcomes that it offers.  I realize that the purpose of playtesting is to determine whether the game has balance issues or incomprehensible/contradictory rules or a variety of other problems, but because this game has been tested for several years by a fairly large and varied group of people, my fellow playtesters and I weren’t finding any gaping holes in the rules.

Talon Tuesday Issue #15: Lifetime Score

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“Talon Tuesdays” is an article series appearing on InsideGMT periodically on Tuesdays.  It features articles from the Talon development team regarding the game’s design, development and upcoming release.

Issue #15: Lifetime Score

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The goal of most battles in Talon is control over that region of space.  This is expressed with our default victory condition: Last Ship Standing.  That means for most games, the winner is the side with ships remaining on the map, regardless of how many ships that side lost during the battle. This is important because we felt that if your fleet beats up another fleet and then retreats, you didn’t really achieve much for your faction. The goal is the conquest/securing of territories as represented in most scripted scenarios.  It’s a different ball game in Empire War, where one goal may be to deal significant financial damage to your opponent. However, even then you need to avoid losing territory.

MBT Artillery Example of Play

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Since it first arrived on the battlefield in the 12th Century, artillery has played an ever expanding role. This no less the case on the modern battlefield of 1987. Whether employed off-map or as on-map fire support, artillery assets are a major facet of MBT.Screen Shot 2015-12-04 at 3.37.25 PM

In game terms, artillery comes in two flavors: individual on-map mortars and self-propelled guns and off-map artillery batteries, which represent a group of guns of various calibers modeled as light, medium, heavy and supeScreen Shot 2015-12-04 at 3.37.32 PMr heavy. Not limited to just smoke, illumination and high-explosive shells, the modern battlefield includes specialized ordnance. If available in a scenario, players may also choose from cannon launched guided projectiles (CLGP), e.g., the US M712 Copperhead, improved conventional munitions (ICM), and artillery delivered mines (FASCAM). Also keep in mind that where there is artillery there is also the possibility of counter battery and counter-counter battery.