Monday, March 18, 2024

Wargame Design: Do Your Mechanics Matter?

 


Mechanics are the tools you use to play-out the game on the tabletop.  Their purpose is to create and end result, and output that the player uses to continue the game or get a result.  They are simply a process.  It is the result itself that is useful to the game.  Therefore, does it matter to your game what mechanisms you use to get to the end result?  

The mechanics of a game are simply the series of steps or actions that lead to the results you need to move the game forward towards its conclusion.  A process has a series of suppliers, inputs, outputs and users that make use of the process.  Mechanics can be the steps and equipment used to process the inputs for the suppliers and create outputs for the user.  In the case of Wargamers the suppliers and the Users maybe the same player, or a different player.  

In short, mechanics are simply a tool to get you from Point A to Resolution B.  Does it matter if you use one polyhedron dice over another?  Does it make a difference if you use cards rather than dice?  What about charts?  

Game designers spend a lot of time thinking about the mechanics.  Does all this thought and effort actually help make a better game? 

Restless Stars

No, It Doesn't Matter! 

Ultimately, the output is the key component of the process.  Therefore, how you get to the output you need for the game is less relevant than most designers believe.  Designer's spend time agonizing over what mechanics to use, when in the final analysis they are virtually interchangeable.  Whether you use a dice roll, a card flip, a spinner, coin flip, or a chart is irrelevant.  The only "wrong" mechanic is the one that does not generate the intended results.  

Design Goals are not met by mechanics.  They are met by outputs and results to the user.  For example, if you are trying to create uncertainty in the outcomes as a goal, it does not matter how this uncertainty is generated.  A random number generator, a card flip, or any number of mechanics can achieve the design goal, the specifics of the process are secondary and less relevant than the result itself. 

This liberates you as the designer and let's you focus on the key elements; the results of the process.  It doesn't matter which polyhedron you use, which cards you flip, what buttons are pressed.  All that matters is there is a mechanics to determine a result.  You don't have to agonize over these lesser decisions and you can focus on fulfilling your design goals instead.    

The focus in on the output of the process, and not the process itself.  One process is just as good as another.   

Restless Sun

Yes, It Matters! 

It matters because the players want more than a result from their games, they want an experience.  A wargame is more than the sum of its individual parts.  The mechanics of the game are queues on how the game itself should be played.  They highlight the components and aspects of the designer's POV that they want to highlight in their game.  This could be core mechanics, the hook, or even just the Chrome.  It is the process that gives the game flavor and soul.  

Mechanics matter because some processes are simply more efficient and better than others at achieving a result.  Consider the game Mouse Trap from Milton Bradley.  It is the definition of Over-Production as you spend the entire game slowly building a board-spanning mouse trap where the mice can only be trapped in it at the very end of the game.  The win condition of the game is to avoid the mouse trap as the players*.  This is not the most efficient method to achieve the result.  This is the classic discussion of simplicity and streamlining in game play.  Why have 12 steps in your mechanical process when 2 will do?  

A bigger factor in why mechanics matter is that the mechanics you provide, tell players what inputs and outputs are important to the game.  This will shape how they play the game.  The classic example here is XP in the original red-box Dungeons and Dragons.  You gained XP by killing monsters and getting gold coins.  Therefore, the ultimate expression of the game was killing things and getting loot.  Therefore, players started to look at every encounter from that perspective and the ubiquitous "Murder-Hobo" was the result.  That was the optimal way to be rewarded by the game's mechanics.  The process encourages a specific style of play, whether that was intended or not.  Therefore, a designer must be careful about their process in relation to their Design Goals.     

Since games are more than the sum of their parts, you can not look at mechanics solely as a matter of results and outputs.  The steps that lead up to the results are just as vital.  The supplier, inputs, process, outputs, and user all shape the overall experience of the game, so to ignore one of them in favor of focusing on the Result is folly.  


*= Note: This maybe the stated winning conditions for the game Mouse Trap, but you could argue that it is not the intended Design Goals of the game Mouse Trap.  Win conditions and design goals don't always align! 

Jugs - Available to Patrons

Final Thoughts

So which is it?  Do your mechanics matter?  

Like many things in life, it is not an either/or question.  The Ancient Greeks had an expression called "The Golden Mean".  It was an idea written about by Aristotle, but also was clearly relevant in Greek Myths as well.   

It is clear that both points of view expressed above have utility and value.  The idea of the Golden Mean was to avoid taking any one direction in excess, and instead finding and using the virtues of both sides.  Of course, there is no perfect recipe for this and each designer will need to decide where they and their game fall between these two extremes.

Of course the results matter, but so does the process to get the results.  Some processes are inherently better than others, but the process should not outshine the results.   

"What a non-answer!" I hear you bemoan.  Well, that's life for you.  It rarely is as simple as a clear answer.       

Free Bonus Content! 

So, the Siege Perilous Kill Team campaign is continuing.  This is a Chaos vs. Imperial simple points-based warzone control campaign.  I have been playing with either an Imperial Sisters of Battle team, or a Chaos-aligned Hand of the Archon team.  


This time, my Hand of the Archon took on an Ultramarines force on the DIY city terrain.  It was.... not pretty as I got absolutely smoked this time. I think all of my operatives were killed by Turning Point 3.  Ouch.  


One of the few highlights was my Dark Lance sniping an Ultramarine sniper from a rooftop with one shot.  However, my joy was short-lived as a second Ultramarine just clambered up into the same position and returned fire.  This second sniper remained a thorn in my side for the rest of the battle. 


I managed to grab some objectives early, but some not great dice-rolling plagued me through-out the game.  I think I managed to incapacitate 3 out of the 6 Ultramarines, but that was a hollow victory as I was tabled.  Made some bad choices along the way as well, and my opponent got a well-deserved victory.  

On the plus side, I got the basic starter set for Kill Team so I now have my own widgets, tokens, and barricades.  Woo-hoo me.  That also gives me an Ork and Vet Guard Kill Team, but I am in no hurry to paint them up.  


That battle for Powellington continues, but Chaos has a lead in 3 out of the 5 warzones.  That puts Chaos in a good spot half-way through Turn 1 or the three turn campaign.  Hopefully, my forces can be helpful instead of a hinderance as we go forward! 

Until next time!   


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Monday, March 11, 2024

Battle Report: Fury of the Northman - Looting and Pillaging in Hibernia

 


Greetings faithful readers, and welcome to another Fury of the Northman battle report.  Erik Greybeard and his Victrix Vikings are once again facing off against King Ercc of the Wargames Atlantic Dark Age Irish.  

Mission:
The Vikings will be the attackers as they use the Loot and Pillage scenario against the Irish.  They will be attacking as Dusk Approaches as the complication. 

Forces: 
Since this will be a Loot and Pillage, the Vikings are allowed 10% more points then their Irish foes.  

Erik Greybeard's Vikings:
Nobles
- Shieldwall
- Boar's Head 

Warriors

Warriors
- Shieldwall

Militia
- Shieldwall

Skirmishers



King Ercc:
Warriors
- Heedless Charge
- Throwing Spears

Warband
- Heedless Charge
-Throwing Spears

Skirmishers
- Throwing Spears

Skirmishers
-Throwing Spears

Slingers
-Skirmishers

Slingers
- Skirmisher


Set-up:
Today we are using a 72MU by 48MU board.  1 MU is equal to 1 inch.  

Terrain is set-up per the rules found in the main Fury of the Northman rules and the objectives were set-up using the method outlined in the scenario. 

Square 1-3 is the Viking side, while side 4-6 is the Irish side of the board. 
  • Square 1 = Hill
  • Square 2 = Grove
  • Square 3 = 2- level hill
  • Square 4= Hill
  • Square 5 = Hill
  • Square 6 = Stone walls
Viking deployment

You can see the objectives, spread out in the form of piles of crates/chests or cattle.  They are just outside the Irish deployment zones. 

Irish deployment

I am going to break this report into three broad categories; Maneuver phase, Combat phase, and the End Phase.  I will not be detailing each move and action in detail, but try to cover key moments and decisive points of the battle in each phase.  

Maneuver Phase

Neither side was focused on subtlety or sneaking tricks.  The Irish moved up aggressively to grab their objectives, while Greybeard's Vikings pushed ahead as fast as they could.  


On the Viking side, Erik Greybeard led the attack with his nobles aiming for the center of the Irish lines and the cow on the hill.  It seemed to be only lightly protected by Skirmishers.  Once the Irish had their objectives, they took up defensive positions on hills and within their village.  They seemed content to let the Vikings come to them and were in strong positions, with good fields of fire with their slingers.  



Sensing a trap, the Viking Warriors with Shieldwall formed up.  They saw Irish Slingers lurking about the edges of a forested hill.  This slowed their advance on the Irish farming hamlet. 


Their caution was sensible, as the wily Irish popped out of cover and pelted Erik and his retinue recklessly charging across open ground.  First blood to the Irish as their slingers pelt the oncoming war chief with rocks and reduce them 1 courage.  

As we head into the 4th turn, the field looks like this: 


The Irish right has the Warriors and King Ercc ensconced in the hamlet, protecting two objectives.  The Viking militia and shieldwall oppose them.  The center has the Viking command leading the charge supported by their skirmishers, and their other warrior unit on the flank.  The Irish Slingers have stepped out to launch their attack, but they are exposed.  Behind them, the Skirmishers protect two objectives and the last Slinger unit protects an objective safely up on the top of a two-tiered hill.

Battle Phase
The Irish slingers in the center pepper Greybeard's Nobles with more sling stones.  Fed up, Greybeard and his Nobles charge forward!  However, the Irish fade back from them, leaving them disordered.  The Shieldwall followed their leaders lead, and also ends up tired and disorganized after failing to connect.  Meanwhile, the Irish try to fade away from the Viking assault.


King Ercc sees the spent Vikings ahead of him, and decides now is the time to send the invaders packing.  He charges forward heedlessly with his warriors, throwing their spears as they get stuck in!  The Irish king manages to push the Viking warriors back.  


However, the Vikings ferocity allows them to steal the initiative again, and they continue to push forward.  The Warriors on the Viking right manage to get to their objective, as the Irish skirmishers fade away from their assault.  In the center, Greybeard continues to pursue the Slingers but still can not catch them!  On the left, the Militia march into the Irish village in their shieldwall, daring the Irish to attack.      
Dusk begins to set-in, but the fighting continues to rage.   

The Irish slingers fire up-close and personal on the Viking nobles and continue to sap their courage.  However, the Nobles have gotten too close and crash into the Irish slingers this time.  They easily slaughter the Irish. Meanwhile, the Viking Warriors fight with King Ercc to a stalemate, but the Vikings are on the edge of collapse.  The other Viking warriors get to the loot the Irish were hiding, but fail to find anything of value.   

Irish skirmishers descend form the hills shouting war cries and throwing their spears.  It is too much for Erik Greybeard, and they turn to flee the battle field.  Those damned Irish seem to be everywhere, shooting and throwing spears at them!  



End Phase
The Sun was setting quickly now and it would soon be dark.  

King Ercc managed to drive off the Viking warriors he was fighting with.  However, behind him the Militia managed to loot some cattle.  


Viking skirmishers and warriors make a last ditch attack on the hill in the center, defended by Irish Skirmishers.  However, they are pushed back and the attack repelled, keeping the Irish loot safe.  




With that, the Viking straggle back into the night, their Raid complete. 

Conclusion
The Vikings managed to score and maintain 1 Loot marker for the battle!  They got to a second, but found nothing.  Routed units, the Vikings scored 4 from the Slingers, and the Irish scored 22 from the Viking units!  Wow, losing the Nobles and the Warriors was a big deal!      

Final Scores: 
Irish: 18
Vikings: -14!  

Looks like the Irish manage to win the follow-up encounter.  Their Fabian tactics worked much better in this scenario than the Cattle Raid.  If we reversed the Attacker/Defender I think the Irish would be hard pressed to prevail!   

Erik Greybeard tried to greet his warriors as they slunk back into camp that night.  They were tired, dirty, and hungry.  They grumbled muted responses to him as he hailed them.  They were discontented.  He had managed to feed them when they landed, but the lack of loot and more resistance than they expected left his men grumbling and ready to go home.  Greybeard needed to find a quick win to fill his men's bellies, pockets with gold, and some plunder to take home.  Otherwise, they might just try to settle down here with the Hibernians! 

Hope you enjoyed this battle. 

Bonus Content
I spent a bit of time clearing off some small 6mm pieces on my work desk.  I had a couple of vehicles for my Operation: Hemlock forces for a Horizon Wars-style battle in 6mm.  Plus, I can use a few of these for Aeronautica Imperialis as well.  These are all 3D printed.     

I couldn't precisely recall what colors I used for my initial forces, and therefore my Armored Bassies came-out a bit darker.  However, I recovered in time for the Hydra and Lightnings.  


The bases are just painted, nothing fancy.  I actually kept the Bassies and Hydra removable from the base so they could be lone targets or AA platforms in Aeronautica Imperialis.  I feel pretty good about the Imperial forces, but before the big battle I will need to pivot and make some Ork forces too.    

Until next time!


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Monday, March 4, 2024

On The Painting Desk: Battle of Kadesh - The King Summons Us

 



I am still forging ahead on my Battle of Kadesh armies that go along with me latest "In-Progress" rules set In Strife and Conflict.  This project began in earnest in 2023, but the rules were written for about 5 years now.  Hopefully this is the year I can get all the post-production wrapped up and I can release it to you!  

In addition to releasing it to you, I want to use the Battle of Kadesh as a "Demo Game" for non-wargamers as a way to introduce folks to ancient history AND wargaming.  Therefore, I want to have a good scenario and a fun spectacle game that is easy to set-up and looks great.  To that end I have been building an Egyptian and Hittite force.  The Egyptians are done.  I have been powering away on the Hittites now. 

The Hittite force I have is 6mm miniatures from Baccus.  I am then placing them on 60 x 60mm bases.  When complete this army will have: 

  • 3 Heavy Chariots
  • 3 Light Chariots
  • 1 Auxiliary Infantry with Bow support
  • 1 Auxiliary Infantry
  • 2 Levy Infantry with Bow Support
  • 3 Levy Infantry
  • 2 Archer Units
  • 2 Skirmisher Units with Bows
  • 2 Irregular Units
So far, I have painted the Skirmishers, Irregulars, and Levy units with bows.  That leaves 13 more bases to go!  Next up, I have decided to continue working on the infantry forces.  I have started batch painting the 3 Levy infantry, and 2 Archers units.  Once done, that will leave the more advanced units to finish off the army.   


For the new units, I am following my usual process.  I attached the strips to popsicle sticks with white glue.  I then undercoated them all with a watered down Pavement that is a cheap acrylic from a Big-Box retailer.  Then, I leaned into the batch painting using my standard Armypainter Paints. 


This stage should look pretty familiar!  I then paint the base strips with the same cheap acrylic Territorial Brown so when I base them it makes painting the base much easier.  I then added them to the bases using color-changing spackle.  


Then, I painted the bases with Territorial Brown, Khaki drybrush, and green ink.  The final step is to edge the bases in black.  


Here is an army shot of the Hittite forces so far: 


We have: 

2 Irregular infantry
2 Skirmishers with bows
2 Levy Infantry with Bow support
3 Levy Infantry
2 Archer units

That is 11 of the 19 bases done!  I only have 2 infantry units and 6 chariot bases left to paint.  This army is officially half-way done now! Here they are on the march to Kadesh to support their King:


The skirmishers take the lead and scout out the pass before the rest of the army marches through.

That has not been the only movement on the project!  My friend, Kelly Watson; made a really cool 3D printable Bronze Age city to act as Kadesh on my tabletop.  Kudos to him for his amazing work!  This can be based on a CD for easy basing.  


It is modular and expandable as well.  So I can add in more gate sections, or make it more oblong.  Kelly is planning on making these STLs available for sale.  I will let you know where you can find them when they are available.  That way you can have your own walled city too! 


More progress on the Battle of Kadesh.  I am hoping to get this project wrapped up before the mid-year point.  So far, things are looking really good!  I can't wait to take the scenario out for a full test-drive! 

Until next time!          


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Monday, February 26, 2024

Review: Heroquest - Avalon Hill/Hasbro Plus

 

For Christmas this year I got this nostalgia-bait.  I had this when I was a younger person, and played the heck out of it.  I also used my existing D&D and WHFB minis to expand the heck out of it.  You could say, it was the first game I actually heavily modified as a budding wargame designer!  New enemies, new heroes, and new magic!  I also used it as a gateway to suck a lot of folks into RPGs and Wargaming back then.  Mwahahahahahahaha! 

Therefore, when it came back out I knew I would eventually get it.  Lo and behold, here it is!  One of my big projects for this year will be to get this bad boy painted up so I can use it to corrupt more people into wargaming!  So, let's dig in and take a look at what is in the box.  


Right off the bat I can tell you that this box is much thicker than the original game!  Despite the thickness the contents look surprisingly similar.  A nice fold-out board with that all too familiar lay-out,  Two trays of miniature components.  A single sheet with some punch-out tokens and the Zargon screen.  Finally, it has a slim rulebook and a Questbook.  

Inside the Miniature Trays you will find all the familiar furniture from the first game, all the cards, and the character sheets.  The other has the dice and the miniatures.  No doubt the miniatures in this game are top-notch and better looking than the originals.  They definitely style them differently than the GW predecessors.  The Fimir is replaced by an "Abomination".  The Orcs and Goblins also look like they have three different sculpts of each as well!  It seems as if the term Chaos is also replaced with "Dread" instead, i.e. Dread Warriors, Dread Spells, etc.  The Zombies have two poses.  For dice you get 6 proprietary "skull" dice and two red, standard 6-sided dice. 



The minis themselves seem to be made of a hard plastic material and are of good quality.  They have some flex to avoid breakage, but do not seem brittle.  The furniture and models seem to have a good "bulk" or heftiness too them to help stay in place.  The models are a little bit harder to pull out of the trays than I would like.  After painting, I will need some alternative packaging.  Too bad as I like the cool Heroquest sleeves for the model trays.     

So, with the contents being "unboxed" let's go to the rulebook!


Things I Liked

The rulebook is a small glossy book that is 22 pages long!  Nice, simple and quick.  Perfect for newbies to wargames, dungeon delving, or RPGs.   

Characters can either perform an action (fight, cast a spell, search, etc.) and move.  They can do this in any order they wish.  Opening doors or looking down corridors is not an action.  There are handy little cards that describe the sequence of events to play.  

The game uses opposed rolls.  Defenders can use successes to neutralize the Attackers successes.  The number of dice rolled by heroes is based on their equipment.  Some weapons also have simple special abilities making the load-out relevant in the game.  

When you search a room, you draw a card from the Treasure pile.  However, half of the cards are traps or wandering monsters!  These bad things can immediately attack or impact the searcher.  Therefore, if you are injured you may not wish to search and instead focus on escape.  


Things I Do Not Like

I had forgotten that this game used randomized movement!  I would just give each character a standard move rate.  This is an easy way to differentiate the heroes further than their basic stats.  

This game also makes use of Proprietary Dice with symbols.  I am not a fan of that.  

The game really should have a very simple and rudimentary experience system for hero models to "level-up".  That way if a hero dies there are a bit more stakes to their loss.  Losing their equipment can be tough if a monster gets it first, but there is a good chance that a Hero will recover it instead.  

You run out of reasons to use gold pretty fast.  Once you have the best gear, there is not much else to spend gold on. 


Meh and Other Uncertainties

The game has secret doors and a variety of trap types.  Their are different ways to the type of traps impact the game.  Pits can cause injury and modifiers, block traps can block access, and spears cause injury. 

Each hero has a bit of a niche in the party.  The Barbarian deals the most damage and can take the most.  The Dwarf is a strong fighter but is best at disarming traps.  The elf can cast 1 deck of spells.  The Wizard is the weakest but has the most magic.  

There are 14 quests in the quest book and they are linked in a series.  The higher the quest, the more difficult it is.  Artifacts from one quest maybe necessary for the next quest to be completed successfully.  In addition, the game encourages you to create your own quests as well.  



Final Thoughts

I think Heroquest has two great strengths.  The first is its relative simplicity.  It is easy to get people playing quickly and introduce some basic concepts of wargaming and RPG.  This simplicity leads into its second strength, it is incredibly versatile and expandable!  It gives the player a good, basic framework to add all sorts of details to the game.  You can stack or create all sorts of chrome to tack onto this basic framework.  

I could see myself creating some "Custom" Quests using existing models in my collection, or generic ones that are easily sourced like Lizard Men, Gnolls, and the like.  I could even see myself creating some "Quest Packs" and putting them out into the world for others.  I could see a fun Frankenstein's Castle themed game as an example.  Hasbro/Avalon Hill has all ready done this themselves as there are a number of expansions all ready available for the game on their website.  Looks like there are 7 Quest Packs and at least 1 Hero expansion all ready!  

With all of that said, this is best purchased for either a Nostalgia buy OR as a Gateway drug.  The mechanics will not hold up to more advanced Dungeon-Crawler games. It can't compete in tactical challenge like  true wargame.  It can't deliver the experience of a true RPG.  However, as a good introduction game, with a family, or a small-group of non-gamer friends; you can have a blast!  With new scenarios and adding homebrew concepts in you can keep this game fresh for a long time. 

Now, time for me to get painting! 



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Monday, February 19, 2024

Wargame Design: Managing Criticism

 


Congratulations!  Your first (second, third, fourth, etc.) game is out into the world!  You went through all the steps of the process, play-tested it, finished it, did the post-production work, and now it is out in the wild and people are playing it!  If you are like me, this process has taken 2-5 years of your time.  However, you are now a wargame designer!  

I hope you are ready for the hard part.  People are not going to like your game, and they won't be afraid to tell you about it.  Some of this feedback is more helpful than others and you can learn from it for your next game.  Typically, it falls back into the following categories: 

  1. None at All
  2. Not Helpful
  3. Misalignment
  4. A Gift
None at All
Perhaps the most ominous type of feedback when you publish your game is None at All.  There is radio silence and no one is talking about it in any meaningful way.  That means, you did not even get someone interested enough to comment.  Perhaps the most damning, the most frustrating, and the most useless form of feedback.  As the Wargame Designer, you have no idea where the disconnect occurred and no one is engaging enough to tell you!  That makes it really hard to do better next time, is it the rules, the distribution model, the way you advertised?  You just don't know.    

Not Helpful
Some of my favorite and most colorful feedback falls into this category.  I actually printed out and posted this feedback on my work space wall because I loved it so much.  It comes from an Amazon review.


Absolutely love this review.  I am glad 4 people found it helpful to them.  I mostly keep it because it makes me laugh.  

However, the review itself doesn't give me anything to work with and no real feedback that I can actively go back and work with to make a ruleset better.  The only thought I had after reading this was, "If they though it was a waste of paper, they should have gotten the e-publication instead?"  The feedback I took was to start publishing more content electronically, after all I wouldn't want to waste paper.  

A lot of feedback you get will fall into this unhelpful category.  They will say things like, "It's trash" or "It sucks".  That doesn't give you anywhere to go with it, and follow-up questions would be needed to find out what the actual issue was.  On the other side, positive feedback can fall into the same category.  Saying a game is "Great" or "Perfect" doesn't help out much either.  However, it does feel much better than the other side of the coin!     



Misalignment
This is the most common source of feedback and criticism that you will find.  There is a simple misalignment between what your customer was looking for and what you delivered.  This is a very broad category and has a number of sub-categories.  
  1. POV
  2. Wants
  3. Expectations
A misalignment on POV simply means that the assumptions you made about warfare of the period or the setting do not align with what your customers POV is.  You may think that in your game it is Vietnam in Space.  Meanwhile, your players wanted Space Opera.  You may think that defined battle lines were less important, and that they were more fluid than traditionally thought, but your player disagrees with your assumptions.  This misalignment around what the rules should do leads to dissatisfaction with the game.  

A misalignment on Wants is similar.  Basically, it is a disagreement about taste and preference.  They wanted a crunch game, but you delivered a simple game.  They wanted 20 different unit types, while you simplified it into 5 broad categories.  They like a One Roll to Rule them All, but you used Dice Pools.  This misalignment around how the game is structured or built leads to feedback or criticism of the system.  

The last misalignment is around Expectations.  They player wanted something with a hard, defined time scale and you do not have that.  They expected to highlight armor, when the game you delivered focuses on infantry.  The player read your blurb and expected model-vs-model but got unit-vs-unit.  Essentially, the player had built up how they wanted the game to be, but you had other ideas.  This happens a surprising amount of times.

These misalignments are the number 1 driver of critique and feedback about your game.  These can be mined for useful ideas and thoughts to help you create a better, and different product next time.  

A Gift
The final form of feedback or critique you will receive is The Gift.  This is the rarest, and it is almost like catching a unicorn!  A Gift is feedback that helps you as the designer make your next game better. It is specific, clear, actionable and aligns with your own goals and objectives as a designer.  This is often very simple and specific things you can do and implement in your work for next time.  



A Case Study
It is no secret that Men of Bronze received a decent amount of feedback and criticism upon its release.  I was grateful that enough people tired it out to even give me this feedback!  There were four primary sticking points: 

1. It was not clear on how to use different scales and multi-based units
2. The abstractions were not to everyone's liking
3. Models could charge too far
4. The support rules did not make sense to players

So, let's dg into these critiques and see where they fall into the matrix of critique?  

1. Unclear how to be Scale and Model-agnostic     
This tended to fall into pretty reasonable discussion and I rated this as "A Gift".  I was able to rectify this with some simple clarifications in the FAQ on the blog, in Hercules Abroad the supplement, on the Message Board, and was incorporated into writing Wars of the Republic.  This feedback made future games better, and the verbiage has been an easy port into all my other MoB-centric systems. 

2. The abstractions were not to everyone's liking
This critique came in a number of varieties.  Some people simply hated that I put in a quick blurb using 10 models in 28mm for a unit.  This really got under people's skin, and their reaction was to often call the whole thing trash from that one sentence.  Of course, I have seen people play the game with units of 50+ models in 28mm too.  However, this one sentence sent some of the critiques into the Not Helpful territory.  

The majority of criticism on the abstractions were simple misalignment.  They had certain assumptions about how you should use figure/distance scales to represent space and unit size.  This was not that type of ruleset.  Others believed that the fundamental idea of "bathtubbing" or small forces for big battles wasn't what they wanted to play.  Others were unsure if this was a model-vs-model or a Unit-vs-unit game and came expecting one or the other.  

Some of the criticism that came in fell into the Gift category.  They had a clear understanding of what I was trying to do, and were able to give me tips and tricks to do it better.  

Therefore, when I wrote Wars of the Republic I spent more time and words to be intentional with explaining the abstractions.  This seems to have been successful, as commenters have been much more satisfied with the overall rule than with Men of Bronze.  I was able to carry this over into other games as well. 



3. Models could charge too far 
This was simple, straight forward criticism that fell into the Gift category.  It was easy to make an adjustment in this category in the FAQ and in future works.  I also tend now to give cavalry and mounted units a better charge, pursue, and evade distance than models on foot as well.   

4. Support rules did not make sense to players 
Most of the criticism here fell into the Misalignment side of the equation.  Folks with a strong Historical background had certain "expectations" of how supporting worked in a game.  Most of the decision-making of support came in the deployment phase and was not part of the actual gameplay.  Men of Bronze wanted supporting to be an active choice with risk and reward, and therefore had some big consequences that could leave holes in your battle line if you chose to do it.  In addition, you could incur greater losses if you gambled and failed.  

Ultimately, the criticism that explained the why behind the misalignment moved the criticism from a Misalignment to A Gift.  Then I was able to understand what they were looking for, and integrate some of that expectation and the decision-making I wanted around support into the rules for future games.  Indeed, Wars of the Republic is seen to have superior support rules than Men of Bronze.  I was still able to keep the decision-making aspect I wanted, but also incorporate or streamline the confusion players had by removing some of the less-popular aspects of supporting.  Now, these types of rules have become staples again in my game design for MoB-inspired sets.   


Final Thoughts
Many of the readers of this blog are or want to be miniature wargame designers.  Thankfully, it is easier now than ever.  All you need to do is complete a game and get it out into the public space for people to play it.  However, that is not the end of the cycle.  

Once your game is alive and in the public space, you can expect to get criticism and feedback for your work.  Learning how to deal with this feedback is critical if you want to continue writing miniature wargame rules.  Some of the criticism will be useless to you, most will be a misalignment between your Design Goals and the wants/needs of the player, and the last is very useful information that can help you be a better designer in the future.  

Take these gifts of feedback, and use it.  It will make you a better designer in the long run.  

Until next time! 


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