Wargaming Small Wars (merged thread)

[AmericanPride]

I think I'm simply going to have US leaders labelled with "American" ethnicity, with a few and far between exceptions among some of the diplomatic, aid, and contractor staff. I don't know yet what the penalty will be, however. I'm thinking a penalty in unit/leader survivability and an increase chance for the UI of a played card in that province.

[Rex Brynen]

What's the intended audience? Is the boardgame for hobbyists, educational uses, or other purposes?

Mike Markowitz's presentation at the NDU gaming roundtable today was about developing an operational-level Afghanistan boardgame for the TRADOC Analysis Center (that also interfaced with tactical, digital sims). The audio and slides may be up later at NDU CASL, but you'll find some detail in Brant's live blog of the event at Grog News (and a little discussion at PAXsims too).

[AmericanPride]

What's the intended audience? Is the boardgame for hobbyists, educational uses, or other purposes?

Mike Markowitz's presentation at the NDU gaming roundtable today was about developing an operational-level Afghanistan boardgame for the TRADOC Analysis Center (that also interfaced with tactical, digital sims). The audio and slides may be up later at NDU CASL, but you'll find some detail in Brant's live blog of the event at Grog News (and a little discussion at PAXsims too).

Thanks for sharing the links. I'm of the general opinion that context determines everything, and so my focus is on developing a strategic-policy level game. I have not thought much about the audience, though it's definitely not the way families are going to want to spend their Friday nights.

[Rex Brynen]

Thanks for sharing the links. I'm of the general opinion that context determines everything, and so my focus is on developing a strategic-policy level game. I have not thought much about the audience, though it's definitely not the way families are going to want to spend their Friday nights.

Brant is the one with the commercial wargame experience here, but my advice would be start with the audience--everything else flows from that. Who is going to play it? Hobbyists/boardgamers? Professionals/policy types?

[Steve Blair]

Brant is the one with the commercial wargame experience here, but my advice would be start with the audience--everything else flows from that. Who is going to play it? Hobbyists/boardgamers? Professionals/policy types?

I've dabbled some (not to Brant's degree to be sure) and can only strongly second this comment. Audience is everything. A game intended for a casual audience can have much less detail than one intended for a professional audience. Context is important, don't get me wrong, but your audience determines the amount of detail you put into that context.

[BayonetBrant]

I've started a page at GrogNews to collect info on COIN wargaming

I've love input from folks on articles / links that should be there.

Thanks!

http://grognews.blogspot.com/p/coin-wargaming.html

[AmericanPride]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I started the game design with what I would consider enjoyable; so I assume a professional/academic audience. I intend to let the play-test phase determine the level of detail.