PASSCAR - Test Drive

I have a workable first draft to my NASCAR themed, compact, grid based (war) game.  Below are some quick pictures showing just how compact it is.  What you don't see in the pictures is a separate page of notes describing driver/car skills, current focus points (bonuses), and wear points for each car.  In the future, I will likely design information sheets for each car, hopefully playing card size, to replace the notebook. 

Table Space Requirement about 6"x12" grid and one sheet of paper

The game played pretty well.  I set it up a few times for some of the more complex decisions.  Sometimes the AI doesn't act like I want it to, but it did OK for a first run.  The player controlled decisions seemed interesting but not paralyzing, a good sign.  Because I didn't play a whole game end-to-end, but set up small vignettes of potential situations, I didn't get a good feel of how the narrative aspects would play out.  

Down the Front Straight

Close-up of Lead Pack

The cars still need some work.  I haven't decided how I'm going to handle the windshield/glass painting.  I have a sky blue and the gray on the gray/blue car.  I've tried mixing them, but the gray is a better brand of paint and overpowers the blue the point that it is barely distinguishable from the natural gray at concentrations of only 10%. I also have vinyl stickers cut out for numbers and simple sponsor logos to put on the back of each car.  It doesn't impact the game at all, but gets players a little more invested in their car's success.   

PASSCAR - Mechanics to Keep

I have been re-reading Charioteer by Two Hour Wargames to calcify which ideas/mechanics I want to keep and which need alteration to meet my needs/desires.  The list has of things to change unfortunately has core mechanics on it, forcing more of a complete re-write than a re-skin that I was originally planning.  Below are some initial thoughts on mechanics that I will likely incorporate into my new THW inspired game.  

Focus on the lead pack.

Unlike many race games with massive boards and players moving pieces through each lap, PASSCAR (working title) and its THW Charioteer inspiration focus on racing within a pack.  Instead of seeing the whole track, the action is focused on the cars competing for the lead.  This keeps all players in the race all the way to the end, a critique of many popular racing games.  By focusing only on the lead pack, required table space is also reduced.  

Ability to manage reserve of bonuses.

A significant portion of stock car racing is knowing when to push the car and driver to their max and knowing when to conserve, fuel, driver fatigue, and tire condition.  PASSCAR will handle this by allowing players to earn bonuses by driving less aggressively and save them until they are critical.  There will be situations which force players to use all of their bonuses, so saving them too long increases the risk of losing them without their benefit. I enjoy a good "push your luck" game and the ability to save bonuses for the optimal moment is something not common to the more traditional wargames I've played.  

Bare minimum tables to read.

If I want to ever convince my wife/friends to play, its going to need to feel more like a board game than a war game.  My wife is almost immediately turned off by games with a host of modifiers, results tables, or required rules references.  She wants to be able to learn the rules and then leave them in the box.  This is a very reasonable preference.  We play games to decompress and the last thing we want is to get hung-up interpreting rules instead of playing the game.

Streamlined Play.

For reasons specified above, play needs to progress logically with as few different mechanics as possible.  I have used "Roll 2D6, add modifiers, read results" before and it seems to work well enough as long as the possible result categories are relatively consistent.  I plan to separate results into five categories with modified results of 2-4 being very bad, 5-6 being bad, 7 being neutral, 8-9 being good, and 10+ being very good.  

Potential paint schemes for initial batch of cars

A Different New Project

 The Portable Colonial Wargame project never really got off the ground.  I didn't get units printed before we left LA and it took a long time to get the 3D printer set up at the new house, parenting/work really took off, and I had a lot of designing to do before playing (and still didn't have a real-life opponent).  I had several uniform/head combinations for European forces, but didn't get any terrain,the sword-bearing, or non-uniformed troops done. 

Before leaving LA, I made a quick mock-up of pieces for Two Hour Wargame's Charioteer, which I got printed and primed just in time to move.  I painted them roughly and played a few games.  It plays really well, but of course I wanted to make some tweaks.  The first significant tweak is changing it from chariot racing in the Roman Empire to American Stock Car Racing.  It is just a more approachable theme for the people I'm more likely to play with.  

I also feel a need to tweak some of the mechanics.  The key engine is picking up several dice and determining successes based on a 4+.  Any bonuses earned are implemented by giving the player another dice to roll.  Since each dice has a 50% chance of success, calculating how many dice a player needs to roll to defeat an AI opponent is very easy.  I found myself calculating odds instead of just trying to play.  I do a lot of math work at work and want to be able to turn off that part of my brain while playing so I need to do something to address the ease of calculating results.  I've set upon converting the primary mechanic from buckets of dice to 2D6 with a minimum of modifiers.  I think I've kept the intent of Charioteer, albeit with a more modern feel and hopefully lower dice count and more unpredictability.  

Charioteer's AI will require some minor modifications to suit stock car racing.  This involves fleshing out the AI to let it consider how much damage it has sustained and its relative strength compared to it opponent before spending a majority of its bonus on a foregone conclusion or throwing most of its fortunes in hopeless situations.  This will allow it to be more aggressive when it sees an advantage, but preserve itself to limp back to the pits if necessary.

I have also been designing simple models to play with.  Below are some mockups.  They paint fairly quickly, but the pillars around the windshield are a little tricky and making any sort of design other than the roof and body being different is beyond my skill.  I cannot seem to get a straight line to save my life.  Luckily for me, numbers will be provided via my wife's Cricut machine.   

Colonial Progress

Inspired by my recent purchase of Bob Cordery's The Portable Colonial Wargame, I have updated my colonial range.  Below are some images of prototype models.  I haven't quite given up on my own colonial rules but, I want these miniatures to be able to support both PCW games and my prototype ruleset. Before leaving LA, I did some test prints of the British infantry and some more complicated cavalry units with wide brimmed hats (not pictured).  The test prints were successful and paintable with my terrible skills as small as 18mm. 
My colonial rules are progressing. I have determined that I will be using an activation mechanic.  Units will roll 2D6, gaining 1 action with a modified roll of 7+ and 2 actions with a modified roll of 10+.  A modified roll of 6 or less results in that player's turn ending.  Actions like moving into easy terrain, firing, and charging will cost 1 action and difficult actions will cost 2.  When using this mechanic, players will not know how many units they will get to activate during their own turn and should make the game easier for me to play solo. 

  

The family and I have had an interesting few months since my last post.  In my last post, we were living in Los Angeles and searching for a house to buy in Virginia.  We were supposed to have six weeks of training in Alabama between leaving LA and arriving in Virginia.  We went house hunting in late January and had plans to continue the hunt if needed the first two weeks of March.  This would give us enough time to do the administrative actions and take position by 24 April when I would complete my training and arrive in Virginia.  

Four days into my training (Friday 13 March for the superstitious), it was canceled due to the impending threat of COVID-19.  My classmates all departed to their home stations, but having left my prior assignment in LA and returned our apartment to the landlord, I suddenly found myself in need of housing.  We arrived in Virginia 15 March and stayed at the base hotel.  Monday we started the search for any house or apartment available for immediate occupancy.  We signed a lease for a house on the 20th and our household goods were dropped off on 30 March.  We are now setting up our new house while I telework, leading a team of 17, having met only two of the team members.  We are all healthy and as soon as I get unpacked, I'm looking forward to getting some games in.  

Bad Time for a New Project

It has been pretty quiet around here recently.  Life has been pretty busy as a new dad.  Both my wife and I work full-time jobs so there just hasn't been much time to get away from things for enough time to set up and play a wargame, even a quick playing one.  To make matters worse, I need to be preparing to move across the country in March for my job.  We still don't have a house secured at our next location, my wife's car needs replaced, and we haven't started packing yet.  Then one day I got a message about some miniatures I had designed and posted months ago.  A gentleman reached out to me and ask if I could revamp my Napoleonic models to fit the US Civil War.
This reignited my inspiration to expand my wargaming, both played and designed.  Most of my inspiration seems to come from 3D modeling my own custom miniatures.  I've developed US Civil War Union soldiers, French Foreign Legion, British pith helmet, British Naval Brigade, and a late look shako for the more organized forces.  The less professional armies currently have flowing robes and turban infantry (in both firearm and melee versions), and fez wearing professional troops.  The new models are far more lifelike than my previous efforts.  The previous generation of my models were cylindrical with spherical heads.  The new models have more squared shoulders, egg shaped heads, and more posable arms.  I have also expanded the line to having models carrying rifles on the shoulder as well as resting on the ground.  Now I need a good ruleset to use.
This time I want to move away from the grand battles to something more skirmish like. I've read Colonial Wargaming by Two Hour Wargames and found it very interesting.  I prefer something gridded to minimize fiddliness and keep the game moving.  I really do like the PEF mechanics and the programmed enemy reactions, but think I'd have a hard time keeping the game moving.  I also read The Men Who Would Be Kings and The Sword and the Flame, both of which seem to be the industry standard for 19th Century skirmishes.  Both of these systems are free movement, individually based, result in throwing buckets of dice, and rely heavily on formations, all of which I don't find very compelling. So during my lunch breaks at work, I've been adapting my 18th Century rules to mid 19th Century rules. Professional units will have appointed officers which make the units they are attached to easier to control and will hopefully provide some narrative elements. I will still continue to have most dice rolls be decided by 2D6 with a few modifiers.  To keep things from getting too predictive total modifications to the dice roll will be capped at +/-3.  Units will have a base statistics for shooting, melee, and movement as in the 18th Century rules.  I may add an activation mechanic that would force players to risk their turn ending with each attempted activation.  I do need to work on balancing units.  My initial assumption is that regulars are the default (no modifiers to melee or shooting).  Sharpshooters would be +1 shooting and -1 melee and unaffected by difficult terrain.  Unprofessional troops shoot as well as professional troops, but have a -1 modifier to melee.  Cavalry and artillery will be rare.  Cavalry will move 1.5x infantry movement, have no shooting ability and a +1 melee modifier.  I don't know how I will handle artillery, but I think each unit on the board will represent a single gun.  It will obviously have a significant range, but I don't know if it should be able to fire as frequently as infantry or what its power relative to infantry should be. 
I'm greatly appreciative of any thoughts and/or feedback. 

US Civil War Range

. 

Updated 18th Century/GNW/WSS

I’ve been designing improved, but still very low detail, 18^th century models for 3D printing.  They are pictured below.  I’m planning on having the range approximate the first quarter of the 18^th century.  This should allow me to play the Great Northern War and War of Spanish Succession, as well as having some fun with in Imagi-Nation I’ve been thinking about recently.  Computer renderings of the models are shown in color at the end of the post.  I’ve successfully printed these at 13mm to eye line or 15mm to the top of the head.  They came out as acceptable and passable from a distance, but I don’t know how well they’d paint up.  The cuffs and raised section of the tricorne trim disappeared in the printing process.  I also don’t know how I’d paint them.  I don’t think I have the brush skills or the desire to develop them.  I’d rather play games than paint.  I’m going to try printing them at 18mm (16mm eye line) or even 20mm to the top of the head (18mm eye line).  The models I use now are roughly 18mm to eye line, so I know I can paint at that scale.  I also need to make artillery figures and sabres for proper cavalry to wield. 

I’ve also cracked open my ruleset and am trying to incorporate some of my own criticism.  I want there to be some method to limit a general’s ability to execute their plan, but it needs to feel realistic.  My current activation system is a little clunky for two players not good for solo play.  Currently, both players roll 2D6 and modify for commander’s qualities.  The modified score is used to assign activation points.  Players then spend these action points to give commands to their unit.  Units close to the commander cost 1 activation point to activate while units beyond 3 tiles cost 2 points to activate. 

Although this process creates plenty of situations where a player cannot do all the things they wish to do, knowing just how many things a player can do feels too gamey to me and breaks the immersion.  The process also creates a situation where a regimental officer must wait for his commander’s order to fire on a target. For example, a player could very easily have his force arrayed in a perfect line with the commander protected, but not receive enough activation points for all troops to fire.

I’ve been tossing around an idea in my head that I might use for my next game.  Before attempting to activate a unit, players roll 2D6, if the value is greater than the commander’s control number, the unit activates as desired.  If the modified roll is not greater than the commander’s control number, that unit does not activate and the player’s turn is over.  Modifiers would be based on the army’s morale and the difficulty of the maneuver being asked of the unit.  Therefore, an elite unit ordered to fix bayonets and charge would suffer less modifiers than a unit of conscripts with the same order.  Positive modifiers would be given to troops ordered to fire volleys or move into areas outside of enemy range.  I think this methodology satisfies the criteria of limiting a player’s ability to execute a plan perfectly while providing a thematically plausible explanation.  I am worried that the new methodology will slow the game to an unfulfilling pace. 

Only a play-test will tell. 

Jumping on the Bandwagon

It's been a while since I've posted on here, but I promise I have a decent reason.  My wife and I welcomed our first child, a daughter, on April 24th.  My employer offers a very generous 3 weeks of paternity leave, so I've been reading everyone's blogs and getting inspired to play a few games.  It seems that Simplicity in Hexes has been exploding in popularity the past few weeks due to a linked campaign crafted by "Old Trousers" of Numbers, Wargames and Arsing About.  Having a mostly painted generic 18th Century Army in red and blue and a hexed board of 8x9, I convinced my lovely wife to play the first game of the campaign.  Having read many blog posts, I decided to start under the assumption that units could be adjacent without charging per the recommendations of Kaptain Kobold.
She selected the blue army, leaving me with the red.  We both rolled up a force with 4 units of regular infantry and a field battery.  She fielded a dragoon regiment and I brought a regiment of horse.  She elected to designate one of the infantry regiments as elite and her dragoons were allowed to take the +1 charging national bonus.  I designated the cavalry regiment as elite and they also received the +1 when defending against cavalry national bonus. 
Unfortunately there are no pictures of the action, but I will do my best to give a brief recap and explain my thoughts of Simplicity in Hexes.  The game opened with two of my infantry regiments on the hill facing the full strength of my wife's forces.  She positioned her artillery in the middle of her infantry line with the dragoons on her left flank.  Luckily, she did not inflict any damage on the first turn, due to unfortunate dice rolling, and repositioning the right flank.  In error, the remainder of my forces joined the fray from the woods.  This allowed my heavy cavalry to fall on the flank regiment of her line causing two hits.  My infantry was not able to finish off her rightmost regiment due to the rule requiring units to fire at the closest unit.   
Over the next few turns I attempted to roll up her line with infantry units firing volleys and the guard cavalry crashing into the flanks.  A few bad rolls later and my elite heavy horse was down to 3 strength points, making their charges much less likely to cause significant damage.  While my strategy faltered, the blue army continued its frontal assault on the hill.
We did not count the hill as difficult terrain, certainly to my wife's (blue) advantage.  She was able to wear down my two hilltop regiments with repeated dragoon charges, volley fire from two regiments, and battery support.  She eventually captured the hill, moving the dragoons, battery, and a full strength regiment onto the objective. With 8 strength points remaining for each side and a baby waking up from a nap, the game was called as a victory for blue. 
Simplicity in Hexes is a great introductory game.  Being mostly a boardgamer, my wife despises rulesets peppered with "If x, then y, except for z" and dreaded modifiers, especially if math is involved.  We were able to finish the scenario in about an hour with minimal headache.  She even said that we might be able to play again in the future.  I thought the rules live up to their simplicity moniker well, possible too well.  I would like to see downhill melee given an advantage over an opponent attacking uphill, generals impacting ability/resolve, and ranged combat deteriorate as well as melee combat.  I also prefer systems where players roll more than one dice as it creates a somewhat normal distribution.  I did like that units cannot pivot on a dime in their cells, but I think adding a pivot before moving and another upon entering a cell would allow more maneuverability.  I also really liked the rule that requires units to fire at the closest enemy unit.  This rule feels very real, even though it reduces the number of decisions to be made.  I'll definitely be playing Simplicity in Hexes again.  I'm very grateful to the community for writing these simple storyline campaigns.  It's really interesting to see everyone's take on the same prompt.