J'ai joue ma seconde partie du tournoi interne de FOG-R lundi dernier. Je me suis bien amuse, et mon adversaire egalement. Cependant, je sentais que quelque chose n'allait pas. Rien a voir avec les regles ou mon adversaire, mais lorsque je suis rentre a la maison, j'ai eu le temps de regarder mes mails et Richard avait deja poste 2-3 phrases de resume. Et la, revelation! Ce qu'il avait ecrit m'apparaissait bien plus interessant que la bataille en elle-meme.
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| Because you need a teaser ;) |
Indeed, I think I'm beginning to be a bit fed-up of pick-up games, with pitched battles using only points from a ruleset. I know it's the most convenient way of actually playing a game, because you'll always find people who do the same. And let's be honest, after a full week of hard-work, you just want sometimes to sit at a table, drink a beer and play with your mates. So if you can find someone to play with easily, using a points-designed army, ok then.
Je crois tout simplement que je commence a me lasser des batailles arrangees a coup de listes d'armees. Je reconnais leur aspect pratique, surtout apres une semaine de boulot, quand on a envie de s'amuser avec des potes, quoi de plus facile. Et oui, ca fait du bien de jouer.
But I feel it's not that interesting. In fact, when I was in Paris, I had started a 1944 Normandy campaign for the club: they were choosing the places of the attacks, with the troops leading it, and I designed the scenarios, which were always unbalanced! And we had a lot of fun, especially when the outnumbered camp was actually winning. Oh, yes, that was good. But I has to stop it because my daughter was born and I then didn't have time to spare. Shame.
Mais je ne toruve plus cela aussi interessant. En fait, quand j'etais encore a Paris, j'avais commence une campagne Normandie 1944 pour le club: les joueurs decidaient des axes d'attaques et des troupes en pointe, et je creais les scenarios, qui etaient bien evidemment desiquilibres. Et franchement c'etait souvent la grosse poilade, surtout quand le camp en inferiorite etait en train de gagner. Il est regrettable pour moi de l'avoir stoppee, mais la naissance de ma fille dut y mettre un terme car je n'avais plus le temps de m'en occuper.
Then we started a Punic Wars campaign around the Mediterranean Sea, using the Art de la guerre rules, and we had a blast for a couple of turns: we had random events, some political decisions to make, and of course unbalanced battles! The game umpite had also designed a way of "micro-managing" our armies. We had a pool of different units, based on the army lists, and after each battle, if they had routed, they were definitely lost. We then needed to attack regions, hoping to subdue them to get some more auxiliaries for example. I remember seeing the Macedonian player beginning to feel very nervous because he had lost almost all his medium troups, and needed to get some more, and so invaded Thracia... Yes, those campaigns were good. And we also had a way of promoting the generals, and my good, as a Carthaginian player, I was lucky, with lots of promoted generals.
Puis nous avions commence une campagne guerre punique en Mediterranee avec la regle Art de la guerre. ET franchement, la encore, grosse poilade: evenements aleatoires, decisions politiques et surtout batailles inegales! Le maitre de jeu avait egalement creer un systeme de gestion des troupes, base sur les listes, et apres chaque bataille, les unites ayant deroute etaient perdues. Il nous fallait alors attaquer des regions pour esperer recuperer des auxiliaires. Je me souviens du joueur macedonien qui avait perdu pratiquement toutes ses troupes moyennes, et qui, pour se recompleter, avait du s'attaquer a la Thrace. Nous avions egalement un systeme de promotion des generaux, et en tant que joueur carthaginois, j'avais eu un bol phenomenal, tous me generaux etant devenus au minimum competents!
So to sum it up, I'm not against points based battles, because it's always nice to find someone to play with, but I think it's time for me to start thinking about scenarios and/or campaigns to keep me motivated. Maybe another project...
Bref, si je dois resumer, je ne suis pas contre jouer de temps en temps une partie a budget egal, surtout pour passer du bon temps, mais je pense qu'il est temps pour moi de commencer a penser a des scenarios/ campagnes pour me motiver. Peut-etre de nouveaux projets.
I agree, campaigns are more fun, more planning and shenanigans.
ReplyDeleteYep I agree totally, we never play points system games, everything seems too wooden that way. Campaign whether large or small are great and so are the one off games we have at Reject HQ.
ReplyDeleteLe principal est que tu t'amuses, après tes idées de campagnes sont excellentes et de toute façon rare sont les batailles qui étaient égales de chaque coté -et rare sont les jeux comme OPEX qui assument cette asymétrie-
ReplyDeleteI think most wargamers come to the point where they need that fresh spark. Mostly it does come from campaigns or historical battles
ReplyDeleteIan
Campaign. We worked up a FoG campaign a while back and our crowd was playing FoG much more actively with it. Unfortunately, running the campaign was very time consuming so we only managed it once.
ReplyDeleteWe have a Maurice campaign going and players are chomping at the bit to get their campaign games in. The campaign gives you a narrative and energy that isn't there in a one off. Let us know how you resolve this thorny problem!
I only play once in a blue moon but when I used to be in a club the senario games were always more fun the best ever comp was a pairs when their were two identical tables and the forces were very uneven (think Brits at Rorkes drift) and the pairs played against another pair on one table you would be side A while your partner is side B the scores were then added together. This meant that if you were the smaller force it was all about how narrow your loss could be while your partner was trying to win big
ReplyDeletec'est clair que les campagnes avec des budgets inégaux sont plus intéressantes que des parties à budgets égaux
ReplyDeleteAh les campagnes c'est chouette ! Si tu es un boucher, tu crame toutes tes troupes dès le premier affrontement et tu en bave ensuite... Par contre, si tu es soucieux de tes hommes c'est ton adversaire qui risque d'en baver... Après il y a la solution du scénario historique où souvent un des camp avait l'avantage numérique et ... se prenait la raclée ! En tous cas c'est une excellente "remise en question" ; il en faut car elles nous font avancer ;)
ReplyDeleteYou raise a good point, and this has come up in my group recently too... whilst we enjoy out games of FoW at the mo', it would be nice if they were contributing to a bigger picture... and that's were an easily run campaign or series of linked battles comes in, ... if you have the time to set up, manage and run the campaign... I guess we're all 'time poor' !
ReplyDeleteI have a suggestion:take a look at the Dux Britanniarum rules from TooFatLardies (http://toofatlardies.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=101) It has a wonderful campaign system designed specifically to be playable on club nights, it can easily be adapted for the figures lots of club members already use for SAGA and it is loads of fun.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more, gave up on points games a long time ago, though they do have their uses. Much prefer scenario driven games or historical refights
ReplyDeleteCampaign games are the best way to go, although they do require a lot of effort to get set up! Luckily for me, there is a longterm campaign going on right now that's evr so much fun to be involved with as a player.
ReplyDeleteComme tout le monde, je suis d'accord avec toi. Les campagnes, c'est le top, mais pour les mener à bout, il faut souvent être en club, avoir une réserve de joueurs présents et ne pas les laisser trop traîner dans le temps. Nous, on ne joue qu'une fois toutes les 2 semaines en moyenne, donc c'est un peu léger. En plus, s'il manque un mec sur 4 ou 5, ça peut foutre le truc en l'air.
ReplyDeletePar contre, on est revenu au Ier Empire et on ne joue plus que des parties scénarisées historiques. Là, c'est même pas à nous de décider des OdB.
Le pendant, c'est que depuis le mois de juin, on a fait que 2 parties Art de la Guerre. Je crois que je vais être brillant au tournoi de Bourgoin dans 3 semaines ! :)
I think this is really a problem of the rules you're using. Many other games which use point values for pick-up games have different options from the standard "line-up on the base-line and have at it" style game. For example:
ReplyDeleteFlames of War and Blitzkrieg Commander have several generic scenarios (Meeting Engagement, Breakout, etc) that you choose from.
Volley and Bayonet v2 has your break your forces into 4 parts (left, center, right, and reserve). A random card selection then forces one or more of these parts to be removed from the table and then they come in as reinforcements later on.
The series of rules from Peter Pig have pre-game sequences where units could be delayed, or maybe you actually pick up an extra unit on the way to the battle.
So there are lots of ways to make pick-up games more interesting without needing to go through the effort of setting up a campaign or researching a historical scenario.
Maybe a three or four scenario linked-battle campaign is just what you need. Simple enough to set up and not so long that you need to worry about your opponent losing interest.
ReplyDelete