Taking the complexity out of historical boardgames
This is one in a series of board games played on a Styrofoam backed map using colored pins. The first impression is that this must be a very limited way of presenting a simulation. I too was of this view. As I became more involved with the rules writing combined with the design of the components it slowly dawned on me that we have been led down the garden path. regarding board games where designers have stressed quantity This no doubt came about with the ease of reproduction graphics, a simple click of the mouse giving the player hundreds of extra counters for his game. Indeed games are even advertised as having so many score or even hundreds of counters as thought this in a good thing. I take the opposite view; the ideal is to have the least number of components depicting the greatest amount of simulation to portray the situation the designer has in mind.
Personally the reason I don’t play many board games is not that I am not interested, more that I have a lazy streak and abhor the mental strain involved.
I have for years wished board games could be like a book where you just open it and read. This prompted the design of these games. I have used a simple device to fix unit size where size applies to all units of a force throughout the entire area. Some will say that this is not realistic to which I will reply:' is it realistic to suppose an entire unit will available the minute one wants it.' It seems to me that far too much effort has been made to portray unit strength even when they are not being used..
During the test playing of the various designs I was impressed by the small number of player actions needed to make a a lot happens on the board. It is like reading book in away, what is on the printed page is the heart of the matter, the map, players aids and counters but a necessary ancillary to the story.
I feel that this way of doing things will bring the board game into line with the book, not the role playing book mind but ore giving the reader player an inter active story where the situation is always laid out in front of him while at the same time there is a minimum moving markers, adding or subtract counters, moving counters and rolling a great number of dice.
