Test play reports
Continued
I have arrived at the solution for too much paper work. A players aid notes each players strength, grey's mission, spotted units ,and the state of grey's request for Global Hawk missions. More importantly I have found that the combat is really the strategic situation . I have taken the chance factor out of the equation, after all if one is in a superior strategic situation one is in a superior strategic situation..The game now boils down to positioning ones forces. much as in the game of chess, the player in the better position the winner.Forces are never removed from the table, the movement of the victory track defining the strength of a players forces.The game has now become one of movement in reaction to a situation.
With this in mind I have changed the games name to that of -"The Strategic Advantage-This will give the potential player a more realistic idea of what the game is about;at least the game theme.
I have finished playing a sequence of the newest revision and find that it plays much more smoothly,albeit I played the solitaire rules only.At first it didn't seem too interesting but then when opposition appeared in Mali and threats of a putsch in Guinea right next door to my force in Sierra Leone I became worried. I had the choice of either moving towards Mali with my company sized force leaving the port unprotected in the event I wanted to land a further force or move towards the enemy force in Mali .And there was the matter of insurgent force in Gambia just up the coast..
I chose to stay put. I was in range of the insurgents of Gambia due to my company sized force equipped with surface to surface missiles.I put in a request for a Global Hawk mission. These UAV's are intercontinental and can take awhile to arrive even upon gaining approval so I would not have a spotted result for a few turns. It is necessary to spot a force in order to count it as a target when calculating the strategic situation.. I am now in a situation where i have to wait on the opponents moves before any further deployment;simple but intriguing reminding me of the working out a chess problem..As I play the next sequences I will make a full report.
This game is more or less in the box.I am know concentrating upon a similiar game lifted from this and then modified to suit conditions in the Southern Caucasus where Georgia and The Russian Federation square off. Russia controlls most of the Autonomous states, Dagestan also under the Federated states. Geogia controls most of the independent states to the south including Turkey and Azarbaijan. I find the grouping of forces under a broad swarth the best way of projecting warfare where there are a loosley knit set of alliances. In this game I have defined the various countries within green and grey spheresthe same as in the game NW Africa holding to the simple concept platoon,company and battalion to defining an entire army force availble on a particular turn. It is not really posible to place every single unit on a board so I have opted for a solution where only the relevent units are shown on a given turn.
Most of the units in the previous game are used with the exception of allies to the major powers. In this game all of the countries are major powers the insurgents a vague force coming fro undefined areas. And as in the above game the concept of being able to market an entire in a 10"x5" rules booklet has been adheared to, the map a set of geometric shapes placed in rough alignment on the table .representing countries In the latter game however there are no blank spaces for countries the two sides colour coded in two colours which are interchangable so as to portray the changing of coutries alliegience from the green to grey vice versa .
