Ullern
Posts: 1837
Joined: 5/28/2006
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Hello.
I’m back after being off for two months. Glad to see the hoard of new information waiting for me. I took me nearly four hours to get through and that was despite the fact that I just paged down past a lot of info that I didn’t really read.
Up to date on life: I have just started my 20th WIF campaign or scenario (not including 5 turn scenarios or CWIF games). (Did you want to know anything else? No no.)
I have a few points I want to make about Fog of War (FOW).
FOW is an optional rule from CWIF that Steve intends to take into MWIF (last time I checked). A lot have been said earlier (see thread Option 63 -- Intelligence). Some of the major concerns have been that FOW would change the game a lot. I agree completely but then again: it will be an optional, not something mandatory in any way. The main pro idea for a FOW rule is that many people find it unrealistic and unsatisfactory to decide a game on who’s best at calculating combat factors and movement (which I also agree happens too often).
FOW is already an essential part of WIF the board game (RAW). What is it?
It’s uncertainty. You don’t really know where opposing forces are, and if you know you still don’t know their exact strength compared to yourself.
In WIF the FOW is made up by:
- A split in impulses that gives the active side the possibility to make a complete 15 day move (on average), while the other side can’t react.
- Giving land units too high movement.
- Giving land units a freedom of movement that is unrealistic (not any axes of advance rules and no queuing problems ever).
- Land units attacking don’t get any benefit for knowing their enemy, or penalties for not knowing them or not knowing the terrain.
- Land units at sea can invade at any hex from the sea zone.
- FOW is one of the reasons for variation of result in land combat and air combat
- The surprise rolls maintains the FOW at Sea.
- ... and maybe some points I forgot.
To sum up the basic idea in board game WIF is that you know everything about the unit except it’s intentions. Then each side has a fairly long timer period to reveal and implement the units missions before the other side can react, and there is absolutely no penalties for changing directions of attack each impulse (and no benefits by staying on course).
Example: German advance reaches USSR controlled Vitebsk. He’s got nothing on the flanks but more units will reach Vitebsk next impulse. Since the German player think the attack is too risky it’s delayed to await better odds. Furthermore Gomel is not defended, and Germany sees the potential in staying face up and moving there next impulse.
How should the USSR react to this in an “ideal” setting?
If the USSR believed that the units around Vitebsk were all that there was in the front, then the USSR wouldn’t need to defend the road to Gomel, and could concentrate on dealing with the defence of Vitebsk. If the Germans started doing anything else the USSR would then be able to move units to defend Gomel, and didn’t have to do it in advance. Of course the USSR couldn’t know for certain that there weren’t any other units on the flank, so the USSR probably would have to take some precautions.
How is this solved in WIF?
The USSR knows that the units around Vitebsk are actually all there is, but since the move to Gomel can be completed in a single impulse, and the German are not in any way penalised for doing so, the USSR are forced to take precautions regardless.
How would this work in WIF if there existed unknown units?
I believe this situation wouldn’t exist at all in a game with hidden units!
Because in my 10+ years of experience with WIF, the move through enemy line is so powerful that anyone is usually willing to do anything to prevent it. I would say that 95% of the time you would rather withdraw first than allow a unit at the back of your lines. So what would happen is more like:
German player would be afraid USSR had a hidden attack force around Gomel and instead of moving up to Vitebsk as fast as he could, the German player will advance in an orderly line waiting for the slower units.
Is that an improvement to WIF?
My point here is that simply removing information from the screen may not be a good choice if not done intelligently. I believe FOW easily will lead to more defensive play by both sides.
I like the idea of an optional FOW rule and I will try to define a rule as much in line with ordinary WIF as possible. Considering this is MWIF and Steves regard for easy solutions. I will only try to define a solution that is as easy as possible. But because implementing hidden information so easily changes game play drastically it won’t be very spectacular.
Nils
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