Joel Billings
Posts: 32265
Joined: 9/20/2000 From: Santa Rosa, CA Status: offline
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I could argue that all stacking and movement rules at the operational and strategic levels are full of abstractions, some more than others. The fundamental reality is that altering the interface to stack more units is very messy. It's doable, but time consuming and has issues that players might not enjoy (in boardgames, I hated games where I could stack large numbers of units/info counters in a hex, because my hands couldn't do it without knocking something over and you had to keep looking at the stacks to figure out what was there. Sure, more realistic, but at what cost? That said, I can't tell you for sure what will end up in WitE2, but I'll remind you that there are reserve and support rules that allow players the ability to bring in more units to a combat than just what's in the hex (although I realize with less control). Moving lots of units through an area can be difficult, because most units have to move on roads (certainly if they want to move quickly), and there are only so many roads. We continue to debate/struggle with how to handle admin movement. Bottom line, computer games are not as easy as boardgames to change fundamental rules, so there's a big cost associated with what can seem like the simplest of changes. I do appreciate the desire and justification for more "realistic" stacking rules, although keep in mind that doctrine and other factors can often trump hard facts like how many men/guns could you squeeze into a 10x10 mile area. Maybe it's just me, but the only place I see us having a big stacking problem (assuming we are dealing with other things correctly) is with certain ports and urban areas, where larger numbers of troops were massed.
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All understanding comes after the fact. -- Soren Kierkegaard
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