MrsWargamer
Posts: 1655
Joined: 6/18/2014
Status: offline
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I'm currently trying to understand PRECISELY what it is I'm missing.
Was it Squad Leader, was it ASL. Was it pushing the cardboard? Was it arguing over the rules?
I have a vast sum of scans etc. I COULD print out the entire experience. Manuals, boards, counters, Journals, scenarios from all manner of places.
And when you consider the going price of ASL modules (OUCH !!!), well, colour printing costs just ain't going to intimidate me.
I played a lot of ASL against two individuals. One liked playing the Germans a lot. We played a lot of military-themed stuff in the background. One was a big fan of ABBA (I was too), and we played it a lot (when I hear ABBA I immediately think of The Guards Counter Attack :) ).
Best wargaming of my life.
Then it all just faded away (like my youth). The collection sat unused for years. Why did I finally sell it?
Is reaquiring it a good idea? Or am I forgetting something that finally made me decide to sell in the first place?
I periodically reinstall Civ V only to play it for a day or two only to remember why I uninstalled it. It lost its shine.
ASL is not the same as most operational level wargames though. It never plays the same way twice.
In A3R there's only so many ways to attack Warsaw. If you botch it and mangle France, you might have just thrown the game.
In most squad tactical games, there are just too many teeny tiny variables. It's not easy to have any firm fast established most do actions.
I have always laughed, "with ASL, even losing is ok, because the darndest things happen with each playing." It's several hours of "Wow, Kelso was sure on fire there." With Grand Strategy it's often like Chess, you win or you lose, much like a round of Poker.
Why a board game? Why not a computer wargame?
It's not the human vs human thing if you play the board game solo willingly.
I know I always liked needing to master the game's mechanics.
With most computer wargames, I'm just clicking a mouse, and not really understanding why I won or I lost in a specific attack. The program might give you the specifics, but in the past with board games, I already knew the specifics before I rolled the dice. I had to, otherwise, there was no game.
I think tutorials have also made us lazy. With board games, you either learn the game, or you don't get to play it.
The funniest thing I ever witnessed, these two young friends (young at this time in my past), were playing a Battle of the Bulge game. They were using ALL the pieces, no start-up specifics, no real rules, they were just playing with the pieces on the map. It was a brutal version of Army Men really :)
Today, I think a lot of us just want to turn on the program and start playing, without a clue what the game is supposed to do. And then we get frustrated and blame the game, and not ourselves. Don't deny it, I've read posts about this matter for decades :) We Do it.
In the past it was "hear read the rules, let me know when you're finished." There was no game until you had. No tooltips. No intuitive play. I think that's why we complain about some computer wargames where the designer has assumed the purchasers were old hands and would actually read the manual first. Just staring up Gary's War in the East and expecting to just start playing is brutally unrealistic :) It's a great manual too.
I think I'm missing the tactile experience. I think I'm missing the need to actually know the game's guts inside and out.
I think I'm missing not needing to scroll, not needing pull-down menus. Needing to actually do the math. No easy shaded movement options.
Do all of the computer perks make it easier to game? Well duh, yes of course. But, has it dummied down the process of learning to wargame? I think it might have. Is that a bad thing? Well, there were only certain types playing board game wargames in the 70s.
But who are we marketing to now?
I saw 'wargame' to someone under 30 and presto they think Call of Duty.
I suggest a board game wargame to them, and they think I'm nuts.
I tell them they have to pay attention during my turn as well, and no cell phones and they laugh and you have lost your opponent.
I'm not sure I even want to wargame against someone that is under 30 and unable to turn off a cell phone for several hours.
I certainly don't want to listen to the complaining and the excuses.
I have all day to game, no one to game with. No one likely to leave their cell phone at home. It sucks.
And I don't want to play a board game wargame via my computer with someone I have never met in a distant place. It's solo or be in the same room.
If I'm staring at my computer, I might as well be playing a computer wargame too. If I must play a computer wargame, I might as well play it solo me vs me. The fun of a human opponent, is they are there in the room. When it's their turn, it's their turn, and there isn't a lag waiting for them while they have walked away from the computer for who knows how long to do something else.
_____________________________
Wargame, 05% of the time.
Play with Barbies 05% of the time.
Play with Legos 10% of the time.
Build models 20% of the time
Shopping 60% of the time.
Exlains why I buy em more than I play em.
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