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Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: MWiF Tutorial (2/7/2006 9:29:58 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Froonp
quote:
Naval
Movement
(...)
∙ Forming task forces
About this :
I seem to remember that there were no Task Forces per see in CWiF, and that Task Forces were out of the picture for MWiF too.
But, having played CWiF, and thinking about MWiF and naval movement makes me think that there should be a way to assemble Task Forces in MWiF, and have the Task Force counter on the board in place of the pile of ships.
This is because :
- Once a task force is formed, you could keep it formed from turn to turn, and so have an easier time using it again turn after turn. You would just have to check that you still have sufficient ships inside in case of previous battle damage. I found that it was tedious in CWiF to assemble turn after turn the same TF for the same purpose. You had to select the carriers, the battleships, the covering cruisers, check that you were in the right "ship number" row, check your AA or your Gunnery power, check the speed & range of all ships to verify no slow ships is included, and you could sail your assembly of ships. At the first error, you had to begin again. If you could say "Create a Task force", then choose a name, and then include the ships within it, you could keep it at will and would save lots of time for next time. Each player could reach a "Task Force" menu item who would show him the ships included in each task force. The Player could also toggle an option showing him task forces, or individual ships in the sea areas (at will), so that Task Forces counters are not a problem to get an accurate picture of the fleets strength in a given sea area.
- In the computer game, you would not be limited to the existing Task Forces, you could just create new task forces when the need arise, and the game would provide you with a list of possible names depending on your country, or allow you to enter a free name.
- It would allow for inclusion of the hidden task force optional rule (even if I would never play with it, considering that a game of the scope of WiF has no use of a fog of the war option, especially when it has no reconnaissance rules).
There is a problem here with language. I keep coming up against this problem in my professional life and there is not much that can be done about it. What I am referring to is the usurption of names to have a specific meaning. For example, in statistics the term Variance has a mathematical definition. Now, when talking about populations you often want to say that people have a variety of characteristics, that they vary, and you would like to talk about how much they vary - that the variance within the population is large or small. But if you use that word, then all the statisticians immediately assume you are talking about Variance and the discussion dissipates into confusion. So, when talking about populations you can't use the word variance, or deviation, or average, or skewed. It becomes a real pain to constantly work around not using a set of words that are ideally suited for describing the characteristics of something - so much so that they have come to have rigid definitions.
I see this problem occuring in computer language too.
And now I find it again with the phrase Task Force in WIF. WIF FE has assigned a specific meaning to the phrase Task Force. And then gone on to have an optional rule about Hidden Task Forces. [sm=Christo_pull_hair.gif]
I agree with everything you wrote, Patrice. Your defiinition of a task force as a group of naval units that can be assembled and the composition of the group retained from turn to turn is excellent. Let's go with that as a new definition of task force, without any additional baggage. They can be formed, named, moved, modified, and disbanded at the player's discretion.
I think this will improve how MWIF handles naval units. When we get around to working out how to display all the naval units in a sea area for the purposes of combat et al, this should be a useful additional tool.[:)]
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