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Pergite! -> RE: Excellent and relevant documentary (10/29/2014 10:56:21 AM)
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ORIGINAL: Mgellis
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ORIGINAL: MrGandi
3000 coalition planes?!?! I wonder whether it will be ever possible to create such huge scenario. And what monster machine would be able to run it.[&:]
No, no, no...the solution to this problem is not only simple but probably gives people more variety anyway.
You don't make a scenario with 3,000 units. You make 10-15 different scenarios that each have 200-300 units. Naturally, they all have to have some differences, but since different ships, planes, targets, etc. will be involved, that should not be too difficult.
What I'm finding, more and more, is that a good maximum size for a scenario is where each side has about one carrier battle group's worth of ships, planes, facilities, etc. (or maybe two of them) and the scenario lasts anywhere from a few hours to a few days. The game will run fine if you make the scenario bigger and/or longer, but it becomes increasingly harder to keep the gameplay itself running smoothly.
And, besides, this way you get a dozen scenarios instead of just one.
Then there is the human in the loop as well to consider i.e the player. A military rule of thumb is that a commander should not have more than 5-8 (rough figure) subordinates to command, be they ships, aircraft or squad members. If you have 3000 planes, than those are divided into different units in different levels which means that General Schwarzkopf in this case did not have to draw waypoints and select loadouts for each and everyone of them.
Many wargames and scenarios totally misses this point completely making the game more of a chore than putting the player in actual command. The whole staff element is also often completely missing, making the player scan around in different menus to compile own lists and keep track of availability of everything from jet fuel to torpedoes and weather-fronts. A working AI staff that could help you out with logistics and keep track of assessment of enemy strengths etc. would have been really great to have in a game like Command.
You of course could do this all by yourself, but then you would be playing more with MS Excel than with the actual game. This has led me to the fact that I more enjoy the smaller, low unit density scenarios where one actually can keep track of everything with a just some comments on a notepad between sessions.
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