RE: DS: Walkers

The problem seems to be that optimal designs are all that get used.  I
prefer a 
game where the choice of design is partially removed from the player
i.e. WWII 
Germans using PzIII against Soviet T-34 instead of Panthers, or Shermans
 in 
general :).

An M1 may be the optimal MBT, but what if the deployment had to be air
only?

"Your Task Force will be deployed to Shazbat 7, but due to cargo
restraints we 
are limited to size 2 vehicles, the Euries have a tank plant on planet
so we 
can expect to see T-2144s (Size 5).  Select your force from these three 
(pre-generated) models."

I like sub optimal designs and I like Walkers (especially early [Unseen]

Battletech).  I know that Walkers are absurd, but they look COOOL.  With
in the 
framework of a game it works.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that design systems and point
values tend 
to pull min-maxers out of the woodwork.

Michael Brown

-----Original Message-----
From:	John Atkinson
Sent:	Friday, February 07, 2003 3:45 PM
To:	gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
Subject:	Re: DS: Walkers

--- Brian Bilderback <greywanderer987@yahoo.com>
wrote:

> And while I felt they favored necha TOO heavily,
> they

Players favored mecha too heavily.  Last time I played
Battletech my opponent conceeded 2 games in a row in
the deployment phase, and lost the third one badly.
BTech vehicles, especially GEVs, are fraggin' nasty if
designed and used correctly.

My favorite was a personal design--50 tons, 1 gauss
rifle, couple tons of ammo, 6/9 movement (I think,
it's been a long time) and the rest in armor.

Won one game with nothing but IS battlearmor.

> were what the game was about, and some people like
> them -- so I'd rather see them as a balanced option,
> with strengths and drawbacks, not something that's
> overpowering to the point of dominance, NOR
> restricted
> to the point of irrelevance.

There's a fine line to walk here.  I enjoy designing
vehicles.  Even more do I enjoy working out the
interrelations between various vehicle designs, where
vehicles fit on the MTOE, what their battlefield role
is, and what doctrine they would need.

If you make the rules so fuzzy that bad design choices
aren't penalized then it takes away a lot of the fun
for me.  I realize this approach occasionally results
in fights being won before a single dice is rolled,
but then again didn't Sun Tzu say the highest
achievement of skill is to win without fighting?

John

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