Re: [GZG] DSIII q

[Oerjan Ariander <oerjan.ariander@xxxxxxxxx>]

Back from last week's business trip, I'm slowly working my way through this 
thread...

To summarize:

************************
Grant's concerns about "down time" in games with multiple players per side 
are quite valid; but like I wrote a couple weeks ago we haven't been able 
to work out any "sure-fire" solution for them. For the reasons I posted 
back then I don't think that limiting FireFights to X rounds will help much 
(it is much too easy to circumvent such a limitation if you want to); but 
like Bob suggested firm guidance from a GM or equivalent should handle most 
of the problems. We'll keep working on this issue.

************************
Yes, the artillery rules allow for "smart" or "brilliant" munitions - 
though note that such munitions aren't quite as intelligent as some people 
believe; they still need to be told both what kind of targets to look for 
and roughly where to look for them... and if their targetting criteria are 
badly chosen, their performance can be extremely erratic :-/

The main problem with the DS3 artillery rules is not that we haven't had 
time to think about how to model various fancy tech gadgets, but that we 
are modelling too *many* of them. At their peak the artillery rules were 
over 20 pages long (more than a quarter of the total DS3 rules corpus at 
the time), and that's *way* too much to be playable - so we're working on 
simplifying them enough to be usable. The trick is to simplify them enough 
*without* losing a lot of detail :-/

Writing notes specifying how each Impact Marker is to be interpreted works 
OK as long as there are only a few Impact Markers, but it gets quite messy 
when there are many artillery elements involved (eg. when each infantry 
platoon has its own light mortar).

************************
In spite of the name, DS3 isn't very much like DS2. In many respects (turn 
sequence and movement rates in particular) the two games are very different 
indeed, and getting them mixed up often makes it difficult to make relevant 
suggestions :-( For example, some of Binhan Lin's suggestions look very 
much as if they're based on DS*2* experience rather han on DS3:

- Setting up the opposing forces closer to each and/or allow one-off 
pre-battle "rapid redeployment" moves make good sense in DS2 where even 
"fast" units like grav tanks only move a little over a foot per game turn, 
but these suggestions have virtually no effect on how likely DS*3* units 
are to get into action simply because DS3 movement rates are so much 
higher. Even a slow tracked tank can move several feet across the table in 
a single game turn if it needs to; and IIRC the fastest grav vehicles in 
John Lerchey's games at the ECC could move up to 390 inches (ie. almost 11 
*yards*) in a single DS3 move (*in addition* to any combat moves they 
might've made that game turn before, during and/or after their own 
activation...!).

- Similarly DS*2* players might spend the first 3-4 turns jockeying for 
position (or simply moving into weapons range of the enemy!), but so far 
most DS3 games played have been fought to a conclusion in 3 game turns or 
less. The 2nd DS3 game at the recent ECC was finished in less than *1* full 
game turn - the defenders' morale collapsed before all the attacking units 
had had a chance to activate even once...

Later,

Oerjan
oerjan.ariander@xxxxxxxxx

"Life is like a sewer.
 What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
-Hen3ry

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