GZG List archives -- November 2006

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Re: [GZG] Point Systems




----- Original Message ----- From: "Eric Foley" <stiltman@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Most serious battles don't have a gross advantage for one side over the other. The ones that do where someone just rolls over the other are the ones you never hear about. Wargames are generally designed to simulate or recreate the battles that you _do_ actually hear about.
In just about all the later ww2 campaigns the allies had overwhelming numerical superiority. Normandy and Bagration for examples. All the planned battles were about building up overwhelming force so you could defeat the enemy without taking massive losses

Actually wargames strive for fairness to try and make it enjoyable for both sides. Some people get enjoyment out of wargaming hopeless situations and these can be fun for scenarios when you have removed all elements of competition from the scenario.

If you give both player similar objectives, typically kill the enemy, then both players need to have a chance to achieve this so points systems come into effect.

Wargames also tend to remove any strategic element from the games both sides line up in a roughly linear formation within heavy weapons range with enough models to cover the table from side to side. The choice came down to which unit fired at which, scouting, finding weaknesses in defences, having enough depth to form multiple lines of defence are not things easily replicated on a typical wargames table.

So I don't think that wargames are an attempt to simulate a realistic battle they are an artificial construct to allow both players an equal chance at achieving the objective of killing the enemy and holding the table.

Fortunately wargames are more fun than a real battle. There is a distinct lack of comfortable chairs and beer and a marked increase in bullets in a real battle.


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