RE: Star Grunt 2 : Whenit finaly comes together.

On Mon, 26 May 1997, Glover, Owen wrote:

>	The rules make continual reference to a Referee/Umpire; this
> would appear to be a type of game that uses the structured use of a
> mediator

But where do you get the third party? Do you rotate shifts?

"Sorry Bob, you can't play tonight. You must design a scenario
and referee for Al and Charlie. Oh, and Charlie just finished
painting his power armor squad, so include that in the scenario.
I've no idea what figures Al has. You have 30 minutes."

Is it the duty of the club president?

"Hi Dave, you've just been elected president. You can't play for a year,

you must referee and design scenarios for everyone else. And next year 
we'll just elect you again."

Do you trust commercial scenario packs?

"Hi Eric. I just bought the Xyzzy Battlepack. Care to help me buy and 
paint 3000 Xenovian Bug Marines so we can play it? Everyone's pitching
in 
to hire the author as a referee."

Or maybe the tooth fairy does it? 

>	Relative strengths are apportioned on the basis of "Operational"
> groupings eg a Recon team (one squad) is bumped by an enemy Fighting
> Patrol ( one Platoon), as well as experience of the relative
> firepower/combat effectiveness of the nations military forces.

So it's a point system by another name with an attached fuzziness
factor.
	
>	Actually it is the Ancient Art of the Military Appreciation and
> Assessment.

Call it whatever you like, I'll call it guesstimation, because that's 
what it is. With enough experience you can make pretty good guesses,
but games are a rapidly changing environment with a multitude of choice 
combinations and it is not bound by natural laws. In my opinion, most 
casual players never reach the level of proficiency to make consistent 
and accurate guesstimates of all possible force combinations.
 
>	IMHO this set of rules is very good at approximating the art of
> Infantry Minor Tactics. Unfortunately, to misquote ...."No Plan of
> Battle ever survives contact with the enemy"

I agree, but what does that have to do with the issue at hand?

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