Re: [GZG] Point Systems

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eric Foley" <stiltman@teleport.com>
> 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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