Tracer Rounds – New Wargamers Needed: Apply Within!
Evangelizing the hobby ~
Who was the last convert you brought into the (Dis)United Church of World Wide Wargaming? Seriously, when was the last time you talked with someone about wargaming (or heck, even more broadly – strategy gaming) and they displayed enough interest to actually take a plunge and try a wargame, and then stuck with it, at least for a while?
It’s an odd hobby we have, right? There’s a certain barrier to entry just based on the level of detail in most of these games. Put another way: there’s an amusing “how to choose the perfect board game” flowchart that’s focused on Eurogames, and to get to Axis & Allies you have to answer “yes” to the question “hardest rules ever?”. And most of us consider A&A to be an entry-level wargame, right?
So we’re already starting off from a position of disadvantage. Or are we? In most cases, the level of detail in the rules is there for a reason. These are complex phenomena that we are trying to quantify and get a handle on. “Elegance” in wargame design is one of the highest forms of praise in that it indicates an ability to capture challenging and amorphous concepts in such a way that one can easily understand their effects on the battlefield of the game. Morale, leadership, training, esprit de corps, and basic task competence on the battlefield are all difficult to assess, and ever hard to quantify, and games that can do so in a plausible mechanism are ones that tend to garner high praise. So how do we explain that to a new player?
The major power technology are crystals. Tiny crystals provide light and minor power. Major crystals which are almost impossible to create can power large airships. Envision wooden Man-O-War flying through the air with cannons and inefficient power lasers. Hand weapons are hand sized power crystals and sabers. There are strange creatures, rare and unbalanced magic users who understand how crystals work, and daring traders, naval fleets and privateers flying the skies.
