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Chess-Wargame Fusions[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Joe Joyce wrote on Sat, Sep 1, 2012 01:46 AM UTC:
Is it possible to design a legitimate chess-wargame fusion? What might it
look like, if possible? If it isn't possible, why not? 

I've kicked these questions around in various places, and gotten a range
of answers from "it can't be done" to "it has been done, this is it
here." Don't suppose it'd surprise any regular here that I disagree with
both statements, and also have some strange game to advance as a legitimate
example of a good chess/wargame hybrid. Well, I do and I do - disagree, and
have a strange game to offer for consideration.

To be honest, most of the games I've seen have been bad chess games or bad
war games, or sometimes both. What's my qualification to make such a
statement? Brass ones, I guess. So I ask anyone and everyone to try to tear
down my proposal, and to also suggest what a good hybrid should have. It
seems to me that the most recent Warlord scenario, Border War, actually
establishes itself as both a "legitimate" and "good" hybrid. 

I consider it "legitimate" because it retains all the basic elements of
chess. It has royal pieces, the capture of enough of which will end the
game. It allows, courtesy of HG, promotions, to add an extra element of
tension. It allows "1/2" a white first move, courtesy of BoardGameGeek
and Jeremy's comments, to preserve/insure [perceived] fairness. [;)] Each
piece is moved individually, with its own short chesslike move, which must
be legal when it occurs. Each different piece's move mimics that of a
different chesspiece. All pieces capture only by replacement. The pawn
equivalents are half the army, more or less, move only 1 square, and
support each other, or not, in almost exactly the same manner as in FIDE.
At the tactical level [within 1-3 squares], all piece moves are chesslike,
and nothing more. The movement rules are very simple and easy to
understand.

I consider it "good" because the game mimics so much that traditional
wargames strive for, but do not always achieve. And it does so in an
extremely abstract way. I have seen all of the following during actual play
in A Test of Wills and/or Border War. Terrain [Border War only] is
simplistic but very effective in channeling attacks by providing blocking
of movement, strongpoints that aid the defense, and an alternate means of
victory by possession of a certain number of geographical objectives.
Logistics becomes important; pieces are not easy to place where you want
them, because you do not actually control your army directly. You only
control your leaders and they control your army, and this makes an amazing
difference. Pieces get left behind. Someone is always falling out of
command range of any leader. So leaders run back and forth to shuttle
pieces around. I played 1 game where 3 leaders were picked off by getting
too close to the front lines and missing an enemy cannon. 

Those are obvious effects. And some less obvious. There are a few good
leaders, a bunch of so-so ones, and more in-between, and they act like it.

Two other effects, that arise from the interactions and specific moves of
the pieces, are the great value of combined arms both for attack and
defense, and that when it comes right down to it, infantry is the
indispensable arm for occupying ground. Further, the game is complex
enough, with a large enough number of equivalent moves [moves of ~equal
value] that you cannot always predict what your opponent will do in reply
to even the attacks you've made to force trades. The game, despite being
totally deterministic, is chaotic, if not in a strict mathematical sense,
then in a "close enough for government work" sense.

Or at least, that's my opinion. I'm pretty excited about this game and
where it is headed. I invite everybody to poke holes in the game, and my
conception of it.

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