I thought to share the progress during these six months of designing WarGo, regarding how to keep track of the private command directives!
Contents
- Intro
- Private command directives v.1
- Private command directives v.2
- Private command directives v.3
- Private command directives v.4
- Evolution goes on..!
Intro
In the first of the two phases of a WeGoWarGo game round (Command Phase), players get to decide simultaneously and privately the commands their Units will execute simultaneously during the subsequent, Action Phase. After machinating the command directives secretly, the players have to disclose them to the other players, before proceeding to the Action Phase when Units execute the issued commands.
It’s been challenging to organise these Machination and Disclosure steps of the Command Phase. That is, I had to decide how to keep track of each issued Command, as well as its corresponding Direction and Distance (the latter being added recently for more accuracy and fairness).
Private command directives v.1
During the first month of the project, I found it plausible to keep track of the command directives with a table for each Unit (Figure 1). The major advantage of this method was that it also worked as an archive of the battle; given the deployment of the Units at the start of the battle, it would be easy to recreate or report the battle afterwards.
A major drawback of this method, though, has been the difficulty to make accessible the directives to the other players during the Disclosure step of the Command Phase.
Private command directives v.2
This drawback of the first version resulted to the second display method during the second month of the project. The idea was to use markers face-down during the Machination step, that would be turned face-up during the Disclosure step (Figure 2).
Besides the advantage of the directives now being accessible to all players, they were also close to their corresponding Unit. Nevertheless, playtesting revealed that the issued Command and Direction weren’t enough for creating a clear and accurate directive which players would be compelled to follow without room for even unconscious work-around or cheating. The need of specifying also the Distance hence lead to the third display version.
Private command directives v.3
Since also distance would be needed, quite a lot of markers would gather behind each Unit: one for the Command, one for the Direction, and three for the Distance. Distance would always need three markers face-down, because even if a player wanted to indicate a 1- or 2-digit distance, one or two markers face-down would give a clue about the issued distance to the other players. This meant that in total five markers had to be used for each Unit under the second version of display. Too many markers laying down behind each Unit…
Consequently, I thought it would be easier if some kind of stand would hold the markers. This resulted to the design of folded paper stands, compatible with the nature of WarGo which is intended to be a print-and-play system (Figure 3). Of course, this alleviated also the need of always using three Distance markers.
Nevertheless, when Units were more than a few, selecting the markers from their cases, putting them on the stands during Machination, and unloading the old markers to update the stands with new directives was consuming too much hand work and even mental energy, redirecting our attention away from the fun and the strategic thinking.
Private command directives v.4
In the latest version, then, we get rid of the markers, and we switch to a dial-type method, with all options available on a small stand design with side flaps for extra privacy (Figure 4). Since WarGo is print-and-play, employing Chicago screws or other not-so-common or heavy tools on plain paper was not ideal. That resulted to the use of a common, cheap and lightweight office supply: the paper clip. Two paper clips are currently needed per stand, for secretly selecting Command and Direction, respectively. Distance can be secretly registered with dice, which are also pretty much common in gamers and even non-gamer houses.
The current stands are designed for approximately 3 cm (1 inch) length paper clips. The wider side of the paper clips suits for the Commands with the larger letters at the left, and their narrower side matches to the right side with the Directions typeset with smaller letters.
Evolution goes on..!
Of course, the evolution of this challenging ingredient in pure WeGo miniature wargames, WarGo being the first of its kind, can continue for long, but I’m feeling that it has started settling in its satisfaction valley! Or at least hoping to..!
Our latest playtesting inspired some very interesting, frequently simplifying, major revisions, that also resulted to making the game more fun instead of more boring. It feels that time is approaching for the writing up of the rulebook. Next year will see WarGo to be Homepublished!
Best regards,
Danis, the WarGo designer
Make WarGo, not war..!
