Boardgame conversions - why I love them

[erichswafford]

Maybe it's because I'm 47 and so slightly predate the availability of PC's, but I will always have a deep fondness for boardgames and their conversions.

It seems like the boardgame roots force the designer to make a game both understandable and elegant - rather than just complex. We've all seen wargames that use the PC in an attempt to "brute-force" realism. I prefer a cleverly written rule or player interaction that successfully recreates reality.

While I love the subject matter, take a look at something like War in the Pacific: AE. This is a classic "brute-force" PC wargame, where the designer hopes that, by meticulously accounting for every bean and bullet, Reality will spring forth in an emergent fashion.

Now look at "War Plan Pacific" (basically Victory in the Pacific computerized). I've found that the latter game delivers much more consistent and historically "right" outcomes.

The reasons why:

1) I can comprehend what's going on enough to make good decisions.
2) The AI isn't overburdened with minutia.
3) You can actually playtest the entire war multiple times in a single day, thus eliminating bizarre anomalies.

PS - Sorry, I posted this over in CoH as well. Can't figure out how to delete that one, so it's a double post. My bad.

[markhwalker]

Well, I can't address those games directly, but I will say that I agree with you in general. War isn't a spread sheet. It is about individuals and their heroic acts.

[erichswafford]

Hey, shouldn't you be converting Heroes of the Gap or, better yet, WaW: Eisenbach Gap? How about the iPad version of Heroes of Stalingrad?

Dude, you got no time to be reading forums, for God's sake!

[;)]

[comsolut]

Easy - my cat always destroy everything on the board!!

[markhwalker]

WaW: Eisenbach Gap?

You might be surprised.