Shadow Empire crossed with DC Ardennes

[varangy]

IMHO the scale and mechanics of DC: Ardennes is much closer to the scale of a few surviving cities than the scale of DC: Barbarossa (what we have now in SE). Adding to this I also enjoy Ardennes a lot more.

If I made a sequel, I would investigate the possibilities of using the Ardennes engine.

[mroyer]

IMHO the scale and mechanics of DC: Ardennes is much closer to the scale of a few surviving cities than the scale of DC: Barbarossa (what we have now in SE). Adding to this I also enjoy Ardennes a lot more.

Indeed, at one level I agree with this assessment. A global-grand-strategy game should have a lot more things abstracted away than SE does.

However, on the other hand, I really like the operational feel that SE gives and, for me, I believe it would suffer and be less enjoyable in that mold. Even though it's not a proper fit, because it's not historical and because I want a tactical/operational feel at a global level, I'm willing to accept the scaling anomalies and distortions that come. For example, my fighters can reach Moscow from London - umm.... - okay, I'll suspend belief and have fun with the game.

If I made a sequel, I would investigate the possibilities of using the Ardennes engine.

In this case, would you advocate using the Ardennes engine at a global scale? Or scaling back the breadth of SE to regions of a world?

-Mark R.

[varangy]

If I made a sequel, I would investigate the possibilities of using the Ardennes engine.

In this case, would you advocate using the Ardennes engine at a global scale? Or scaling back the breadth of SE to regions of a world?

-Mark R.

Probably yes, I would leave the planet generator as is, and then when that finishes you would be able to select a region on that generated planet to play on.

[Vic]

I actually thought about this already. I concur it is interesting. It is something I might well do in the (far) future.

[GazBot]

Id have to agree as well...this would be really interesting...especially if you can custom build, merge, split your units / battlegroups....

[solops]

I think that the scale of DC Ardennes is inappropriate for Shadow Empires. The planetary operational scale is the right scale for SE and while some of the mechanics in DC-A may be nice to have, the regional type scale does not fit. Small unit manipulation on a planetary scale might be interesting but seems a bit iffy to me. There are a LOT of things in SE that I would rather see expanded and improved first.

[Marc1314]

omg you just described my dream game!
Moving from the SE planetary map scale to the DC Ardennes locality map scale whenever opposing forces have an engagement could be an improvement for SE.

I just think the map scale of DC Ardennes and the way its Divisions and Regiments are represented as units is probably my favourite out of all the strategy games i've played so its something i would love to try out, kind of like what AGEOD did with their recent game.

[Blothorn]

Almost no SE mechanics actually match the nominal geographic scale; restricting it from global to regional scope would only avoid some of that tension. In particular, I think the primary driver of the operational scale of SE combat isn't geographic scale but time scale. DC:Ardennes covers two months; a game of SE covers decades. (And already, even, combat in SE happens much more slowly than I think it should under the nominal timescale and unit sizes.) I find it hard to think of how you could mesh combat that detailed with SE's scope of expansion and research without shattering suspension of disbelief.

Now all that said, I think revolutionary technology advances is rather overdone in 4X gaming--it both stretches plausibility and tends to devalue more interesting design/force composition/tactics mechanics. A post-apocalyptic game that tries to cover 2-10 years and incremental technological progress, not decades and multiple technological revolutions, could be quite interesting, albeit very different from SE. But even there, if the combat mechanics stayed true to the nominal timescale, you'd still be looking at Barbarossa and not Ardennes.