ORIGINAL: Capt Cliff
ORIGINAL: Richard III
Rambling Eastern Front Thoughts and A Recommendation.
The Background.
I`ve played board & computer war games for almost 30 years and I`ve always been amazed by how Strategic and Operational level Eastern Front games have avoided including the fact that the Theatre, Army , Corps and even Divisional commanders were often forced to act on the orders of a lunatic in Berlin who controlled the armed forces of the nation.
The disasterous consequences, on both the strategic and operational levels of the ex corporals meddling in day to day operations are widely documented, yet AFAIK no war-game has incorporated that in the Game design....this is so devoid of reality it boggles the mind, and a sad relection of what`s gone before.
On the other side of the hill we have the Soviet state ruled by a peasant, who is also a homicidal manic who purged almost 10,000 regular officers on the eve of war, was the final arbiter on all operational plans and placed political officers ( commissars ), with no military experience, down to the Rgt. level in the whole of the Red Army. These political officers often enforced military decisions on the local level that had no basis in reality, with dreadful losses. This also has yet to be reflected in any game design.
If you can step from the average gamers fixation with OOB`s and hardware and leaders abilities and Panzer Spearheads and what if`s, you can see the Eastern Front as some kind of a hideous Theatre of the Grotesque, with no relationship to the Western Front, the Middle East or the Pacific other then people trying to kill each other in vast numbers.
No wonder the business dragged on for years due to the constant meddling by the madmen who ruled each side. The gods must have truly enjoyed this one.
The Recommendation.
Please, introduce some _forced random events_ into the Game that reflect the above.
You and I understand that we gamers are obsessed with complete, unobstructed control of our Armies, but not only is that a-historical, but fairly quickly will be boring and reduce re-playability as gamers dope out the optimal winning process.
Introducing Random Events, beyond the historical transfers of German units to the West, creates " decision points" for the player, and that adds interest. It cannot be that hard from a programming viewpoint, although I`ll grant it will increase play testing time.
Thanks for your consideration.
RL
This is the orginal thread boy's let's not stray from rebutting this gentleman's questions or hypothesis. The gentleman never posted again due to the fact people were ridiculing his idea, especial the "elite guard" of apha/beta play testers who rushed in to stomp this guy's opinion in the dirt. I assume we all work ... in industry or where ever? You have a boss? An they never screwed up anything you were ever working on?
Nobody ridiculed his idea. All i said was i would want this rule to be optional.
It wasn't till you chimed in with your 'if i can't have it my way i'll play fallout instead' that people started to get annoyed.
