Sharing

[Wild Bill]

I constantly get e-mails from fellow gamers with questions of interest and spend a lot of my time answering them. I thought I would share these questions and my answers with you. I'm sure Christ won't mind. You might find them interesting and they may raise some new ones.

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----- Original Message -----
From: CDBURNS
To: Wild Bill - MG
Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2002 1:36 AM
Subject: Wargaming - Scenarios


Bill,
I had a couple of questions for you that I hope you have time to answer:

************WOW! Quite a list here, Chris!

First, thanks for your kind words and encouragement. That makes it all worthwhile.

Now my answers below with this before them ********

1) Did you play (and do you still play) any board games or miniature wargames prior to computer wargaming? I continue to play Advanced Squad Leader, and Panzerblitz/Panzer Leader, in addition to maintaining a 3,000 piece micro armor collection.

*******Incessantly, for years! Now I don't, primarily because of failing eyesight and time. I've had cataracts removed from both eyes with articicial lenses implanted and my close up vision is abominable. I miss both of them very much.

2) Do you think a tabletop miniature wargame assist program will ever be developed?

******** Oh yes! I envision a day when either through holygraphics or actual miniatures with computer chips inside will be moved by a remote over a three dimensional battlefield. I'll probably not see it in my lifetime, but I think it will happen.

3) Was a SPWAW campaign disc ever considered for the Eastern Front in '43 (Manstien's miracle, Kursk, Orel, etc?)

*******No, nothing yet on a 43 campaign for EF. I would like to see one on Kursk, or the battles for Kharkov. Maybe one day (G)!

4) Do you think SP3 will ever be upgraded as SPWAW was? I still like to play BN-BDE commander (thinking two levels down) once in a while, and SP3 often reminds me of my all time favorite, Panzerblitz.

*******Not as such. Newer games are coming out which will supercede SP3. I think the basic philosophy of the game will be there but no, I don't foresee any upgrades to SP3.

5) In regards to scenario design: Do you know where to obtain any tactical maps? All the maps in books have no relation to the tactical maps actually used by field commanders, and it is near impossible to construct detailed terrain features for scenarios using most commercial material.

********This is the most difficult area for design. Good tac maps are almost impossible to find. 1:50,000 is about the best you can ever do nowadays and many of those can cost you...a lot!

6) I also wanted to know what you thought of the historical / playability debate. How many scenarios in general (including SP, CMBO, ASL, Panzerblitz, East Front II, etc) are actually realistic in regards to order of battles, maps, etc.

*******In general, good. Much depends on the designers themselve. You learn after awhile to recognize the value of a scenario/campaign by who did it.

I've always striven to be as accurate as I can historically and yet maintain some good playability in the battle to make it fun and challenging. The main thing I want to translate into the battle is the feeling of that moment. Thus you take the role of the actual commander and feels what he might have felt at that time. Now THAT to me is historical in the gaming sense.

7) In SP scenarios you pretty much go into battle with full strength platoons (I tried to modify the OOB to make the tank section option only have 1 tank, so that I could recreate some of the ASL scenarios with a single numbers of various tanks). My thought on small level WW2 actions is that few units went into battle at full strength. I was reading in "Tigers in Combat" how the battalion major or a company commander would sometimes go into combat with a small battlegroup of 3-4 Tigers and some infantry.

*********Actually, we've found a way around this. Notice in these battles I am sending you single tank units. You simply play a trick on the editor. You buy units, then a sniper. You attach the unwanted units to the sniper and then your remove that new "sniper" formation. This is how we do it in SPWAW and it works well.

8) On the opposite end of SP full strength OOB is the scenarios in Panzerblitz and ASL, where the units portrayed as described as "elements," with no clear organizational structure. This leaves the player to form his units as desired, which I don't think is completely realistic either.

*******No it isn't. The moment you do that you tend to take away from the "historical" side of the battle.

Finally I wanted to thank you for all the great scenarios that you have made over the years.....keep up the great work. I would appreciate your opinion, and I look forward to hearing from you soon. Thanks in advance.
-Chris Burns

*******My pleasure, Chris Thanks for writing. I hoped these answers helped you.

Wild Bill

[Supervisor]

It appears you made a fan friend forever.