Strategic importance of oil
Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 1:03 am
In an earlier post GOOSESTEPPER said:
You're touching on an interesting point.
In W@W (and some other wargames) the abstraction of all the raw materials of war into a generic category of RESOURCES allows for a fairly clean game mechanism of RESOURCES > FACTORIES > STUFF where STUFF may include UNITS and SUPPLIES.
W@W's system is very clean; you can spend 30 minutes (15 min. movement, 15 min. production according to the TCP/IP guidelines) recreating 3 months worth of Germany/Italy's war effort. That's the payoff from the elegant design; less time/drudgery working through game mechanics; quicker games.
But the abstraction hides some strategic realities that many players would like to explore, i.e., the fact that oil was (and remains) a unique raw material. Large scale movement of military formations in WWII (and today) requires fuel derived from crude oil; the only alternative was huge investments in (very vulnerable) synthetic fuel plants. This strategic consideration is largely hidden from view in W@W's production system - in W@W any concentration of generic RESOURCES can be translated into generic SUPPLIES that can move your W@W armies/navies/air forces. To make the importance of oil visible would require a layer of chrome on the game system that some people wouldn't like, i.e., making a new category of raw material called OIL, making two new categories of factories called REFINERIES and SYNTH PLANTS, and making a new category of supplies called FUEL.
What's the forum's view; should be explored, or too much chrome?
Anyways i guess the 4 resources in e.germany include the luena chemical plant and the other chemical plants.
You're touching on an interesting point.
In W@W (and some other wargames) the abstraction of all the raw materials of war into a generic category of RESOURCES allows for a fairly clean game mechanism of RESOURCES > FACTORIES > STUFF where STUFF may include UNITS and SUPPLIES.
W@W's system is very clean; you can spend 30 minutes (15 min. movement, 15 min. production according to the TCP/IP guidelines) recreating 3 months worth of Germany/Italy's war effort. That's the payoff from the elegant design; less time/drudgery working through game mechanics; quicker games.
But the abstraction hides some strategic realities that many players would like to explore, i.e., the fact that oil was (and remains) a unique raw material. Large scale movement of military formations in WWII (and today) requires fuel derived from crude oil; the only alternative was huge investments in (very vulnerable) synthetic fuel plants. This strategic consideration is largely hidden from view in W@W's production system - in W@W any concentration of generic RESOURCES can be translated into generic SUPPLIES that can move your W@W armies/navies/air forces. To make the importance of oil visible would require a layer of chrome on the game system that some people wouldn't like, i.e., making a new category of raw material called OIL, making two new categories of factories called REFINERIES and SYNTH PLANTS, and making a new category of supplies called FUEL.
What's the forum's view; should be explored, or too much chrome?