Airborne Assault: the engine for the wargame of the future

[nicdain]

Having read several reviews and AAR on the Airborne Assault series, from Red Devils to HTTR to COTA, I developed the idea that wargames are definitely migrating from a traditional scheme made of "hex/turns" to the innovative concept "real terrain/real time". That is the case also of the Armored Task Force series from ProSIM and will be probably of the new Combat Mission #2 engine.

However, the last two engines focus on a tactical scale while the Airborne Assault is almost operational. "Almost" because a real operational is IMHO a game such as TOAW or titles from HPS Panzer Campaigns, which are unfortunately still conceived in the old philosophy "hex/turns".

The Airborne Assault engine is also limited to a WWII setting.

So, to cut a long story short, I'd like to know if the developers of Airborne Assault have ever thought to develop their engine in the future in order to let it be scalable in space (different scales of play, from real operational to almost tactical) and in time (to embrace a wider range of historical periods, say from WWI to modern).

A similar engine probably should provide the ultimate wargame experience.

Regards

[Arjuna]

nicdain,
 
Thanks for your post.
 
The real hurdle is the scalable movement, combat, reassessment and reaction rules. The latter two in particular would require a lot of reworking to accomodate large scale units for instance. Remember that a Regt for instance occupies a 3km radius. We would need to implement segmented occupied areas so they would "snake" along a road, otherwise yoiu would end up with some ridiculous contact situations. It's not just a case of upping the scale and away she goes. No, there would be a lot of work. It's best we first try and become financially viable with the current engine. Then we can see.

[nicdain]

thank you for the reply, I completely understand the point.
And for what concerns the scalability in time? Is it feasible to adapt the current engine to modern combat?

[Arjuna]

Well we are looking at modern. We have a Modern DDT, though I have not had the time to give it the attention it deserves.