James Ruhland
05-26-1998, 09:27 PM
Ok, after being:
1) highly critical of the warcard thingie.
and
2) proving myself a Monty Hauler/Munchkin of the worst order (c'mon now,
like ya'll didn't know that before).
It's time for me to say a few good words about Birthright (even though
what follows is a tale of frustration that nearly invoked a reign of
dispicable "crimes against sentient creation").
One thing Birthright as a whole really ends up invoking is how political
considerations can get in the way of an effective "Grand Strategy". This is
1) annoying, 2) really "true to life" and 3) fun (I guess. . . .well, in
the end it will be.)
At any rate, it certainly makes the game more rich and engaging than a
simple table top "I move my units here to crush you, muhahahahahaha!"
wargame. I'm sure everyone has examples (c'mon, share with the group), hear
is my most recient one, from the same little war/fiasco that I touched on
in the other thread.
We're at war with this superpower, and we (me and my usual bunch of
suspects) had gathered a nice little alliance together, and were all set to
pounce on our opponent, having spoted a weak spot. We carefully moved
ships, allied units, and the like to a province and would then sail up
river and hit him where it would hurt, thus forcing him to battle (which is
good for us, even though we would have "lost" the battle, because we can
muster replacement units faster than he can. Yes, I'm talking a war of
attrition here, and no, I don't like it any better than you do.)
Anyhow, everything was all set when a third party decided to invade one of
my allies provinces (his capital, in fact). Now, if this were a simple
wargame, or if indeed I was sole "supreme commander", I would have ignored
this little, insignificant distraction (yes, the units garrisoning the
capital would have been overwhelmed by goblins and their revnants, but what
do I care? We could always take it back from this guy whenever we wanted).
Added further into the mix was if one of my allies helped this allywho had
suffered the third party invasion, because of the mix of political
alliances, this ally would have been declared a traitor in his homeland
(er. . .her homeland, by her father, none the less). So only the troops of
the ally who's nation was attacked could be involved in the defence of the
province (none of the other forces except for the troops of this other ally
were close enough to respond effectively).
Rather than ignoring this insignificant pinprick, we thus had to send a
significant component of our special attack force to engage the invaders,
and there wasn't really time (that's another matter) to gather a new force
for the assault that was planned. So, instead of going to their glorious
deaths in aid of our cause, the troops of this "other" ally (och, let's
call these units BPG from now on) sat alone in this province for the rest
of the turn. . .we'd resume a sligtly modified version of this plan next
turn you see, no problem.
And, in a typical wargame, it would have been no problem. "your" units are
"your" units, you see. But now the twisted nature of BR takes the
forefront. Remember I said that if the BPG helped out the ally who was
attacked, they'd be declared a traitor because the 3rd party who spoiled
the plan was allied to her father's realm? Well, the father decides to take
this oportunity to engage in yet another (*yawn* this happens every other
year) attack in concert with the 3rd party.
He orders her daughter to have the BPG troops betray the ally in who's
province they sit. She refuses. But the BPG troops are made up of citizens
of the father's realm, so the vast majority (all but 10%) defect.
Now, also because of the politics (and this is the real kicker. . .), now
I personally am about to be declared "Persona au Graten" (yes, "person of
cheeze") throughout the bulk of the area where my realm exists, because the
presence and defection of these units to the "other side" (yep, here's
politics for you) kicks in the whiney little anxieties of a local,
reciently installed ruler (his father and older brother having reciently
purchaced nice little plots of real estate, you see). Oh, did I mention
this guy is in the pocket of a realm that is my rival? So he's itching to
declare me a worthless traitor in any case.
In any case, so now we have to further divert resources to deal with the
defected units in Tuor's Hold (which, in a normal wargame without any
political component, I'd just ignore for now. I mean, who cares, right?),
resulting in a mad scramble to scrape together an army and transport it to
the affected area (heh, now it does sound like a bad rash, which it is. .
.here comes the ointment), all without thining out our forces where they
SHOULD be.
Meanwhile, I just got word that our "Big Bad Enemy's" Assault Horde has
started to march. Oh, goodie!
So, we have mass confusion (unless you understood the above, in which case
I would appreciate if you'd explain it to me). It all could have been so
simple: Troops gather in Province A, Third party B assaults Province C,
which we ignore and we instead attack enemy Province D, resulting in enemy
army E marching to fight us (and thus being 1) weakened and 2) out of
possition for the ever wonderful "Maintain Armies" spell), but we are
Defeated F, resulting in that the BPG Troops G are mostly gone, so the
father can't order their Defection H, and my wienie Prince I can't declare
me "Person of Cheeze" J because of the presence and defection of said
troops (G), who are mostly going home in body bags (K) anyhow.
Then, at our leisure, we recapture Province C with our big army L, after
having cleared out the rest of the Big Badguy's Army E.
See how simple everything would have been? But how fun is that. *_+
Anyhow, if you have time after reading the above (AKA "WAR AND PEACE"
because of it's length, no doubt), I'm sure you have your own tales to
tell, and I need to hear them. Please. 8-)
1) highly critical of the warcard thingie.
and
2) proving myself a Monty Hauler/Munchkin of the worst order (c'mon now,
like ya'll didn't know that before).
It's time for me to say a few good words about Birthright (even though
what follows is a tale of frustration that nearly invoked a reign of
dispicable "crimes against sentient creation").
One thing Birthright as a whole really ends up invoking is how political
considerations can get in the way of an effective "Grand Strategy". This is
1) annoying, 2) really "true to life" and 3) fun (I guess. . . .well, in
the end it will be.)
At any rate, it certainly makes the game more rich and engaging than a
simple table top "I move my units here to crush you, muhahahahahaha!"
wargame. I'm sure everyone has examples (c'mon, share with the group), hear
is my most recient one, from the same little war/fiasco that I touched on
in the other thread.
We're at war with this superpower, and we (me and my usual bunch of
suspects) had gathered a nice little alliance together, and were all set to
pounce on our opponent, having spoted a weak spot. We carefully moved
ships, allied units, and the like to a province and would then sail up
river and hit him where it would hurt, thus forcing him to battle (which is
good for us, even though we would have "lost" the battle, because we can
muster replacement units faster than he can. Yes, I'm talking a war of
attrition here, and no, I don't like it any better than you do.)
Anyhow, everything was all set when a third party decided to invade one of
my allies provinces (his capital, in fact). Now, if this were a simple
wargame, or if indeed I was sole "supreme commander", I would have ignored
this little, insignificant distraction (yes, the units garrisoning the
capital would have been overwhelmed by goblins and their revnants, but what
do I care? We could always take it back from this guy whenever we wanted).
Added further into the mix was if one of my allies helped this allywho had
suffered the third party invasion, because of the mix of political
alliances, this ally would have been declared a traitor in his homeland
(er. . .her homeland, by her father, none the less). So only the troops of
the ally who's nation was attacked could be involved in the defence of the
province (none of the other forces except for the troops of this other ally
were close enough to respond effectively).
Rather than ignoring this insignificant pinprick, we thus had to send a
significant component of our special attack force to engage the invaders,
and there wasn't really time (that's another matter) to gather a new force
for the assault that was planned. So, instead of going to their glorious
deaths in aid of our cause, the troops of this "other" ally (och, let's
call these units BPG from now on) sat alone in this province for the rest
of the turn. . .we'd resume a sligtly modified version of this plan next
turn you see, no problem.
And, in a typical wargame, it would have been no problem. "your" units are
"your" units, you see. But now the twisted nature of BR takes the
forefront. Remember I said that if the BPG helped out the ally who was
attacked, they'd be declared a traitor because the 3rd party who spoiled
the plan was allied to her father's realm? Well, the father decides to take
this oportunity to engage in yet another (*yawn* this happens every other
year) attack in concert with the 3rd party.
He orders her daughter to have the BPG troops betray the ally in who's
province they sit. She refuses. But the BPG troops are made up of citizens
of the father's realm, so the vast majority (all but 10%) defect.
Now, also because of the politics (and this is the real kicker. . .), now
I personally am about to be declared "Persona au Graten" (yes, "person of
cheeze") throughout the bulk of the area where my realm exists, because the
presence and defection of these units to the "other side" (yep, here's
politics for you) kicks in the whiney little anxieties of a local,
reciently installed ruler (his father and older brother having reciently
purchaced nice little plots of real estate, you see). Oh, did I mention
this guy is in the pocket of a realm that is my rival? So he's itching to
declare me a worthless traitor in any case.
In any case, so now we have to further divert resources to deal with the
defected units in Tuor's Hold (which, in a normal wargame without any
political component, I'd just ignore for now. I mean, who cares, right?),
resulting in a mad scramble to scrape together an army and transport it to
the affected area (heh, now it does sound like a bad rash, which it is. .
.here comes the ointment), all without thining out our forces where they
SHOULD be.
Meanwhile, I just got word that our "Big Bad Enemy's" Assault Horde has
started to march. Oh, goodie!
So, we have mass confusion (unless you understood the above, in which case
I would appreciate if you'd explain it to me). It all could have been so
simple: Troops gather in Province A, Third party B assaults Province C,
which we ignore and we instead attack enemy Province D, resulting in enemy
army E marching to fight us (and thus being 1) weakened and 2) out of
possition for the ever wonderful "Maintain Armies" spell), but we are
Defeated F, resulting in that the BPG Troops G are mostly gone, so the
father can't order their Defection H, and my wienie Prince I can't declare
me "Person of Cheeze" J because of the presence and defection of said
troops (G), who are mostly going home in body bags (K) anyhow.
Then, at our leisure, we recapture Province C with our big army L, after
having cleared out the rest of the Big Badguy's Army E.
See how simple everything would have been? But how fun is that. *_+
Anyhow, if you have time after reading the above (AKA "WAR AND PEACE"
because of it's length, no doubt), I'm sure you have your own tales to
tell, and I need to hear them. Please. 8-)