What Would You Like to See in a Tabletop Wargame?

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Ancient
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What Would You Like to See in a Tabletop Wargame?

#1 Post by Ancient »

Hello

This comes up now and again so if I'm allowed to repeat it: what would you like to see in a tabletop game that fantasy or its near equivalents doesn't have?

Is there anything you liked or disliked about previous versions - size of the game, imbalances, overemphasis on certain phases etc.?

I'd love to hear people's thoughts. I like the idea of something relatively compact, as balanced as possible (through standardization) and which rewards wise choices on the field with less reliance on super units.

Lately I've been experimenting with some rules for a smaller version of a fantasy game and might publish a document in the near future. It will focus on strategy at the unit level (e.g. use of formations) and units will be more important individually.
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Re: What Would You Like to See in a Tabletop Wargame?

#2 Post by Ferny »

Personally I loved 8th Ed warhammer and am enjoying 9th Age even more - they have everything that I could want. However, if I were to make a change for me personally, it would be for the game to play quicker. I suspect this would mean lower points than standard (2,400-2,500) and therefore balancing it to that level.

(Note - before I got sucked into 8th, my favourite wargame was Mordheim - gotta love the skirmish dynamic and injury/xp tables afterwards, as well as searching for loot etc where the loser might actually gain more than the winner! I now prefer mass battles, but thsi was a cracking game...and was also quite quick!).
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SpellArcher
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Re: What Would You Like to See in a Tabletop Wargame?

#3 Post by SpellArcher »

I've found 2000pt games of 8th edition pretty good. You still get most of your toys but it's slightly simpler and quicker.
Ferny wrote:my favourite wargame was Mordheim
I used to really enjoy Necromunda and before that early 40K, before 3rd edition made it an army-level game. I still have a hankering to play a squad-level game with the really old Eldar models!
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Re: What Would You Like to See in a Tabletop Wargame?

#4 Post by Prince of Spires »

I still really like 8th edition. Most of the rules issues can be resolved by discussing them with your opponent. And as long as you don't try to turn it into a very competitive game it works great. So, 8th ed WH is what I like

If the question is, what else would you like, then two things:
- A massive scale wargame: WH starts to fall apart above 3000pts or so. It becomes slow, cumbersome and some rules become weird. So, a game that focusses more on complete units, massive movement and tactics. And less about the individual warrior or character.

- A small scale wargame: in a similar way, WH at < 500 pts doesn't work. So, something that focusses on individual models / abilities. A very skirmish style game. Fast and easy. A bit like a new version of Mordheim or the LotR game from GW (which I still want to try at some point).

Interesting side point, this was actually the hope I had for the direction GW would take with End Times / AOS. They had all the tools. And if they would have done it like this, many people would have been very happy. I would have been at least.

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Re: What Would You Like to See in a Tabletop Wargame?

#5 Post by Ferny »

Prince of Spires wrote:I still really like 8th edition. Most of the rules issues can be resolved by discussing them with your opponent. And as long as you don't try to turn it into a very competitive game it works great. So, 8th ed WH is what I like

If the question is, what else would you like, then two things:
- A massive scale wargame: WH starts to fall apart above 3000pts or so. It becomes slow, cumbersome and some rules become weird. So, a game that focusses more on complete units, massive movement and tactics. And less about the individual warrior or character.

You might like KoW - it kinda plays a bit like that.

- A small scale wargame: in a similar way, WH at < 500 pts doesn't work. So, something that focusses on individual models / abilities. A very skirmish style game. Fast and easy. A bit like a new version of Mordheim or the LotR game from GW (which I still want to try at some point).

Mordheim! Mordheim! Mordheim!

Although actually, despite my fond memories clouding rational thoughts, LotR does look interesting too :)


Interesting side point, this was actually the hope I had for the direction GW would take with End Times / AOS. They had all the tools. And if they would have done it like this, many people would have been very happy. I would have been at least.

I hadn't thought of it like that, but yeah, totally agree - if ET had been Warhammer Max for uber points, and AoS were Warhammer Mini for skirmish (Mordheim style) game, that would have sat really well alongside 8th or a revised 9th.

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