Re: [Epic] Another Epic40K vs NetEpic post :)

From: J. Michael Looney <mlooney_at_...>
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 98 16:42:21 GMT

> How do you figure E40K got combined arms better than SM/TL (Define a
> "combined arms feel")? What are CA/CD turns, and I figured tanks could
move
> farther than 100 yds in 15 minutes, even in WWI.
>
> E40K is an OK game. It is less thoughtful than SM/TL, and seems to have
been
> built so that GW's "brain trust" could play four or six times a year
without
> forgetting what their units do. SM/TL had flaws, but these could have
been
> rectified easily. The new system is a fine diversion, but not a serious
> wargame.

1) "Combined Arms" (please not the quotes) is a set of rules that JJ & AC
played a lot when they were working on when SM1 was being written. They
swiped a lot of things from CD/CA (Command Decision/Combined Arms) like
order counters (damn near word for word). The speed of play and the
ability to make "tactical" decisions is what I think of a "feel" in this
context. Frank Chadwick (the designer of CD) thinks that wargames should
play in real time, so that it should take about 15 mins to play a 15 mins
turn, assuming that you are playing battalion/regimental level games.

2) Pattons "Drive Across France" averaged about 15 Km a day. That was
thought of as "lightning fast". That works out to, hmm about 150 meters per
CD turn. In CD (and for that matter E40K when you get down to it), your
speed is more limited by what the other guy is doing than in what the upper
speed of your tank is.


3) You think SM/TL is a serious wargame? The mind boggles. Even E40K is
NOT a serious wargame. GW could not write a serious wargame on a bet. Let
me rephrase that, GW would not write a serious wargame because serious
wargamers are not their target. They write games to sell figures, not write
games. In CD there are more German "units" than there are in all of the
E40K universe combined.
Received on Fri Aug 28 1998 - 16:42:21 UTC