Newbie question, sorry.
I’m trying to design a simple wargame campaign module that can act as an AI referee or aid me as umpire when managing a campaign.
A gridmap, terrain and counters and different sides is easy. Crucial however is the communication between generals from the same side.
I don’t want them to communicate directly via email. I want them to communicate just like all pre-modern armies, with messages/orders/intelligence per aide-de-camp that are delayed or intercepted or sometimes lost, thus creating fog of war.
How do I design such an option, that a player enters a form, creates a message, and sends it via a courier to one of the other players who automatically receives the message (or not if lost) after several turns, depending on the terrain and the distance?
I could be the postmaster myself but that could be a heavy burden.
Assuming reasonable players, there is the option of delayed messages that
can be written and then revealed later. This requires cooperation of the
players. If the message gets lost, then the player would discard the
message instead of revealing it.
Some ideas along this line can be found in The Gamers CWBS (civil war
brigade series) rules.
Newbie question, sorry.
I’m trying to design a simple wargame campaign module that can act as an
AI referee or aid me as umpire when managing a campaign.
A gridmap, terrain and counters and different sides is easy. Crucial
however is the communication between generals from the same side.
I don’t want them to communicate directly via email. I want them to
communicate just like all pre-modern armies, with
messages/orders/intelligence per aide-de-camp that are delayed or
intercepted or sometimes lost, thus creating fog of war.
How do I design such an option, that a player enters a form, creates a
message, and sends it via a courier to one of the other players who
automatically receives the message (or not if lost) after several turns,
depending on the terrain and the distance?
I could be the postmaster myself but that could be a heavy burden.
I think that ‘sending delayed or incomplete messages that sometimes are lost or intercepted’ is not a feature that is supported by Vassal. However I had a different idea, with a card deck.
Basic Idea
Every turn a player draws cards.
Player A/Emperor Napoleon draws in his turn a card from a card deck. It says: You may send 1 message to Player B/Marshall Ney
He draws a second card saying: he will receive the message after 2 turns.
Napoleon makes a pool for Ney, available at turn 3, with 3 cards with subreports: Napoleons own location: an order: information about enemy positions.
In the 3rd round Player B/Ney draws a card saying: you may receive one message. He draws a second card saying: you may reveal 3 subreports. Thus he gets the full message.
This gives interesting random variations.
If a player doesn’t draw a ‘send message’ card, he can’t send a message. If he doesn’t draw a ‘receive message’ card, he may not receive a message that turn. If the sending player (Napoleon) draws a slower messenger, Ney will receive the message after 3 or 4 turns. If Ney draws a card saying: you may reveal 2 random subreports, he only gets the reports about Napoleons position and location but not the order.
A player with a greater span of control can send and receive more messages to more other players, with faster messengers.
Would that be possible, that a player makes a future stack of cards for others that can be opened on certain conditions?
Civil War Brigade Series had a table you rolled on with each leaders ability contributing to the table used. It created a delay many times that required a D6 to accept the order. So crappy Generals might need a 1, great generals if delayed would be a 1 or a 2.
I personally would use a D10 system, Give a value to each general, add the 2 generals and roll a die, if the die is equal or less then the total of the two generals the order is accepted. If larger then subtract the generals total from the die and that is the number of turns you must wait before the order is received and acted on.