Reply To: Why don’t we already have the perfect wargame?

[oriskany 60771xp 2]

Starting a project tonight that could be related to this thread.

In summary, I want a Roman-era classical-age warfare game, and before everyone starts clucking I’m not interested in the ones out there.   I’ll start with this … SKIRMISH-level Roman wargame?  eh … WHAT?

Of course, I’m leaving aside things like Gangs of Rome.  In that contest, skirmish wargaming is perfect.
I’m also leaving off things meant to recreate gladiatorial combat.  Again, skirmish wargames would be perfect for that.

I’m talking about Roman centuries, maniples, cohorts, and legions on the battlefield, often against each other in the interesting wars of Sulla, Caesar, Pompey, Brutus, Cassius, Octavian, Antony, etc.

So I’m doing what I always do … what I always have to do in today’s shallow little market …

Starting my own game system from scratch.

Except not really.  I’ll be stealing, and as I believe many in this thread have suggested, grabbing bits (or at least characteristics) from different games and splicing them together into what is … at least for you … the “perfect game.”

I feel a lot of games out there have great concepts and ideas, sadly saddled by other features that really let them down.  So I’ll be taking ideas like:

The basic “attack dice” and upgrade / customization capability for armies that we see in TSR’s classic Battlesystem (second edition – first edition NOT recommended).

The morale / unit collapse mechanic from Kings of War.

I will NOT be taking the “individual figure removal” from TSR Battlesystem, just as I will NOT be taking the laughable  movement system out of Kings of War … it was fine while it was just a fantasy system, but when they tried to make it historical … their movement system became just way too easy, way too forgiving, not reflecting at all about how ancient formations actually moved.

Cranking up the scale to my own personal level, not based on *ahem* “warbands* or anything, but the actual echelon formation units seen in the legions  (admittedly, some of the “barbarian” opponents will have loosley-organized mobs that will look suspiciously like “warbands”).

Anyway, starting the initial frame out tonight.  I’ve been picking at a lot of research and I think I have a “bucket list” of features I want (only sampled above) and a TON of common features I DON’T want.

It’s an exciting time … a clean sheet of paper … wire-framing a whole new system, custom-built from the ground-up to specifically feature the dynamics, background, complexity level, realism level, and scale most desired!