Reply To: Is wargaming just "make believe" with dice?

[blinky465 17028xp 2]

@panzerkaput – of course, but it does seem a bit weird to ask! The devil in me wanted to say “no, how dare you?” just because the idea of a bunch of people online all going “shhhhh you can’t talk about that” would be brilliant.

I’d recommend “one hour skirmish wargames” and if you don’t have a copy (or can’t find one of the preview pdf files on Google) here’s a pretty comprehensive review: http://daleswargames.blogspot.com/2018/12/one-hour-skirmish-wargames-review-part-1.html

Personally, I found the card-draw mechanism far more enjoyable than rolling dice. Maybe that’s what reinforced the “you’re telling a story” idea more than the binary “were you successful or not?” result of a dice roll – we played so that the player drawing the lowest number of cards draws first. Now the player drawing more cards draws each card, one at a time, each draw giving them another opportunity to “pass the test” (equally, ratcheting up the tension for the other player as they “survive” each subsequent card draw).

Likewise, when a character is hit/shot, they are “downed” and casualties are not resolved until the end of the turn. It means that when you hit a character there’s a chance they may only be “winged” and can come back to retaliate! Immediate resolution of dice rolls (where minis are removed from the tabletop after being killed) feel more like a video game (where a baddie flashes a few times then disappears when killed). Using this mechanic, both players witness a character taking a shot and being downed, and it can come as a surprise (to both) when they get back up again next turn! Again, this really felt more like a story-telling mechanism than the harsh “he’s dead, take him off the board” approach that dice results encourage.