Between June and September a small group of Matrix Gamers have been playing a Dark Ages game set in Korea. The year is 655CE. Several rival kingdoms vie fo dominion over all of the peninsula. Naturally this is a competitive game. I play in it but I have an ulterior motive.
I want to teach people how Matrix Games simulate war.
This article chronicles the events of the game and what I taught the players.
JOINING THE GAME
"Put me in the Kingdom on the south west side of the peninsula. I want to be aggressive this game!"
My country, Silla, is a small state with a good army. It's neighbor to the west is Peakche, to the north lies Kogyuro. China and Japan sit further off.
THE STRUCTURE OF EACH TURN
Mark has three phases a turn.
- 1. A movement turn in which players move their men around in the areas
they are in.
2. A regular argument turn - just like in all other Matrix Games.
3. A phase to resolve conflict and trouble arguments.
MY FIRST MOVEMENT AND MAY FIRST ARGUMENT
All the forces of Silla mass on the boarder with Kum. Looks like an invasion!
If I get an argument right now - here it is...
Mayol Wang causes his peasants to build an earthen wall and wooden pallisade around Kyongju. It is a simple design and execution so it is completed in one turn.
The result is that Kyongju is surrounded by a single line of defense. This forms a BARRIER TO MOVEMENT. This means that when people enter Nktong they may not freely move into Kyongju. To enter they must either be peaceful (ie look harmless or have permission) or fight their way through.
[Matrix Game Rules Note: This is a defense barrier - which in the rules blocks free movement. To cross it one has to make an argument to attack. A round of conflict arguments is done for each layer of defense/barrier. The attacker must win each round of conflict to get in. If player want to increase the odds of an attack getting in they may make preparation arguments (like laying seige) but in the end all barriers are breeched by assault! Oh yes, and one can breech one barrier at a time or try to get through them all in a single turn!]
Why does this happen?
- 1. The King commands - the people obey - that is the order of heaven!
2. A ten foot tall earthwork with pallisade is simple to build - it takes strong backs not strong minds.
3. Given that I'm about to send the army out of the country to fight, defending the capital with a wall sounds like a good idea!
This worked so I made my next argument.
The forces of Silla invade Kum! They proceed with the following objectives. The army matches directly for Kongju. They burn and loot it and then proceed to Puyo which they also burn and loot. They hope to encounter the Paekche army (attempting to stop them) When they encounter the enemy the Hwa Rang Army faces them to do battle. This allows the other force to proceed with the plan of looting and destruction! Meanwhile, these martial arts boys will be put to the test! Should the enemy defend a city, then the Hwa Rang army will blockade them in the city (to block their getting away without a fight) in the first step of a seige.
Why should this work?
- 1. The Paekche cities are not defended by a defense barrier.movement
barrier. There is nothing to stop me from going in to burn them save the Paekche
army.
2. They have one army. I have two. One to hold, the other to attack!
3. We are practicing the Taoist approach to war - an irresitible wave of water sweeping all in front of it!
PS: For all you Matrix Gamers out there - This argument signals that negotiation is not going to happen. This will likely throw "peace" moves out the window. Of course it will also cause the other Taoist principle of war to come up - "Thorns spring up in the wake of an army." It is easy to go in but hard to get out again!
SO I SET MYSELF UP FOR EVERYONE TO NOT LIKE ME
I am doing my orders in the open to demonstrate my large repertoire of spiffy Matrix Game tricks (many of which have not been noticed by players yet). Of course this puts me at a disadvantage - players can counter me. But here in lies the first sneaky trick.
SNEAKY TRICK NUMBER ONE
The person who is winning a Matrix Game is not the person who wins the most arguments. The winner is the person who calls the tune that everyone dances to. By going into Paekche I am saying - This is a WAR game - The battle field is Paekche - I am bad and aggressive (which provides a magnet for action) - and opens the door for committed alliance building rather than namby pamby shadow boxing.
So while I may end up being attacked by all, I have probably set the stage for all the action to come. Oedepus was blind at the end of the play - but the play was about HIM!!!! Victory!
By the way, don't count me out. One thing I've learned from running MGs over the years is that power is seldom as "powerful" as it seems. Let the invaders come and they will learn how a committed foe defends. It is NOT passive.
CREATING A VISION - MAKING IT HAPPEN
Matrix Games allow players to do anything, right? So what should a player do?
Total freedom (in the state of nature view of the word) is honestly a bitch. One is left with no cues about what to do. Most people do not handle it well. Just look at lottery winners! A year latter and they are broke and friendless. Freedom is only truly useful when one has an idea about what to do with it. Another word for idea is vision.
A "vision" is like a daydream. One sees a picture of something that does not exist and then figures out a way to make it happen. Enacting the vision. Without a vision - a person does not know where to go or what to do. Humans do not handle such ambivalence well. The fear and anxiety of uncertainty, wrecks us. Vison give purpose.
All that being said, what is a vision?
In a war game like "Hwa Rang" it is a plan on how to conduct a war. In Vietnam, it is how to build a free country. In other games it will be different. In addition, each player has his own vision in each game played. It is likely that no two players share exactly the same vision. (In otherwords, just like real life!)
As the game is being played, the player's visions emerge and clash. The game is really a battle of wits to see whose vision happens. Which is much more dynamic than just fighting a battle!
EXAMPLES OF VISION
I am playing in two games right now - Vietnam 1946 and "Hwa Rang" 655AD.
VIETNAM: I am the leader of the Vietnamese forces in Vimh Tho province. My goal is to establish the independence of the Republic of Vietnam. At the beginning of the game I looked at the forces in the game and decided that the only true enemy I faced was France. By my estimate, France would be able to whip us in an open fight because they could call on British and American support. I could have immediately gone for guerilla war but since my goal is to build a nation I decided to operate in the open until driven underground. WHY? Well...my vision is of the peasants and townsmen of Vietnam viewing a functional government of people who look like them, who treat them fairly and who call on them to be more than they now are - in short to be free (without really knowing what that is - dreams are powerful stuff).
When the French arrive - they will have to be the bad guy. The one's who crush this dream. (People hate to be woken up from their dreams). If war followed then so be it but it would be a war where the local population supported me rather than the French.
As the game was being played (and still is being played) my vision has been slightly modified. At first the French let me set up my government - they were not there to stop me. So I did just that. If they had waited a little while longer they would not have been able to come into the province as rulers. I would have had more guns than they did. When they did come, I did not resist their take over. They were the bad guys. But I did have to come up with a battle plan.
I noticed that Dylan appeared to be seizing the middle ground. This is very much a chess strategy. So I decided that Dylan was playing chess. Since I feel he can win if I play his game - I must pick another game to play. Since I'm running an oriental I decided to play GO. In Go, one surrounds one's opponent rather than fight open battles. By denying the French open battles I deny them the psychological victory they seek.
I also create a psychological barrier between them and the Vietnamese Peasants. This creates supply problems. I have not illusions about cutting off the French from supply (WWII showed how air supply could be done). But I wanted to make all their supplies costly. In the end this will be a war of attrition. One where I will win by sheer dent of numbers.
OOPS! Now Dylan knows by vision! Can he counter it? We will see...
HWA RANG: In Korea I control a small but militarily strong kingdom. My immediate neighbor is weak. My northern neighbor is strong but spread out and with enemy to his rear. I should be able to tactically at least equal him in numbers. The Japanese may eventually become a factor but not at first and the Chinese are far away from me. That leaves only the Northern Horse Barbarians as the wild card. They should worry my northern neighbor rather than me. So what do I do?
Well, I want to play an aggressive game this time. I've been doing cat and mouse for months now so it is time for a change. So I will try applying Taoist principles of war. Be the rushing water in the open spaces and thus sweep away all resistance. Appear strong when I am weak and weak when I am strong. Create a killing ground for my opponents to walk into. To retreat as easily as I advance and use by opponent's moves to create openings I can exploit. This "Son of Heaven" will be a "ghost in the dark".
Huh? This is a vision? I don't get it.
Sun Tzu wrote a little book called "The Art of War" that spells out ideas of warfare that I first encountered in reading Taoist writing as a teenager. They are flowery ideas, but they boil down to a prescription for fighting based on the artful interplay of force and yielding (yen and yang). Exactly the same ideas found in the martial arts. So I'm no longer playing Go. Now I'm doing Tae Kwon Do.
VISION SOUNDS HARD TO COME UP WITH
People may say, "Well its easy for Chris to say. He's a game writer. He comes up with ideas all the time. I can't do this." To which I say - BULL!
Any idea you have about a game is a vision! ANY IDEA! A vision does not have to be big or flowery to be effective. In fact I think the simpler visions are the best. Too much detail and it is to easily foiled. While a simple plan can take in emerging event without falling. So any vision is good.
A simple vision is better than no vision!
This is true you know. I've had a number of visions in my life and seen many of them come true. Not all they way I anticipated - and not all successfully - but they happened. Without vision I am certain other things would have happened but none of them what I wanted!
So dream - it is the first step to success.
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© Copyright 2000 by Chris Engle.
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