[Each summer in England the now twenty year old group called “Wargame Developments” holds it annual convention - COW - Conference on Wargames (I believe). I’ve never been able to go but have had MGs run there for many years. This year Bob Cordery and Anthony Hawkins ran a PBOM game. Allen played and had the following response.]
Bob Cordery wrote:
I have spent the last few days at the Conference of Wargamers at Knuston Hall, where I ran one colonial wargame using my SCWaRes rules, and helped run another using Chris Engle's POLITICS BY OTHER MEANS ... rules.
Slightly jet-lagged, let me respond: I also had a great time testing the PBOM rules mechanisms at COW. By adding matrix game arguments to a standard figure game, the possibility arises of experiencing those random shifts of fortune, and those unlikely events on the battlefield, that plague real commanders. Integrating a set of cards which, randomly drawn by the players, offer the basis for the matrix arguments, encourages participation by players who may not be familiar or comfortable with presenting matrix arguments.
For example, early on in the colonial game Bob described, I attempted to base an argument on one of the cards that I had drawn--"fear"--to slow the movements of Tom's marching Egyptian infantry column. Correctly, I argued that the Egyptian infantry would be moving cautiously as a result of their great fear of the Mahdists; that their hesitancy was reinforced by the appearance of some Mahdists troops, but an uncertainty as to the location of all the enemy units; and that their fear was not helped by any sort of faith in their native officers, who had showed up late on parade (Tom had been delayed in finding the session!).
Now the effectiveness of this argument had to be weighed by the enemy, which (among gamers of good will!) generates a cooperative, rather than a competitive effort in furthering the game's "script". I chose Graham to judge the argument; he **most unfairly** deemed it to be an "average" argument (clearly it was "strong"!); but I was able to roll the dice successfully anyway and achieve the desired effect. This of course is but one example.
What I found was that the players got caught up in "telling a good story" through the act of playing the game, rather than getting bogged down in the competitive minutiae of standard game mechanisms. Because it involves all the players in a creative process, and much of the intellectual and emotional focus goes towards furthering the story, rather than just on winning, it becomes a truly fun experience for all the participants.
The latter game used rules that were very new to me, although the concepts behind them are ones that I have been using for some time. PBOM are a melding of very simple wargames rules with Matrix arguments, and the resulting games we played with them (we played one colonial game, an SADF v. SWAPO game, and a FIBUA game set in a modern African city) were fast, very enjoyable, and produced very realistic results!
I think the first session was a real eye-opener for all the players, as evidenced by the fact that when we had finished the colonial game, Graham offered to go get his modern Africans (for AK-47) and set up the SADF/SWAPO scenario, and everyone was enthusiastic about playing another period, even off the cuff. And it worked!
Good work by Chris in developing these rules, and by Bob and Tony in bringing them forward at COW (as well as for all the players by being dam' fine sports, as WD people always are). At the wrap-up for the conference, Bob said that he felt that this combination of matrix argument with traditional game mechanisms was a revolutionary development. I agree! Now let's see where it goes. I for one plan to try it out with various existing systems: imagine matrix arguments in a Warhammer Ancient Battles game!
[Matrix arguments in a Warhammer game? BY ALL MEANS! Such a use would greatly aid GW rules by allowing them to gloss over details of reality and focus totally on the action at hand - the fantasy. This would also insert the virus of Mging into a population that would likely pick it up and run with it. I’M ALL FOR IT!]
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© Copyright 2001 by Chris Engle.
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