Many activities and processes have physical limits which cannot be exceeded or surpassed. Hight has the performance envelope of each aircraft. Printing is limited by the colors obtainable by process inks. The universe itself is limited by the speed of light (which places quite a damper on the enthusiasm of would-be Captain Picards ... ). Simulation design is limited by the work load placed on the game player--up to a limit, the game is still fun. Beyond the limit, work overpowers fun and the game grinds to a halt as players search for something else to do with their limited time. Computer games might hold the solution to some of these, but at a cost of all the physical feel, look, and camaraderie of the boardgame--which is in itself a complete failure of the solution in my eyes.

Likewise, certain properties of warfare cannot be simulated correctly because they blow right through this work limitation whenever an attempt is made to introduce them. I have become convinced that these issues indeed cannot be successfully modeled in playable games of the sort we all enjoy. I have two examples to illustrate this problem, but first, we must do a little groundwork.

We must agree that to be an acceptable solution to a design problem it must be inclusive. This means that a greater number of players will agree with and enjoy the solution. A game designed for an audience of one (or a few) can get away with innumerable design decisions a mass sales game cannot-since it is tailored the suit the tastes of a very small audience. This is why home-brew games and variants seem so "perfect"--they punch the buttons of their intended audience (the things the designer likes or cares about) and don't bother with exactly the things he couldn't care less about. Also, the home- brew need not worry about appealing to others with different tastes.

For instance, I saw a solution to the over-reaction of Soviet forces in the opening turns of Fire in the East in which a player earnestly suggested that all the Soviet moves be recorded in advance and then a die rolled for each one (after moving them all) to see if that unit must go back to the starting hex. For players immersed in that one facet of that one game, it might have appeal. To the rest of us, I think the mere suggestion is nuts--yeah, I want to record the moves of 1,000 counters and then go back and roll a die for each one to see if the move happens. Does this solution address its intended problem? Yes. Is it a playable solution to that problem, except for a handful of players? Absolutely not. But it was never intended for an inclusive audience--only for a clique of hard-core Europa players.

If we agree that solutions tailored to a small group of individuals do not constitute a useful solution ("Gee, I don't mind writing all that down..." is not a defense of a solution), we can proceed.

The first example of a boundary is one I call "Indian Country" and deals with the OCS. The OCS very severely deals with players who allow themselves to be severed from their lines of communication and supply. Anyone who has been cut off from his supply source for an extended period can attest to this. Where it breaks down is in the momentary breaks in those lines which occur at points in the turn where, essentially, they do not matter. Driven to the extreme, this can develop into the "Indian Country" Syndrome.

In that case, the player doesn't worry about letting the enemy swarm into his close-in rear areas and instead of using his units to seal the enemy out, vast numbers of them are devoted to garrisoning the nodes of his supply net. The result is an intermittent front line with huge stacks of units at each city hex in the shallow rear. The enemy is allowed to swarm around these breakwaters at will, and each is too strong to be reduced by anything short of a protracted siege operation. Between the nodes (the forts in the analogy), the enemy reigns supreme until the Supply Phase approaches--at which point, the player must take a phase to clean up his area of operations to allow the supplies to flow normally. The fact that the enemy had free running over those rear areas (less the nodes) for the majority of the turn has no effect provided the player can clean them up before the instantaneous snapshot of his condition is made in the Supply Phase.

Also, what should be relatively soft targets (the rear establishments) are very strong as the player doesn't "waste" his forces like the real commander in trying to seal his rear areas from enemy incursions. The player doesn't really care what happens between the Supply Phases--a luxury the real commander never has. Solutions which don't involve constantly checking for supply trace and the like? There are none. I'll be happy to hear your thoughts.

The second example can apply to any tactical game, the TCS included. This is the lack of an empty battlefield. In real life, the first indication of the enemy's presence is a hail of bullets coming from "I'm not sure over there, I think..."

Even what would be considered "clear hexes" in most games are loaded with minor obstructions to LOS-places where enemy units could hide, observe, fire, and move without you being aware of them. Even units which fired at you in the recent past are known only in the vaguest terms. Some would look at this as a limited intelligence problem, but those who do invariably go overboard with the "limited" part of that phrase and do not provide any of the means the real commanders have to peer through the mist. At one point, game design dived right into "Double-Blind" and other such unworkable solutions. I think there might be an answer to this one using my concept of having the information, but not being able to use it as if you really did. More on this later.

Most of these boundaries, in real life and games, fall into the "learn to live with them" category. Typically, games involve bigger abstractions than these which most players take in stride. Certainly, some players do not--but then for the guy really into tank ammunition, recording the lot number of each round in the storage rack is no big deal...