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Wednesday 18 December 2013

A play-test re-visited

One of the advantages of photographing each and every move and dice throw during a play-test is that enables one to go back and look at the effect of changes that might be made to the rules … and that it what I have done today. I wanted to see whether the possible changes that I am thinking about making to my ITCHY AND SCRATCHY NAVAL wargame rules would have produced a very different outcome. I have done the analysis and my results are shown below.

(The analysis has been done turn-by-turn, with the original results shown first and in italics.)

Flotation Values
    Original play-test
    • Tsarina = 10; Monopoli = 6
    New Rules
    • Tsarina = 16 (4 x 2 x 2); Monopoli = 9 (4 x 1.5 x 1.5)
Turn 1
    Original play-test
    • Neither ship fires.
    • Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 10; Monopoli = 6
    New Rules
    • Neither ship fires.
    • Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 16; Monopoli = 9
Turn 2
    Original play-test
    • Tsarina fires: No effect
    • Monopoli fires: No effect
    • Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 10; Monopoli = 6
    New Rules
    • Tsarina fires: Hit on Monopoli – one FV lost
    • Monopoli fires: Hit of Tsarina – one FV lost
    • Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 15; Monopoli = 8
Turn 3
    Original play-test
    • Tsarina fires: Hit on Monopoli – one FV lost
    • Monopoli fires: No effect
    • Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 10; Monopoli = 5
    New Rules
    • Tsarina fires: Two hits on Monopoli – two FV lost
    • Monopoli fires: Hit of Tsarina – one FV lost
    • Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 14; Monopoli = 6
Turn 4
    Original play-test
    • Tsarina fires (Turret): Hit on Monopoli – one Gun Turret knocked out
    • Tsarina fires (Broadside Battery): Hit on Monopoli – one FV lost
    • Monopoli fires: No effect
    • Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 10; Monopoli = 4
    New Rules
    • Tsarina fires (Turret): Two hits on Monopoli – one Gun Turret knocked out and Movement Rate reduced by one grid area
    • Tsarina fires (Broadside Battery): Two hits on Monopoli – two FV lost
    • Monopoli fires: Hit of Tsarina – one FV lost
    • Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 13; Monopoli = 4
Turn 5
    Original play-test
    • Tsarina fires: No effect
    • Monopoli fires: No effect
    • Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 10; Monopoli = 4
    New Rules
    • Tsarina fires: No effect
    • Monopoli fires: No effect
    • Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 13; Monopoli = 4
Turn 6
    Original play-test
    • Tsarina does not fire: -
    • Monopoli fires torpedo: Hit on Tsarina – four FV lost
    • Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 6; Monopoli = 4
    New Rules
    • Tsarina does not fire: -
    • Monopoli fires torpedo: Hit on Tsarina – four FV lost
    • Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 9; Monopoli = 4
Turn 7
    Original play-test
    • Tsarina fires: Hit on Monopoli – one FV lost
    • Monopoli does not fire: -
    • Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 6; Monopoli = 3
    New Rules
    • Tsarina fires: Hit on Monopoli – one FV lost
    • Monopoli does not fire: -
    • Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 9; Monopoli = 3
Conclusions
The result of the battle was not significantly different although under the new rules the Monopoli should have broken off from the action at the end of Turn 4 and not tried to torpedo the Tsarina. By increasing every ship’s Flotation Value it is possible to simplify the gunfire rules, and I think that this is the way forward I would like to explore in future play-tests.

2 comments:

  1. "Itchy & Scratchy Naval..." is a really funny name and you should keep using it simply sets a light gaming mood.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tomo,

    Thanks for the vote to keep the existing name!

    I hope you enjoy using the rules ... or at least reading about them.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete

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