New Wargame

First - are the countries to be included for their military/economic/politcal reasons or just to fill out the map? If the counties will play a crucial role in determining the victory conditions then you have to add them. If they are merely spaces to occupy then you coupld probably lump them together.

-Based in Eastern Europe/Asia (from the Balkans to the Pacific), and including the Americas.
-Reliance on current international OrBats for starting forces
-Political and diplomatic aspects will be incorporated
-Current geo-political situations will be incorporated

Sounds like it's really based on the whole world except for Western Europe, Africa, and Austrailia/NZ. That's a lot of ground to cover. Without knowing more about your game I'd say you'd want to cut down on the scale. I know you want to include (you have to include) the US and Great Britain, but do you have to show their countries on the map? Can the US easily deploy forces to countries and be represented without having to show the US on the map? Same for other foces like Gr. Britain, France, Germany, NATO, etc.

How will you incorporate NATO and the UN into this game? The UN might seem ineffectual but they are deployed to many places. NATO has a strong presence in Afganistan right now. Will they be separate units, different from their parent countries?

Sounds like an ambitious game. With only one real "superpower" in the world today making a dynamic and interesting game that is based on real politics and situations seems daunting. Good Luck!

Just my two pence.
- Geoff

Firstly.. Hello to everyone.

This is my first post and im a desiner newbie. Currently I am working on two modern militay games, that seem like they will never be finished.

To reply to the original post. If you want to get into that sort of depth with your game Id say you would have to include India and Pakistan. They have nukes!

Enough said...LOL

Australia: We have a population 4 times larger than Israel and we dominate the SE Asia region. We have been firm Allies of the US and UK.

Canada: Close alliance with US, democratic Commonwealth nation

India: Nuclear power, mentioned by andyprobs

Pakistan: Nuclear power, mentioned by andyprobs

2 possible alliances, they could be this:

Coalition of the Willing (or similar): US, UK, Australia, Canada, South Korea, Israel, Japan, (Russia?)

2nd Alliance (the major one): China, North Korea, (Russia?)

India and Pakistan could be anywhere... I dont really follow their politics

This creates a scenario where the game could be played by 2 players... with the minors such as Iran, Afghanistan etc... "controlled" by on of the major alliances (Iran - 2nd Alliance, Afghanistan (under US admin)

This works. However, the inclusion of Canada would be a minor one. I live there, and our military is fairly small. I was thinking of Australia, but the obstacle I ran into there was finding out what Australia's Order of Battle would be in a military conflict. I would rely on Jane's, but I can't afford the $1300 US they are asking for the book "The World's Militaries"

I have determined that my major countries will be grouped into aliances, to make it easy for play with as few as two to as many as 8 players. The number of players will also determine what the scanrio is for each game. The alliance groupings will be:

1. the US, Israel, Australia, Canada, the UK, South Korea, Japan. The militaries of Canada, South Korea, and Japan aren;t that large, and in game terms, will be balanced. As an aside, I won't be utilizing everything that the UK, Canada, or the US has. Instead, I will be using the forces that are available in that particular theatre for each country.

2. China, North Korea, Russia. It will be an alternate timeline, with the return of a strong Communist presence in Russia that has aligned itself with these nations. These three countries alone, based on the information I have gathered from websites such as globalsecurity.org, have a military presence strong enough to handfle the combined forces of Alliance number 1.

3. Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf states that are run by governments that are hostile to the US and it's allies. These countries, while not as strong militarily, will also be joined in this alliance by a group that wil just be called Terrorists in general. They will be strictly Infatry units, or may even be designated as Special Forces. In any case, they wil help to settle the balance.

In a game involving three or more players, the scenario can include all three alliances, and would also include a map of North America to allow for the possibility of a homeland invasion. The emphasis of the game wil revolve more on land and air combat. There will also be an element of political/diplomatic intrigue included, both within the individual alliances, adn with the other alliances. This includes factors such as signing a separate peace with one nation, or trading resources and/or units within your alliance. It may seem like it is a bit to swallow through the descirption typed here, but I have started the mechanics for the game, and it appears it will work. Feel free to e-mail if you would like more details. I will keep everyone here abreast of the progress as well.

Australia and Canada are fairly equal in military strenght from general knowledge (around 55,000 - 60,000 combined personnel each?) so Canada would be equal to Australia in any modern conflict, and also we are allies by Commonwealth and the 2 leading British dominions. I'm uncertain of Australia's order of battle but I know that our current force in Iraq is around 2000 army, airforce and naval personnel. The land forces are our SAS special forces only (we rarely use our regular infantry for some reason) and our naval force in the gulf is 2 ANZAC class frigates and 1 Guided Missile Frigate. Airforce Im uncertain of although I know it contains at least 4 F-111 and F-15 fighter jets. So I guess all I can say is our order or battle is similar to the US and UK... 3 force deployment under a HQ...not much more to add really.

You've inspired me to change my game (basic manual two thirds complete, map drawn and coloured - looks awesome but hasnt been divided up yet thankfully :-D) from a Colonial/Victorian one to a Modern one. I was toying with WWII/Cold War/Modern previously and Im starting to think of that again... :-p

My current game as it is is fairly complex but it includes a large industrial/technological research element as well as military. I was wondering what sort of mechanics you have existing in your game? I could easily change the units and industries to modern ones, I havnt written my technologies yet so Ive got some room to think. However, In a modern, full map game I would have these alliances:

1. US, UK, Australia, Canada, South Korea, Japan, Israel

2. China, North Korea, Russia

3. Middle East combined

I still cant think of how to fit India and Pakistan in... also have you though of Spain, Germany, France and some other fairly influencial European nations? they would have to be incorperated somehow... Germany and France have larger military forces than the UK.

I'll keep throwing ideas in and try to help you formulate whatever you need.

Cheers,

Tim

1. US, UK, Australia, Canada, South Korea, Japan, Israel

2. China, North Korea, Russia

3. Middle East combined

I still cant think of how to fit India and Pakistan in... also have you though of Spain, Germany, France and some other fairly influencial European nations? they would have to be incorperated somehow... Germany and France have larger military forces than the UK.

That does match what I have fairly closely. India and Pakistan are proving to be difficult to throw in the mix, as they aren't closely related to any of the other nations per se.

I am reluctant to include the European Union, mostly because that could create an unbalanced system. As well, my maps would only be based from the Middle East through Asia, across the Pacific, to the Americas.

The machanics are coming along nicley. I will be incorporating a variety of units for everyone, including Infantry, Armor, Fighters, Bombers, Attack Planes, Helicopters, Transports, and so on. The stats for each country will be based on the actual specifics of the individual unit type. For Example, when comparing armor, the majority of NATO nations use tanks with a main gun that fires 120 mm rounds. China uses 125 mm, and some countries use ones as small as 85 mm. By taking the whole of them, and averaging them out, I determined that 100mm is the middle ground, therefore, 100mm size turrets on a tank would constitute a combat factor of 4 on a d6. The 120mm range is the next highest one, so it would be a 5, and 125mm would be a 6.

I am thinking of making the combat dice for armor to be d10, as opposed to d6, that way it could be used to mirror the obvious attack difference.

The mechanics are actually one of the easier parts of the game. I have determined how to figure initiative per turn, how movement and such will be regulated, so on and so forth. Since I am at work, and didn't bring my notes with me like I normally do, I fill everyone in on the specifics when I get a chance. And StormRaptor, feel free to drop me an e-mail whenever to talk shop.

Cruisers
Frigates
Submarines
Ballistic Missile Submarine
Transport
Aircraft Carrier (carries * units)

These are great ideas for naval unit to incorporate, but how do you factor that into the game. It could create an unbalanced game. How many navies these days have powerful fleets? The US could win a war vs China if they neutralize the sea. You would have to write into the game mechanics some sort of balance, which could upset the realism

For the mechanics of making the game global, perhaps split the world into major alliances, without using NATO. Frex: Canada, and the US; the UK, Australia, and New Zealand; the EU; Japan, South Korea, the Phillipines, and Thailand; China, Russia and North Korea; Middle East/North Africa. For the most part, the majority of Central Africa wouldn't really be able to muster that much of a fighting force that would participate in a world wide conflict. And, by splitting it into factions such as these, with only certain countries being played in each world region (France, Germany, Spain, and other major EU countries would have units included in EU forces, but smaller ones like Switzerland wouldn't) would the give the minor countries that would have notional resistance values, but have available to those who conquer them valuable resources and GDP that could contrivbute to the overall spending power of the nation.

The downside of this, with the scale of map that I would want to use, would make everything very large scale, as the map that I want to use has 0.75" hexes, each hex representing 100 km. Of course, witrh that scale, I could cut down on the sizes of the oceans by incorporating a variation of the sea-box concept that was implemented by ADG in the World In Flames series.

That's about all for now. I'll be giving everyone a sneak preview at the rough mechznics and breakdown of what I have by the weeknd through my journal. Stay tuned.

There are several large and tactically useful fleets in the world, the US has a huge Pacific and Atlantic fleet, consisting of some 100 major combat vessels each (includes surface warships and submarines)... you can transport troops and light vehicles by plane but larger deployments may need amphibious transports. Also aircraft carrier provide air support (as they are today) and larger surface warships can shore bombard in support of amphibious landings (recent landing example, Falklands War).

I agree the US Navy (even possibly the UK) could dominate the world with their fleet, but arnt you trying to recreate the world situation today? Of course the US would destroy a Chinese fleet in reality if they could...but that leaves the Chinese player with a challenging, and often fun situation. The Chinese have a capable airforce, and as depicted in the James Bond (bad example I know) movie "Tomorrow Never Dies". In the movie, Great Britain and China are on the verge of war. Britain could overrun the badly equipped Chinese fleet but the Chinese Airforce would prevent a severe problem as many ships are vulnerable to air attack. Also this is where aircraft carriers could create interesting conflicts.

Splitting the world into major alliances would work and would make a global war on all fronts...very fun. I like that you have considered my idea of nation lumping and resistance values... but you could easily create your own, more effective system (hoping to use mine in my game as I have the whole world mapped :-p)...anyway, Im really looking forward to what you have done so far, it sounds very good! :-D

Cheers,

Tim