13 Aug 2012 07:27
How Does One Learn / Teach Big Heavy Wargames
Greetings, From time to time I get it into my head that it might be fun to play a big, heavy wargame. But then I check out the rulebooks and that thought quickly fades. Pages and pages and pages of text, exceptions, etc... But then it occurs to me -- SOMEBODY is playing these games. Maybe someone like you? My question -- how do you do it? Do you read the entire manual at once? How do you remember the rules on page 1 once you get to page 5? How do you remember the rules on page 5 once you get to page 20? Seriously, it seems remarkable that people can do this. When you start the game do you have the entire rulebook digested? Or are you constantly referring to the rulebook to look up details? Doesn't diving into the rulebook so much detract from the entertainment? How do you teach these games to your opponent? Is it understood that both players read and digest the manual beforehand before play starts? I imagine it would take hours to teach a big, heavy wargame. Is it expected that you will probably get alot of rules wrong on your first play? Here's a rule from a popular big, heavy wargame: "13.1.8 SR and the Reserve Box: Units may SR out of the Reserve Box into any space containing a supplied unit of the same nationality within the stacking limit. Exceptions: Not into spaces containing only the British ANA or Turkish SN Corps. Corps may also SR out of the Reserve Box into any supplied friendly capital or supply source in their nation. Rule 14.1.5 for Serbia special supply does not allow SR from the Reserve Box. However, Serbia Corps can SR from the Reserve Box to Salonika since it is a supply source for the Serbs. A British Corps using SR between the Reserve Box and any space in the Near East counts as the single corps that may be SRd by sea under rule 13.2.1. US Corps may SR from the Reserve box to any Allied-controlled port in France even if the port space does not contain a US unit." I think that one paragraph contains more rules than Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne combined. And that's just a small portion of the bigger picture. How do you keep all that information in your head? In general, I'm just curious about the overall methods you use to learn and teach big heavy wargames. BONUS POINTS IF YOU CAN TELL ME WHAT GAME THAT RULE IS FROM :) -- Stephen Glenn -------------------- Follow me on the Twitter! <at> spielfriek [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ To unsubscribe: spielfrieks-unsubscribe@... To email the moderators: spielfrieks-owner@... Spielfrieks on the web -- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spielfrieks Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spielfrieks/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spielfrieks/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: spielfrieks-digest@... spielfrieks-fullfeatured@... <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: spielfrieks-unsubscribe@... <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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