Multi Player games

[Stejones82]

Just curious, gents, has there been much dabbling in the Squad Battles system of multi-player (MP) games? I know of the Tarawa Behemoth that did not seem to be a positive experience for some of the players.

I am in the "Umpired Team" game - but that has individual pitted against individual. I am talking about stock scenarios in which two or more players play one side vs two or more players on the other side. I used to enjoy these type of matches in the Early American War series, but perhaps that system was more suited.

I know games can be logged as Multiplayer for Blitz ladder purposes, but has there been much MP game play?

Thinking about the recent Falklands tournament scenario - that could have been played as one British player against two Argentine players (northern and southern attack groups).

Anyway, I have found the communication and even bravado/ trash talk accompanying these MP affairs to add to the entertainment value of the PBEM gameplay. But then again, as most of my regular opponents know and can confirm, I am a bit of a "Chatty Cathy."

Steve

[Cats]

Sir,

I would be more than willing to give it a go! I can't see why it wouldn't work! Let me know!

[Outlaw Josey Wales]

It does work, just need some larger scenarios to make it more fun for all involved. The one that we are playing could be made as one large scenario and the turns that were determined for the three scenarios could be combined. Say all three were 20 turns long, make one large 60 turns.

There are many large maps in the different titles and I hate to see them going to waste without some larger scenarios for them. It doesn't have to be historical either, just a fair amount of forces for the team. Probably a good fit would be a div vs a div. for a three man team or however many are on each team. It doesn't have to be 2 vs 2 or 3 vs 3, you can have as many as you want, but it will take more time to do a turn. Team games have always rocked.

[TheBigRedOne]

Just curious, gents, has there been much dabbling in the Squad Battles system of multi-player (MP) games? I know of the Tarawa Behemoth that did not seem to be a positive experience for some of the players.

Teams games haven't had a ton of play in the time I've been involved with the series, save some of the things that Jeff and Mark have tried to do over the last year or so. I couldn't really tell you why. Perhaps a large portion of the scenarios being moderately sized has something to do with it, but you could always play with a couple of platoon or company commanders rather than battalion or larger scale.

I think the key is to get a group of guys that know each other well and are committed to pushing out their turns as quickly as possible. If you end up with one guy who has a much lower turn rate, the game starts to grind to a halt. If you have a guy that just vanishes, then it gets even more complicated. I'm not sure where the Tarawa game broke down, but most of the team games that were attempted here dragged on quite a long time. It only takes one slow poke to really kill the momentum of a team game. Coordination is also huge, and probably requires one person on the team to act as the over-all commander coordinating things and moving his subordinates along. I don't know if that was done in the other team games, however.

[Cats]

Totally agree with all that you stated.

[Rabbit]

My impressions of team games (which is basically echoing what Alan just said):

Turnaround time. The number one challenge with team games is maintaining continuity. You would think turns would go much faster with multiple people playing a side, however it has the reverse effect such that if you have three people playing a side it actually takes three times as long to get that side’s turn performed. With six people playing and each making a turn a day, you can get one complete turn performed each week if you are lucky. And assuming you can maintain that rate, it would take almost 5 months to play a 20-turn scenario. I’d advocate that scenarios with few turns (but perhaps with large forces) make better team games. And every player involved needs to commit to making their turns within just a day or two on a consistent basis.

Communication. It helps to have a designated person on both sides managing the flow of their turn to make sure it doesn’t get bottlenecked by anybody. In the team games I’ve played, someone often would forget that it is their turn (myself especially!) and the game would languish until someone else finally pinged them for a status. If a commander for each side is included in all correspondence, they should be able to monitor the progress of the move to ensure it doesn’t sit for several days in someone’s mailbox.

Division of forces. Unless you are good at parsing through an OOB, it can be challenging to divide a side’s forces up evenly between players – especially if there are reinforcements. It helps to choose a scenario in which the forces are clearly defined and in which there aren’t many reinforcements (or else you have a good understanding of those reinforcements).

[Jeff Conner]

I have been playing multi-player games for years and they have been some of my most memorable. I started with East Front, which had a module that allowed the commander of one side to assign troops to his compatriots when played over a network. It was hard to get everybody together at the same time, but when it happened, it was a ton of fun. I have played several Panzer Campaigns games in multiplayer. Some got close to being finished, some died in agony. But I enjoyed them all. I am currently playing a Panzer Battles game multiplayer and the turns are getting passed faster than I have ever seen before. We are averaging better than a turn every two days. It can be done with the right group of people and I strongly encourage anyone with interest to give it a try; as long as they can make the time commitment.

In Squad Battles, I have been part of two MP games. The Tarawa game was played to near the final turn before it was ended by the agreement of all of the remaining players (and the outcome was not in doubt). There were some delays in passing turns, but there was at least some communication that allowed the game to continue. Most of the angst had to do with play balance and the lack of success of the Marines. At least that's my opinion on the subject. We also completed a Red Victory scenario that went fairly well, although my side lost that one too.

As was mentioned above, there are not a lot of SB scenarios that can give each player more than a reinforced company of troops to command. I have thought about putting together a brigade sized scenario for Falklands, but have not set aside the time to do it. It would take less time to put together a MP version of the Ardennes Christmas Campaign as Mark mentioned. If there is enough interest, I will try and find time to do it. But, one of the problems with creating large scenarios is that they are a bear to playtest. I have no intention of doing so and as the Falklands tournament has shown, sometimes I am pretty far off when I "think" something is balanced.

A multiplayer game of Ardennes Christmas would be best played as 3X3. If you guys can get the teams together, I'll try and have a scenario put together by the end of the weekend. I have company coming sometime this week though, so I can't make any promises.

Jeff

[Rabbit]

I'd be game! (But I've also had the chance to play in many of the team games, so I can sit this out if we get too many players.)

[Landser34]

Like previous people I have played team games and hey are fun as long as you can get a turn every couple of days me and Jeff are playing a Panzer Battles game and it is moving right along but most of the time I find they die out long before the game is decided or it ends you need dedicated players and people that have played each other for awhile.

[Compass Rose]

From the few number of MP SB games I have been involved in, I have to say that I had a very enjoyable time.

I enjoyed it so much that I hope to be able to try it in a ACW and a NAP game.

If you have the right people involved, it can be a real treat.