As an update to my earlier post, this is how we are planning to calculate the Victory Points that each player will attain at the end of a game.

These points will carry forward to a ranking table that will over time, summarise the points earned by each player.

There will be a Hall of Fame page for each different game type and the total points earned will be summarised by player and by game type.

In Dark Ages there can be a maximum of 6 members of a victory coalition. Therefore, the points allocated shall be 60 points spread equally across the number of participants in the victory coalition.

In addition to this there shall be:

2 bonus points for all players for each rank level achieved plus

5 bonus points for each player still actively playing the game at game end.

These will all be cumulative.

So, as an example, a player who was a member of the victory coalition (assume 6 members) would receive 10 points for being part of the coalition plus 5 bonus points for surviving to the end plus 6 points for achieving Baron rank (3rd rank) giving a total of 21 victory points.

A player who had attained Baron rank but was not part of the victory coalition would receive 5 bonus points for surviving to the end plus 6 points for achieving Baron rank (3rd rank) giving a total of 11 victory points.

Information that I am planning to display at the moment is user name (player ID), realm, rank, victory points and membership (or not) of a victory coalition. I can add other information as well if anyone thought that was either relevant or might be on interest? Please let me know.

Cheers,

GM2

A couple of changes to the website have been published today. I have removed the
wargamers ring link at the bottom of the page. This was slowing down the page
load time significantly. There was a change to the code earlier this month that
was killing page load time.

I have added two new links on the masthead: “faq” and “hall of fame”.

These are currently empty but information will start appearing here over the
next month or so.

The faq page will have information on the game and how to play it, including
some limited tactical advice – sort of like an extension of the rule book. There
will also be information here on how various aspects of the site work. I will
base much of this page on the very generous feedback that has been received to
date.

The hall of fame page will, as the name suggests start listing the entrants into
the hall of fame.

Cheers…Peter
(GM2)

I have made a small change to the Games Forming page. In some instances in some
browsers there was an occasional flickering in the game number. The change made
should resolve this.

Cheers,

GM2

Amongst my many projects is the Victory Page. As the name implies, it will be a
summary, by game, of each game’s winners. I am doing a bit of work on this at
the moment as one of our earlier games looks like it might be finishing in the
near future – of course, its always hard to tell what twists and turns might be
in the offing!

I would welcome feedback on what information you would ideally like to see
presented in the victory page. Should we list player names? The realms they
controlled? Who was in the victory coalition?

Should there be points for sticking it out to the end and fighting the good
fight? Should we show economic and military statistics eg Army/Fleet Size,
Empire income etc?

I envisage a separate page for game game type eg Dark Ages, World at War etc.

As always, feedback is appreciated.

Cheers,

GM2

I am currently working on a new player guide. I think this will be useful for people who are new to this type of wargaming or wargaming in general and will hopefully ease their passage into generalship.

As I conclude finalising the rules for Strategy and Conquest: World at War I got to thinking that as a new player I wouldn’t necessarily know all the ins and out, short cuts and general stuff you ideally need to know in order to effectively manage and grow your empire – hence the decision to develop the guide.

I recall my early wargaming days (1/300th Modern West Germany) and first introduction to Computer Gaming – a Play By Mail (yes…mail!!!) game called Game of Princes – in those days we really only got together at conventions to swap notes – none of this email stuff.

I am starting on Strategy and Conquest: Dark Ages as that is the current game.

I would welcome any feedback as to what you might think would be good to add in. I was going to do it as a downloadable PDF document and present it in the form of an FAQ style guide.

I have noted some feedback in recent days that indicates that this style of document might help some newer players who haven’t realised all the complexities of the game. This might also stop players ordering a cavalry only charge on do or die tactics against a large force of spearmen, in a level 6 fort on defensive tactics as I did in beta testing and lost the lot……

If you have any pearls of wisdom and are prepared to share them, please either email me or post here – I will add you to the credits (with your permission) so as to permanently immortalise you on the interweb

Thanks GM2

I will start with Strategy and Conquest: World at War as this is the one I am currently developing and working through the rules on.

All the games we have in the planning stages will have differences, both in terms of game play, rules and options for players. The user interface is likely to be consistent so that you can navigate between games and pretty much figure out straight away how to do stuff.

The basic website interface will stay as it is, subject to tweaks.

As technology evolves and gives us more options, we will aim to integrate those that can benefit game play. Longer term plan is to have games available for access via smartphones/tablets so we move away from having players being dependent upon access to a PC.

We are also planning to add email support to Strategy and Conquest: Dark Ages and all future games. This is currently in the development stage so hopefully won’t be too far away. The in game email system is working well and adding the ability to send/receive game related emails away from the game interface is an enhancement to this.

So, Strategy and Conquest: World at War is a game that will be played across the entire map. There will be provinces as in Strategy and Conquest: Dark Ages but they will of necessity cover a larger area. There will be land, sea and air combat.

There will be a smaller number of starting empires/nations and they will be loosely based on real nations of the time period i.e circa 1905. You are likely to be able to play as England, France, Russia, Ottoman Empire, Germany, South Africa, a couple of Asian nations, United States, a South American nation or two, at least one more African nation and of course that major super power – New Zealand (might have to make this Australasia – will see how the aussies do in the rugby).

Bearing in mind that I ideally want 12 players roughly equally geographically spread, I would be interested in your feedback as to what the starting nations would be. All will start with roughly the same level of resources. I was also thinking of not having nation specific empires i.e just have 12 equidistant starting provinces. I am still open minded on this.

Other new things that will be showcased in this game are:

1. A very cool world map – bit of eye candy really, but it will be zoomable as in Strategy and Conquest: Dark Ages.

2. Tech levels – players will be able to invest in attempting to raise tech levels so that they will be able to recruit more advanced units. Thus you might have a Sopwith Camel unit available at Tech 1 and an F15 unit available at tech 9.

3. Political system – will give a nation a distinct set of benefits and costs.

4. Trade routes  – will be automated but will give an option to grow income through establishing trade routes with allies and/or disrupting them through use of naval/air/submarine power.

5. Weather – will have an impact on combat eg Leopard 2 MBT’s will have an advantage over a Mark IV – note that I am really talking about differences in terms of tech level rather than specific vehicles.

6. Unit types – these will be reasonably generic so you will be able to purchase a Tech 1 Light Tank as opposed to a specific model. The last thing I want to get into is a discussion on the relative merits of, for example, the Spitfire and the ME109F or whatever.

7. Units will be grouped by type so for example, ships/uboats will be in fleets, aircraft in squadrons and infantry, artillery, tanks etc in armies. All will be commanded by a commander and you will be able to recruit an unlimited (subject to having sufficent income) number of commanders.

8. A Fleet, Squadron or Army will have specific orders available to it eg CAP, Escort, Probe, Blitz, SEAD, infiltrate, defend, assault etc and the phase system will facilitate interaction thus you will be able to have a fighter squadron escorting  a bomber squadron on a bombing mission or task a bomber squadron with tactical bombing then follow this up with a blitzkreig from a panzer army etc. I think this will allow a lot of interesting things to happen with combat and make it both more enjoyable and also more challenging.

9. Production – you will be able to build a limited number of production units eg Universities, Power Stations, Mines, Air Base, Dockyard, Barracks etc. The building of these will allow you to recruit units in a province that they have been built in. Additionally, the building of (for example) a power station will reduce the unit purchase cost.

So, that’s a few of the things coming up in Strategy and Conquest: World at War.

I would be interested in general feedback plus anything that you would love to see in a game like this. As its still in development stage its not too late to add new stuff in or tweak current stuff.

Cheers,

GM2

Strategy & Conquest: Revolution!

Europe c. 1792 AD
15 players
1792 and Europe is aflame with war and revolution. The revolution that turned France upside down is sweeping across Europe. Dynasties and alliances are being torn asunder. Europe is in a state of upheaval. You must lead your nation through these turbulent times. Like Napoleon, you must win great battles and conquer your foes to create a great empire that covers all of Europe.

Strategy & Conquest: World at War

20^th Century AD
12 Players
This global conflict brings war to twelve modern empires as they battle it out for world supremacy in the 20th century. Starting with basic aircraft, artillery, tanks and warships, each nation is in a race to conquer territory and also gain the technology to ensure global domination! After all, Biplanes, Maxim guns and Dreadnoughts are no match for Jet Fighters, Satellites, ICBM’s and Aircraft Carriers!

Strategy & Conquest: Kings & Dragons

Fantasy game
24 players
A fantasy world where the elite of human warriors – led by Kings – battle mythical and fantasy warriors – led by Dragons. Elite human warriors include Samurai, Norsemen and Mongols; mythical/fantasy warriors include minotaur, centaurs and zombies. All start on an equal footing in a circular world; all seek to conquer and dominate.

Strategy & Conquest: Ancient Conquest

Mediterranean world c. 303 BC
20 players
The Mediterranean region is in turmoil following the death of Alexander the Great, with his generals fighting for power in the east while Carthage and Rome are on the rise in the west.

Weather, seasons and terrain offer new challenges that players must factor into their strategy and tactics.

The first deadline is Friday, 17 February at 6pm PST.

Enjoy the game!

GM

Summer TV is pretty dire down here in NZ – apparently we are all off at the Beach or something so the TV Bigwigs generally program drivel over the Christmas/New Year period.

This year, there was a gem amongst the dross. In between working on a couple of new game projects for Strategy and Conquest (I think they are really cool and hope you will too – more on this later) while on leave from work I came across the TV series Sharpe. This stars Sean Bean who has most recently starred in Game of Thrones.

Well worth a look if you have time and if, of course it is available locally. I have seen the DVD’s of the series available at my local bookshop.

Here is the Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpe_(TV_series)

I shall be digging the books out of my library-I am sure I have them filed away there somewhere.

Cheers,

GM2

A few changes will be being made to some aspects of the website structure. This means I need to take it down for a few hours on Wednesday 1900 – 2100 or thereabouts. This is NZ time and this is GMT+13. This is the lowest demand time – late evening in the US and early morning in Europe.

I will announce when its back up.

Cheers

GM2