Of late I have been musing on skirmish rules, not about mechanics per se but about how I want a game to play.
- A game should be about more than charging! Or shooting! Or maybe it doesn't, but there needs to be some decision points to keep my interest. This is where the gimicky aspect of Malifaux becomes more engaging than the simple LotOW/LotR system. The resource issues in many games also help do this but they aren't what I'm looking for.
- Vehicles need to do more than move and shoot. Unless it's a WWI tank or a steamroller I want vehicles to have more zip. Rather than simply moving a lot and then doing something I'd love to see vehicles have a slow speed but have to move everytime any unit activates with penalties or skill checks for cornering, going through things, bogging down, etc. Maybe not for all games but at least for interwar and Pulp games. Imagine everytime any unit activates three or four vehicles lurching forward, unable to change speed (except by breaking to a complete stop) until their turn. Even a 1" speed suddenly becomes fast if you have to move it eight times with who knows what moving out in front of you in the meantime.
- Heroes and Units Sharp's Practice does this well. Heroes should have plenty of effect on a game, not just in giving units better combat bonuses but in making things happen.
Two games of late (I've been on a nostalgia kick) keep coming to mind as I think of great games I have played. The first is Bloodbowl. Almost every game was tense and the teams tended to be balanced in that the better a team or player was at achieving the goal the worse it was at violence. Thus every model was usually better than its opposite at something.
In most skirmish games that balance breaks down. Combat is the only thing of value and the better model or unit is, well, better. Some would argue this is historically true, but it makes for a poor game. Plus factors other than a shooting or h-t-h skill do matter in real life. How to counter balance this? Honestly, I don't know yet.
The other game is Johnny Reb II - our games of yore tended to be epic in size and rather slow slugfests, but the shear number of die rolls could trigger some impressive cascading events as could the variability of the charges. Part of this variability also stemmed from the orders that were assigned at the start of a turn. in contrast most skirmish games allow figures/units to wander willy nilly on their turn/activation, fully responding to what has just happened.
It would be nice to see some sort of system where units had to strive for a goal regardless of the bedlam. One thought is initial goals such as defend this point or sieze that house where units get a bonus to move and morale as long as they don't move or keep moving, according to their initial orders.
