Hollandazed: Thoughts, Ideas, and Miscellany

When I was in my twenties, I used to stay up late - two o'clock, three o'clock, five o'clock in the morning - working on creative projects. I didn't need to go into work until eleven, and the place was about ten minutes away, so I could wake up at ten-thirty or even quarter-to and have time for a shower and a change of clothes before rushing out the door. The solitude, the quiet, the darkness outside gave me a kind of focus and clarity that I didn't get during the daylight. About six years ago, I got a new...

The most recent issue of C3i magazine contained two Table Battles scenarios that I designed at the request of Rodger MacGowan and Steve Carey. As a result, I got a comp copy of the magazine, including the two pack-in games. One of these is Gettysburg designed by Mark Herman, and I was pretty eager to get it on the table. I think I learned the thing, played it, then sat and thought about it, all in the space of an hour and a half or so. Small map, handful of units, short breezy rules. As the designer says, it's not...

There's an old chestnut that once you start making games yourself, you don't really have time to play anything but your own, and for me, that's more-or-less true. Every once in a while I manage to pull it off though, and I usually learn something from the experience. I actually got another publisher's game on the table recently, and I feel like the game was really let down by that publisher.  Now, it'd be pretty crummy for me to get on my little soap box and tear down another publisher, and being that we're some weird fringe thing that exists...

The Shot & Shell Battle Series originated because I had designed three previous games that had somewhat similar rulesets but at different scales, with different combat procedures and different ZOC rules and different activation mechanisms (an I-go-U-go for this one, chit pull for that one, activation roll for this guy over here). I couldn't really call those three previous games a "series", because for me as a gamer the appeal of a series is that you only need to learn the rules once, then you're off to the races. Having to learn each game separately, and if you happen to...

In designing wargames, I adhere to the importance of leadership in deciding battles. I do not mean that every contest rests with the generals. Certainly doctrine, technology, firepower, morale, terrain, weather, and numbers are all decisive. Yet, capable leaders are required to harness whatever advantages they have, and compensate for disadvantages. Starting in the 20th Century, the importance of generals somewhat waned as armies become more professional and scientific. Yet, who can doubt the importance of Erwin Rommel or William Halsey in their operations, or that of even Osama Bin Laden and Võ Nguyên Giáp? All of that said, leadership...