Today we continue the annotated log of the firt campaign of Strategic Primer, which I continued last month with the beginning of the third turn, dated February 17, 2001. We continue the log of that turn today. Read more…
Today we continue the annotated log of the first campaign of Strategic Primer, which I continued last month. Read more…
Today I’m continuing the annotated log of the first campaign of Strategic Primer, which I last updated in January. Read more…
Today I’m continuing the annotated log of the first campaign of Strategic Primer, which I continued last month. Read more…
Today I’m continuing the annotated log of the first campaign of Strategic Primer, which I continued last month. Today’s installment consists almost entirely of the brilliant play of the player code-named “George Washington.” Read more…
Today I’m continuing the annotated log of the first campaign of Strategic Primer, which I continued last month.
Player Name Date Unit Attempted Action Result of Action Theodore Roosevelt 2/15/01 None None Currently producing Rabble, 2 turns remaining. Arthur Wellesley 2/15/01 None None None. Currently producing Rabble, 2 turns remaining. Rhiannon ferch Hyfedd 2/15/01 None None Was deposited in ocean and perished with all hands.
This odd notation comes from the fact that I generated positions based on one version of the map, then started running the game with another, and Rhiannon’s position happened to be over water. As Rhiannon was either an AI or a player who initially volunteered but never actually participated, I decided to just remove “her” to simplify the game.
Xenophon 2/15/01 Crossbow 1 Move from E side in large curve to S. Move correctly 1/2 hr S (7 mi), 1/2 hr W (7 mi). Bogged down. Bogged down. Bogged down. Bogged down. Moved correctly 1/2 hr S (7 mi), 1/2 hr W (7 mi). Moved out of step 1/2 hr S (7 mi), 1/2 hr W (7 mi). Bogged down. Moved correctly 1/2 hr S (7 mi), 1/2 hr W (7 mi). Bogged down. Moved correctly 1/2 hr S (7 mi), 1/2 hr W (7 mi). Bogged down. Bogged down. Bogged down. Moved out of step 1/2 hr S (7 mi), 1/2 hr W (7 mi). Bogged down. Bogged down. Bogged down. Bogged down. Moved out of step 1/2 hr S (7 mi), 1/2 hr W (7 mi). Bogged down. Moved out of step 1/2 hr S (7 mi), 1/2 hr W (7 mi). Moved correctly 1/2 hr S (7 mi), 1/2 hr W (7 mi). Moved correctly 1/2 hr S (7 mi), 1/2 hr W (7 mi). Bogged down. Bogged down. Bogged down. Moved correctly 1/2 hr S (7 mi), 1/2 hr W (7 mi). Bogged down. Bogged down. Xenophon 2/15/01 Legion 2 Move NE and camp Move out of step 2 hr (20 mi). Move correctly 2 hr (20 mi). Bogged down. Bogged down. Move correctly 2 hr (20 mi). Move correctly 2 hr (20 mi). Move out of step 2 hr (20 mi). Move correctly 2 hr (20 mi). Move correctly 1 1/2 hr (15 mi). Bogged down. Xenophon 2/15/01 Crossbow 2 Move from SW side in large curve to NW. Bogged down. Moved out of step 1/2 hr N (7 mi), 1/2 hr E (7 mi). Moved correctly 1/2 hr N (7 mi), 1/2 hr E (7 mi). Bogged down. Moved correctly 1/2 hr N (7 mi), 1/2 hr E (7 mi). Bogged down. Bogged down. Bogged down. Bogged down. Moved out of step 1/2 hr N (7 mi), 1/2 hr E (7 mi). Bogged down. Bogged down. Bogged down. Bogged down. Bogged down. Moved out of step 1/2 hr N (7 mi), 1/2 hr E (7 mi). Moved correctly 1/2 hr N (7 mi), 1/2 hr W (7 mi). Bogged down. Bogged down. Bogged down. Bogged down. Bogged down. Bogged down. Moved correctly 1/2 hr N (7 mi), 1/2 hr W (7 mi). Moved correctly 1/2 hr N (7 mi), 1/2 hr W (7 mi). Bogged down. Moved correctly 1/2 hr N (7 mi), 1/2 hr W (7 mi). Moved out of step 1/2 hr N (7 mi), 1/2 hr W (7 mi). Bogged down. Bogged down. Bogged down. Bogged down. Bogged down. Bogged down.
As you can already see, Xenophon was one of the more imaginative players, here ordering a somewhat complicated exploration maneuver on the the first turn.
Robert E. Lee 2/15/01 None None None. Working on Rabble, done in 2 turns. END OF 2/15/01
And that was the end of the first turn of the inaugural campaign of Strategic Primer, and so is a good place to break this annotated log, even though today’s installment has been rather short.
Today I’m continuing the annotated log of the first campaign of Strategic Primer, which I began last month.
Player Name Date Unit Attempted Action Result of Action Edward Campau 2/15/01 Catapult 1 Move north until finding something, then attack the something. Bogged down, Bogged down, Bogged down, Moves correctly for 1/2 hr (5 mi), Bogged down, Bogged down, moves correctly but out of step for 1 hr (10 mi), Bogged down, Bogged down, moves correctly for 1 hr (10 mi), Bogged down, moves correctly but out of step for 1 hr (10 mi), bogged down, moves correctly for 2 hrs (20 mi), moves correctly but out of step for 2 hrs (20 mi), bogged down, bogged down, bogged down, moves correctly for 2 hrs (20 mi), moves correctly for 2 hrs (20 mi), moves correctly but out of step for 1/2 hr (5 mi). Total distance: 120 mi north.
Because my notion of a unit was a large number of men, and because I was drawing inspiration from second- and third-hand descriptions of wargames, I made a big deal in the game design about whether infantry units were “in step,” by which I mostly meant “in formation.” That has for now vanished from the design—for one thing, the very idea of “being in step” or “being in formation” is a relatively modern invention, something players have to teach their soldiers. And even if it comes back, in the current design I won’t note it unless it becomes relevant because the unit encountered something and had to react.
Edward Campau 2/15/01 None None Currently building Rabble, with 2 turns left Arthur Pendragon 2/15/01 None None Invented gunpowder and put it in balls with flint and steel so as to explode on impact. Equipped catapults with this.
And here we have the first example of someone taking advantage of the instant-discovery mechanic. As this was before we started using email for the game, and before Wikipedia, this involved writing formulae down, drawing diagrams, and handing this in on paper with the strategy. How times have changed! But note that I still encourage inventions taking technology in directions that our history didn’t go.
Another point about this is that in that campaign, I was a great deal laxer about prerequisites. I didn’t pay the slightest attention to details like what a gunpowder ball like this would be made of, where the materials to make the gunpowder would come from, and where the flint and steel came from—and, most egregiously in retrospect, whether simply putting “flint and steel” inside would even work. (It might, or might not, depending on the design.)
Arthur Pendragon 2/15/01 Crossbowmen 1 Move as far south as possible Bogged down, moves correctly but out of step for 1 hr (14 mi), moves correctly for 1 hr (14 mi), bogged down, moves correctly but out of step for 2 hrs (28 mi), moves correctly for 2 hrs (28 mi), bogged down, bogged down, moves correctly for 2 hrs (28 mi), moves correctly for 2 hrs (28 mi), moves correctly for 2 hrs (28 mi), moves correctly for 2 hrs (28 mi). Total distance: 196 mi Arthur Pendragon 2/15/01 None None Currently building Rabble, 2 turns remaining. Pywll pen Annwn 2/15/01 None None None. Currently building Rabble, 2 turns remaining. Theodore Roosevelt 2/15/01 None None Currently producing Rabble, 2 turns remaining. Theodore Roosevelt 2/15/01 Rabble 1 & 2 Move east as far as possible or until enemy sighted. Cannot move east, as is on an island.
This was an oversight&mdash:I didn’t even set up the game, really, beyond what units everyone started with, until after I’d gotten the first strategies. And even what the measurement units for the map were, and whether it was tiled, and so on, was in flux for a long time at the beginning while I tried to figure out what would work.
And we’ll end this segment of the log here. More will follow shortly.
As I wrote in an introductory post last week, I’ll be posting excerpts of the log of the first campaign (2000-2001) of Strategic Primer. (My, how the game has changed!) But, as I introduced the series last week, I’ll forego any further introduction here—here’s the beginning of the log:
The Log of Strategic Primer 2001, for Jon Lovelace’s Science Fair Project
The units that have been discovered by the beginning of the game are the rabble, the legion, the unit of crossbowmen, the unit of longbowmen, the unit of mounted crossbowmen, the unit of mounted longbowmen, and the catapult.
And here—before we even get into the log per se—we note one major difference between this first campaign and every subsequent campaign. While there have been major changes from time to time in what kind of advances the players can discover, until the middle of the first campaign I hadn’t even progressed to thinking of advances as opposed to simply units.
All of these are fairly straightforward except for the first: the “rabble.” The idea there was that you could call up untrained, inexperienced men—your peasant levies, or something like that—and then, after a battle or two, they would be about equivalent to minimally-trained but inexperienced men, and so would convert to another unit type of the player’s choice, generally using the weapons they picked up from their defeated enemies. The ability to change units’ “type” by changing their equipment has endured, as has the ability to improve with experience, but this particular mechanic was dropped after that campaign.
Player Name Date Unit Attempted Action Result of Action Napoleon 2/15/01 None None None. He is currently building a Rabble with 2 turns to go.
Construction of new units (or anything else, as you might expect) was something I hadn’t considered, so I made everyone who didn’t give me orders get a Rabble every third turn, and pulled numbers out of the air for those who did. Napoleon was either an “AI” or one of the people who volunteered to be a “test subject” but didn’t actually play in the game; I don’t have the binder of results that I printed to display with the project, and I can’t find the file that included the names and code names of the players, so I can’t tell you which of these two “he” was.
George Washington 2/15/01 Catapult 1 Move due N 5 mi Moved correctly. George Washington 2/15/01 Catapult 2 Ordered to move due E Moved correctly. George Washington 2/15/01 Legion 1 Move due S for 5 mi Moves correctly, getting out of step George Washington 2/15/01 Legion 2 Move due W for 5 mi Moves correctly George Washington 2/15/01 Crossbowmen 1 Move NE for 5 mi Moves correctly, but gets out of step. George Washington 2/15/01 Crossbowmen 2 Move SE for 5 mi Moves correctly George Washington 2/15/01 Rabble 1 Move SW for 5 mi Moves correctly George Washington 2/15/01 Rabble 2 Move NW for 5 mi Moves correctly but gets out of step George Washington 2/15/01 None None Note: His fort is empty but is ringed by his units. He is at the moment building a Rabble, with 2 turns to go.
I suppose that if another player had tried to “rush” the first turn, this might have been a viable strategy.
Papè 2/15/01 None None None. He is currently building a Rabble, with 2 turns to go. Hannibal 2/15/01 None None None. He is currently building a Rabble, with 2 turns to go. Panzier 2/15/01 None None None. He is currently building a Rabble with 2 turns to go.
We’ll end this segment of the log here. I began the habit of always noting a player’s turn, even if the player takes no action, in that first campaign; I still try to do that even now, and not just for player strategies as a whole, so that I don’t forget to do something in future turns.
This series of posts, the annotated log of the first campaign of Strategic Primer, will resume in a few weeks. But what do you think so far?
In the coming weeks, I’ll be posting pieces of the log of the first campaign of Strategic Primer. I’d been postponing this because I feared giving an unbalancing advantage to some players.
But now, finally looking the log over—any player that can glean some advantage from slogging through the log, even with the annotations and commentary I plan to add, is welcome to it. It’s dense, full of the minutiae (all but the dice rolls!) of the mechanics of the campaign. (One of the main changes made in the near-decade since then is that now I at least attempt to hide unnecessary details from the players.)
I don’t know how long this will take; I divided the log into four files (well, really, restarted the log three times, since the program I wrote that created it always used the same file name), but each (except the last, partial, file) is several times more than a manageable portion.
A few notes: Each action was dated with the date that I ran it; each turn, as far as I had a notion of “turns”, was a day in real time. The map was more or less the same (though it wasn’t yet tiled, and it was originally intended to be a physical map, with physical pieces, which had lines in different places as an artifact of my printing process that got used as coordinates until I converted to entirely digital Judging), but somewhat larger with larger movement speeds.
Unit health was (almost) entirely based on manpower. I gave no thought to where that manpower came from, except for including a unit called “Rabble”, which after some condition became any other unit or units of the player’s choice using the same number (50) of men. I’ve described other broken (if you’re unfamiliar with that term in this context, see this definition) mechanics on this blog before, and so won’t repeat them here, though I’ll mention them again if they come up in the log.
While we wait for the current campaign to progress, let’s take a look back in time!
A Christian Worldview of Fiction
Rewrite, Reword, Rework
The Bard on the Hill
