I'm trying to design a little mini-wargame for use within a tabletop RPG. While I know a little bit, I'm certainly no military historian. I'm good at wargames, and that's about as far as it goes. What I need some advice on are the important factors that go into deciding the outcome of a military conflict at the level of individual battles. I'm not sure what the term is for this, but I need to design rules that allow the representation of battles that, put together, decide the outcome of a war. At the same time, if possible, I'd love to be able to scale it down to use with smaller numbers.
That said, I'm looking for three or four total factors to work with. I know that there's no way to realistically boil a military conflict down to three factors plus a randomizer, but that's what I need to do for the purposes of this mini-game. So I'm looking for some input on the factors that I should consider and the relative importance of them to the outcome of individual conflicts that will, together, decide the outcome of a war.
Logistics, important as it may be, I think would be best handled by the use of general modifiers because getting into that level of detail would not work well in this game. Also, I'd like to keep strategic and tactical representation as a single factor and forec strength as a single factor.
What immediately springs to my mind is, equal parts of:
1. Strength/ability of forces (including numbers, training, prowess, mobility, etc).
2. Strategic and tactical expertise (representating the entire brains of the operations).
and maybe (though it might be best as an external modifier, like logistics)
3. Terrain (A little redundant with strategy, I know, but it serves as an extrenal modifier, which is hard to resist.
What do you think? Any ideas?
I welcome all responses, but I ask one very important favor: please identify your perspective in your posts! If you're response represents some measure of actual study of military history, then please let me know. Conversely, if something just sounds cool to you, point that out as well. Both types of responses are important, but I think it would be best if they were identified.
Thanks!
That said, I'm looking for three or four total factors to work with. I know that there's no way to realistically boil a military conflict down to three factors plus a randomizer, but that's what I need to do for the purposes of this mini-game. So I'm looking for some input on the factors that I should consider and the relative importance of them to the outcome of individual conflicts that will, together, decide the outcome of a war.
Logistics, important as it may be, I think would be best handled by the use of general modifiers because getting into that level of detail would not work well in this game. Also, I'd like to keep strategic and tactical representation as a single factor and forec strength as a single factor.
What immediately springs to my mind is, equal parts of:
1. Strength/ability of forces (including numbers, training, prowess, mobility, etc).
2. Strategic and tactical expertise (representating the entire brains of the operations).
and maybe (though it might be best as an external modifier, like logistics)
3. Terrain (A little redundant with strategy, I know, but it serves as an extrenal modifier, which is hard to resist.
What do you think? Any ideas?
I welcome all responses, but I ask one very important favor: please identify your perspective in your posts! If you're response represents some measure of actual study of military history, then please let me know. Conversely, if something just sounds cool to you, point that out as well. Both types of responses are important, but I think it would be best if they were identified.
Thanks!