Tactical Decision Games
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2015 7:06 am
Not sure how well known these are, but Warhammer Empire (the Empire forum) had a set of games run by some of the tactical masterminds on their forum. These decision games were basically the forum voting on army lists, deployment, movement, magic, etc. They always had an Empire "team" and an opposing "team" made up of forum members. They are interesting reads that allow you to think about tactics from another person's perspective. They really make you put your thinking cap on, and I feel that they could improve everyone's game, and drum up some excitement in the forum.
Here is an excerpt from Warhammer Empire:
What are all these Tactical Decision Game (TDG) threads that you see filling up the Tactica Board’s page? You have come to the right place for the answer.
Militaries use Tactical Decision Games as a way to train intelligence personnel and operators on their tradecraft of warfighting. A tactical problem is posed, time is given for choosing the best course of action based on the situation, and then it is discussed.
This methodology has been applied to Empire in Warhammer. Each TDG premiers a matchup between Empire and another army. The battle is stopped at key points and forum members are invited to discuss the best way forward at that point. Then the battle is fast-forwarded to another set of decisions.
Each TDG conducted has been a little different. Sometimes multiple teams have been formed and competed against each other facing a common foe….sometimes teams are formed to play the good guys and the bad guys. We try and strive to make each TDG a little different to keep up interest and to make it fun.
If teams are formed, the goal is not to “win,” but to share ideas and learn. TDGs are a great way to bridge the gap between normal tacticas that provide the “how to” beat an enemy and places like the Elector’s Forum where specific questions on tactics are answered. TDGs cover the middle ground- providing numerous scenarios of units facing each other that allow things to be learned that tacticas and normal forum posts don’t provide.
So as you can see, this is a very neat idea, and I haven't seen the equivalent on this forum (unless I missed it). The major catch is that it is a HUGE undertaking by the people who run it. Holy Hand Grenade did them on the empire forum and I can't even imagine how much work/time he put in, but they seem like they went over very well and people had a lot of fun with it.
Any way we could pull this off? Or has this been done before and I couldn't find it? I'd be willing to help in any way that I could. It might be too big of an undertaking, but I think it could be a great way to improve our understanding of the game, learn more about our armies as well as our opponents, etc.
Thoughts?
Here is an excerpt from Warhammer Empire:
What are all these Tactical Decision Game (TDG) threads that you see filling up the Tactica Board’s page? You have come to the right place for the answer.
Militaries use Tactical Decision Games as a way to train intelligence personnel and operators on their tradecraft of warfighting. A tactical problem is posed, time is given for choosing the best course of action based on the situation, and then it is discussed.
This methodology has been applied to Empire in Warhammer. Each TDG premiers a matchup between Empire and another army. The battle is stopped at key points and forum members are invited to discuss the best way forward at that point. Then the battle is fast-forwarded to another set of decisions.
Each TDG conducted has been a little different. Sometimes multiple teams have been formed and competed against each other facing a common foe….sometimes teams are formed to play the good guys and the bad guys. We try and strive to make each TDG a little different to keep up interest and to make it fun.
If teams are formed, the goal is not to “win,” but to share ideas and learn. TDGs are a great way to bridge the gap between normal tacticas that provide the “how to” beat an enemy and places like the Elector’s Forum where specific questions on tactics are answered. TDGs cover the middle ground- providing numerous scenarios of units facing each other that allow things to be learned that tacticas and normal forum posts don’t provide.
So as you can see, this is a very neat idea, and I haven't seen the equivalent on this forum (unless I missed it). The major catch is that it is a HUGE undertaking by the people who run it. Holy Hand Grenade did them on the empire forum and I can't even imagine how much work/time he put in, but they seem like they went over very well and people had a lot of fun with it.
Any way we could pull this off? Or has this been done before and I couldn't find it? I'd be willing to help in any way that I could. It might be too big of an undertaking, but I think it could be a great way to improve our understanding of the game, learn more about our armies as well as our opponents, etc.
Thoughts?