Finally going to try Force on Force!

[josta59]

Hey, y'all, I feel bad about how little I've posted on the forum this year. I've realized that I enjoy my solo wargames best when I play them very slowly, about one turn per day. That gives me time to think about what I've done, whether I remembered everything I was supposed to do, and what I should be trying to do next. And posting about everything the way I used to was a lot of work, and I now have a role at my actual job that requires me to be pretty turned on all the time, and I don't want wargames to feel like just more work. So I don't have much to post about these days.

My not-so-exciting news now is about the old Force on Force modern wargaming rules. I've been interested in these rules for a decade now and have enjoyed reading other people's after-action reports using those rules.



I've thought about trying these rules for ten years but was always put off by how long they are. Well, I've finally decided to read them through and give them a try. I want to see if their popularity years ago was for a good reason, and maybe if I finally learn how to use these rules it will energize my solo tabletop games. 

I have a guide for solo play that I found somewhere, so I'll be using that too.

I'm finishing up my first game of the Battle for Ramadi solitaire game that I started a while back (and losing), so I plan to start reading Force on Force now and get some miniatures on the table soon.

[Whiterook]

That’s a cool system! I know what you mean on it feeling a little overwhelming in rules’ page counts, but the more robust games require that in my experience, and are generally worth the time and effort spent to learning them. I’ve heard all good things about that system so, I’ll be curious as to your take on it!

I also get the bit about how much time it takes to post a full game log   …it’s the reason you don’t see more from me, too! It can feel daunting, becomes you need to halt the action and write a report… exactly what officers hated in actual battlefield conditions, right?!? When gaming starts to feel like work, you know you’re in trouble. The same is with GMing games, which is actually a little worse!

As to not having much to post about…

I see you already posted in the “One Shots Game Log” subforum, which is meant to have one running thread, in which you feature (focus) on just whatever ONE game you have on the table at that moment of posting; you can keep it to that one example of play, anywhere within the game your at (like turn 5, for instance) and do so once or as may turns along the way…doesn’t even have to have the final results! Then, later, the next game. It’s a nice way to show examples of games being played by you, and a nice guide to folks to see what these particular games are like.

The “On The Table Game Shorts” (I just changed ‘Logs’ to ‘Shorts’, inspired by your post here!) is another great place you can post, where you focus each individual thread on just one game, however it’s not every turn, but rather stops along the way through the game (i.e., a post on turn one, then turn 5, then maybe turn 8, and final turn 17). The posts are less detailed than you’d have in a full game log, but rather more summary in nature. Again, giving a flavor for what the game looks like as you are playing in. I’ve bought several games due to Mike’s games in there… the thread gave me enough information to make a decision of whether I wanted to invest in it or not. I’d suggest using that more… not as time intensive.

The “Full Game Logs” is the whole enchilada! …detailed threads that follow a game from Turn 1 to a conclusion, every single turn, in depth. That indeed, is super intensive to write out, but is on the forum to pay forward the hobby by showing a full AAR.

….saying all of that above, as most veteran members of all the different versions this forum has been in the past know, my number 1 rule has always been, and remains, to Have Fun, and Not Let This Be Work 

…and yes, we’ve definitely missed you!!!

[josta59]

Aw, thanks, Em! Great point about officers hating having to stop and write the reports. That made me laugh.