I've been corresponding with a gamer who just published a WWII tank board game I purchased and after asking him some questions about his gaming experience and design this is what he wrote back:
Thank you for your positive feedback on my game.I made my first tank game in 1979 when I was in high school, a miniatures game. I became a type I diabetic and hence was on insulin shots. Well, a 14-year old boy having access to insulin syringes immediately thinks of ways to have fun with them, so I made flame throwers out of them (fill with gasoline and shoot through a candle, range of 6 feet). I then designed and made tanks out of metal sheets and used the flame thrower/syringes to hit/kill the tanks (flame thrower burns on the metal tank, heats the metal, and plastic sprue inside sticks to the bottom – hence a kill). I made up rules on the kills, guns, movement, artillery, paratroops, etc and designed the armored metal models around the class of armor they were – light armor had open hatches while the heavy tanks had spaced armor with carboard insulation between the 2 "plates". All design features affected the the flame's ability to melt the sprue inside. Light tanks got 1/2 syringe while medium and heavy tanks got 1. Heavy long range guns got 2 syringes and you physically shot from half the range. For IF you aimed the flame thrower at the target, closed your eyes and shot. It was a really neat game, structured rules and special affects with literally burning tanks and burnt out tanks littering the battlefield (mom's back yard – I had a VERY understanding mom). I hope this doesn't freak you out lol.
From my flame thrower game, over the years I have modified the game and turned it into a table top board game, and then redesigned it using historical facts. My first version of the game you have was an utter failure (2 years ago). I made my own because the tank game games out there were either too simple or the shot resolution was way too complex and time consuming. I think I have a simple easy system that captures what I think tank games should be.
I have the actual scale and turn time frame of my game. However, this data is buried deep inside several of my data crunching Excel Spreadsheets and at this point not sure where to find them. I do remember that a vehicle's distance for one turn is = its speed in MPH/10 (a M4 speed is 25MPH/10 = 2.5 rounded to 3 squares). The actual gun range and how far a vehicle can move started with playability – I know from playing that I wanted a gameboard that could fit on a table top but had enough spaces to provide for maneuver and strategy and that could have several mini-battles taking place at once. From these parameters I determined that a regular tank should have a range of 6 spaces and move 3 (as a baseline). From these play parameters I backed into the actual feet-per-square and calculated the time for each turn. Looking at a gun's rate of fire modified for the time it takes to adjust aim, each gun actually takes several shots in one turn. I found that resolving several shots for each gun each turn really bogs the game down, so I combined the several shots into one using statistics on combining the total shots. In other words, if shot #1 has a 10% chance of hitting and shot #2 has a 15% chance of hitting, then "one" game shot represents the 2 combined shots: 10%+(100%-10%)*(15%)=23%. Once I had determined the actual scale and turn time period I set a standard move and range. From these standards I set all other equipment and vehicle speeds. Hence, the actual conversions have pretty much been buried in time.
This is probably more than what you were looking for.
BTW: I have also made many other board games since when I got an interest in a game of a certain subject but there were none out there, I made my own:
- global power 1900-2000 – 1/3 military, 1/3 economic power, 1/3 politics (US, GB, France, Germany, Russia, Japan) – developed a min-version of Risk and play tested with my friends prior to jumping in a developing the actual game
- ww2 war game – global scale
- ww2 airplane game with real 3d – you really feel the maneuvers of your planes – VERY simple and really fun
Thank you for your interest and encouragement :)
I started out with rubber bands and lighter fluid can to "squirt" the flamethrower at 1/72 scale tanks. We "graduated" to 1/32 scale Tamiya tanks and BB guns reinforcing and repairing the armor with plastic styrene sheets. My favorite tank was the Russian T-55 because the BB's always bounced off the turret leaving a mark. I miss the good old days.
begins to think about terrain for Team Yankee.
