Designing “The Legion: Rumble in the Jungle“

[Whiterook]

Some of you may have noticed a couple miniatures build threads (here and here), referencing those miniatures intended use as being as part of a wargame project I’m working on. I thought you might like to see exactly what that game development looks like, and perhaps follow along. This thread will therefore be a running log of a Vietnam War miniatures game I’m working on, The Legion: Rumble in the Jungle.

It initially drew inspiration from a book-wargame, called “Ghosts of the Jungle”, with Australian SAS troopers in the Vietnam War; while being a cool game in itself, I decided I’d rather play a similar style wargame with miniatures. To be honest, I have no clear idea what the end product will be… an upgraded version of that other game, or a totally new game, only time will tell.

For those unfamiliar with designing games, there are generally two ways this goes down: One way is you get the germination of an idea and you design a new and unique game onto itself; the other way is, you “borrow” parts of another designer(s) game and morph it into something of your own. The latter can come dangerously close to plagiarism if you’re not careful, but rest assured there are TONS of games out there that use ideas, concepts, and almost entire mechanisms that parallel other games! The truth of the matter is, designers often inspire other designers… it happens.

For me, I will start with the disclaimer that this game under development is for personal use only — it is NOT for sale, nor as a pitch to a game company, or as a real life product. Could it morph into a totally unique game, totally different from its’ original inspiration? Sure… but that’s not the current intent and I do not foresee anything beyond takeing one persons idea and playing it out in my own unique way, for personal use only. There! On with the show!!!

One of the first things to change was the combatants: Instead of Australian SAS Troopers fighting the Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese Army (NVA), I decided to Americanize it; my miniatures would be will feature a team of U.S. Army “Green Berets”, of the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), better known by their nickname, “The Legion”…                                    

The 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) derives its lineage from two units of World War II fame -- the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the First Special Service Force ("The Devil’s Brigade"). The OSS was formed in 1941 to collect intelligence and wage secret operations behind enemy lines. Small teams of OSS operatives parachuted behind enemy lines in Europe and Asia to lead partisans against the Axis Forces. From these guerrilla operations came the nucleus of men and techniques that would form the Special Forces Regiment.

The First Special Service Forces was a combined Canadian-American Force constituted on July 5, 1942, in the Army of the United States as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 1st Battalion, 3rd Regiment, 1st Special Service Force. The Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 1st Battalion, 3rd Regiment, 1st Special Service Force was first activated and trained at Fort William Henry Harrison, Montana. The Force participated in the Italian Campaign and saw additional action in Southern France. The Force was disbanded in Menton, France, on Feb. 6, 1945. The unit was reconstituted in the regular Army on April 15, 1960, designated as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces Regiment.

On Sept. 21, 1961, at Fort Bragg, N.C., the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) was activated officially. Just one year later, elements of the 5th Special Forces Group began serving temporary duty tours in the Republic of Vietnam. Full deployment of the group was completed in February 1965. Units from within the group deployed from its operational base at Nha Trang to the four military regions of South Vietnam. Operational detachments established and manned camps at 254 locations to train and lead indigenous forces of the Civilian Irregular Defense Groups and regular units of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam. The 5th SFG (A) also formed specialized units that conducted special reconnaissance and direct action missions.

Despite being one of the smallest units engaged in the Vietnam conflict, the group's colors fly 20 campaign streamers. Soldiers from the group are among the most highly decorated warriors in the history of our nation. Sixteen Medals of Honor were awarded (eight posthumously). The group is awarded the Presidential Unit Citation (Army) Vietnam 1966 to 1968, The Meritorious Unit Commendation (Army) Vietnam 1968; Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm, Vietnam 1964; and Republic of Vietnam Civil Action Honor Medal, 1st Class, Vietnam 1968 to 1970. On March 5, 1971, the colors of the 5th SFG (A) were returned to Fort Bragg, N.C., by a 94-man contingent, led by then-Col. (retired Maj. Gen.) Michael D. Healy, thereby terminating their official Vietnam service.

These Legionnaires will fight as a 4-man Special Reconnaissance (SR) team, made up of highly trained military personnel… Green Berets.

Special reconnaissance teams operate behind enemy lines, avoiding direct combat and detection by the enemy. As a role, SR is distinct from commando operations, but both are often carried out by the same units. The SR role frequently includes covert direction of airstrikes and indirect fires, in areas deep behind enemy lines, placement of remotely monitored sensors, and preparations for other special forces. Like other special forces, SR units may also carry out direct action and unconventional warfare, including guerrilla operations.

During the Vietnam War, respective division and brigades in-country trained their Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol members (now known as the Long Range Surveillance units). However, the US Army's 5th Special Forces Group with support from seconded Australian SASR and AATTV instructors, held an advanced course in the art of patrolling for potential Army and Marine team leaders at their Recondo School in Nha Trang, Vietnam, for the purpose of locating enemy guerrilla and main force North Vietnamese Army units, as well as artillery spotting, intelligence gathering, forward air control, and bomb damage assessment.

Long range surveillance teams operate behind enemy lines, deep within enemy territory, forward of battalion reconnaissance teams and cavalry scouts in their assigned area of interest. The duration of an LRS mission depends on equipment and supplies the team must carry, movement distance to the objective area, and resupply availability. LRS teams normally operate up to seven days without resupply depending on terrain and weather. SR units are well armed, since they may have to defend themselves if they are detected and their exfiltration support will need time to reach them.

Basically, these are Bad-Assed soldiers! Highly skilled; lethal and deadly.

Since reconnaissance is a basic military skill, "special" reconnaissance refers to the means of operating in the desired area, and the nature of the mission. In US Army doctrine, there are five basic factors:

1. Physical distances: The area of operations may be well beyond the forward line of troops, and require special skills to reach the area.
   
2. Political considerations: Clandestine insertion also may be a requirement. If there is a requirement to work with local personnel, language skills and political awareness may be critical.
   
3. Availability of required special skills and expertise: The most basic requirement for SR is to be able to remain unobserved, which may take special skills and equipment. If there is a requirement to collect intelligence, skills anywhere from advanced photography to remote sensor operation may be required.
   
4. Threat capabilities: This usually relates to the need to stay clandestine, potentially against an opposing force with sophisticated intelligence capabilities. Such capabilities may be organic to a force or be available from a sponsoring third country.
   
5. Follow-on special forces missions: This is the concept of preparing for other functions, such as Unconventional Warfare (UW) (i.e., guerrilla) or Foreign Internal Defense (FID) (i.e. counter-guerrilla) operations.

All this fits well with a game of stealth. The nemisis will be the Viet Cong, in the Vietnam War. Scenarios will generally Mission-based, where the team will undertake actions such as moving through the jungle assessing enemy strength, disposition, and position; target acquisition; hostage rescue; high value targets elimination; search and rescue…etc.

No turn limits will be imposed: Play will progress until the mission parameter requirement(s) are met, or team elimination or exfiltration parameters ending the game are met (provided per each scenario).

[Whiterook]

I liked the use of square spaces, used in that aforementioned game that inspired the start of this game… you see this style of game spaces in a few other games as well, such as Flying Pig Games’, “Crowbar”. A usually reason for using square game spaces in a wargame is due to Line of Sight (LOS) mechanics, being LOS in horizontal row and vertical columns only (no diagonals). To be honest, I balked at this when first coming across it, as I thought that seemed over simplified, however, it worked quite well; it plays out as a mechanic for a game that isn’t deep rooted as far into the weeds as in a ‘traditional’ wargame …this is ‘fast play’ style gaming and in being such is, well, simplified to some great degree. Again… it works. So, as I’d like my game to play similarly, the Legion will be a square space gameboard battlefield.

I use Apostrophe Games tiles (see here), which are two and a quarter inch square, cardstock tiles that come in a nice box, which is perfect pre-made storage! The product comes with 48 High quality, blank, square tiles, with pre shaped rounded corners. They are diecut, so one sides’ edges are slightly rounded, with a glossy surface; the other side is more matte finish. I use the glossy side for the artwork.




Permanent ink art pens are used to draw the shapes (e.g., palm trees, huts, roads, swamps areas). I prefer nibbled art pens. For this project, I used a a Platinum Carbon Pen; a cheap priced art pen at just under $8 USD, it’s available at Amazon, and is almost as good as my old, professional art pens I used since art school, which are unfortunately now discontinued! …I was was surprised, and extremely happy to see this pen perform brilliantly.



On the subject of my old pens, one of the issues I have with those is, the ink cartridges aren’t made anymore, and other brands don’t fit well in them (by design of the company that made them, of course); but this Platinum Carbon Pen is fully compatible with those previously used art pen ink cartridges, and I bought a ton of them… at $7.44 for a pack of three, four cartridges per pack, on Amazonlink.




So how did I create the artwork on these terrain tiles? Well, after freehand drawing in the image (e.g., palm tree from top view) onto the tile, I color filled the images and background with COPIC permanent markers, an Artist-grade ink that behaves much akin to watercolor paint. I can then go back in and firm up any penned ink lines and add in fine details. COPIC markers have this odd, but wonderful ability to blend colors applied, and also have a specific clear liquid concoction (also delivered by COPIC marker pens) that can help soften the blends; that blending doesn’t work so well on glossy surfaces so, these ended up being more of a layering effect, rather than a blending effect.

Having some tiles tp literally play with, I setup some scenarios for play and figured out I was short a few tiles for where I currently was in the playtesting process. I’ve got it down to a fairly efficient process to create them, but they are indeed, time consuming… but in a good way! The system is playing far better than I anticipated for this early on to be honest. I had a good feeling that using homemade tiles would be neat, but this is proving itself to be awesome! And I love having a good, fast, dice chucking game!

I’m thinking of making a chart with the four main characters, with cartoon renditions of the guys, a short bio, and maybe a wound tracker for the skull-shaped LITKO tokens I bought to track wound conditions; after the third hit, it’s a kill (KIA); the tracker would be more streamlined, instead of placing the tokens on the tile with the mini and having to move it with the mini. These are the LITKO Battle Wound markers for wound tracking. See here for a full description and link to where to buy them



Small and effective!

[Whiterook]

BUILDING A BATTLEFIELD!

So I’d bought the Apostrophe Games blank tiles set and it was time to start designing the battlefield tiles. I started the process back in January 2023, by trying a test tile on art paper first… rarely do I slow down enough to do test runs, lol. I used that new pen & ink set I mentioned earlier to do a one tree tile; I didn’t bother with a pre draw with pencil, as I’ve found it’s best to just run with the commitment of straight ink on paper (an Artist thing). The “One Tree” is actually one big palm, a smaller palm, and a tiny palm tree cluster, which will be the foundation of all single tree images.

I then used COPIC markers to fill in the palm fronds with Lime Green, Yellow Green, and Sand; then going back in with the art pen to sharpen up frond edges and add in frond spines. Then came Nile Green to add dark shadows. Lastly, I used Light Suntan and Light Beige colors for the ground work on the rest of the tile, with dot highlights of Sand color.





…I had a good foundation with use of the markers and how they felt.

I kinda struggled with moving from the art paper to the Apostrophe tiles, which have a glossy film on the paper cardstock, which caused some issues; basically, in finding that the ink pools, rather than absorbs into a porous surface (like in the art paper)…the blending wasn’t happening at all, but more just running into the adjacent color. My first attempt was kinda chaotic looking (I didn’t snap a pic of it), so I used a colorless blender (COPIC marker), which lifts color up, almost to the point of erasing the layer moved over; I reapplied new ink, in Sand color, and then added some greens and gray. The jungle palm trees didn’t look right so I formed up some lines with better definition and added shadows, ending up with this…



…as a first try on the tiles, I wasn’t pleased with the result, but it looked like I was heading in the right direction. The fronds were kinda funky at that stage. But I kept at it and eventually, found a fix for the ink puddling and it tempered the chaos a bit, trying to find the groove. I was getting closer!

So, for an idea of my mad method, I start with drawing the jungle palms with an artist fountain pen, in permanent ink…



…I tried using light pencil on the fourth attempt, above, and then inking in, which ales some of the pressure off on getting it right the first time. I then start laying in color with the COPIC markers, using one side that has a conical brush that’s similar to an artist brush, except solid. It’s a tough application, ‘cause the ink puddles due to the alcohol in the ink… it’s a son of a gun! I start with yellows and light greens in the palms, and then add in lime green. I then move onto the jungle floor (ground) with a sand color, and then add in greens in different shades. Lastly, I go back in and darken up shadows around the palm leaves; and then place is some ground texture. Really, there just so much you can do with these markers the way I’m using them, which may be totally wrong  

This is what the above tile looked like (the bottom one, pictured below) at that stage of the overall tile art learning process…



…and all four…



This is the work area I’ve done these tiles at, which is my old, home work office



To be honest, I started to resign myself to the fact that, for what I want to use these for, they are good enough. The Artist in me wants to hide under a rock.

So, the production line began!

[Whiterook]

So as I produced more and more tiles, it became a fairly efficient process.



…the COPIC markers can spew ink droplets badly if you tug the caps off too aggressively, and it’s permanent ink dye so, I use an artist drawing pad to make sure my desk is safe!

As of this writing, I now have 78 tiles with 1-3 Jungle images, 1-2 huts, rocky hills, rice paddies, swamps; and also a bunch of road tiles with jungles, concrete bunkers, huts, and a radio shack.





These will allow me to play any of the scenarios rumbling around in my head! I do have a some other design ideas, most notably a weapons depot, and maybe a small airfield.

[Whiterook]

I got the idea in my head of putting some felt on the base bottoms of minis; I don’t know how durable the surface of the tiles are, with the COPIC marker artwork and I don’t want the metal base under of the metal figures to scratch the surface so I decided to try som felt. I believe the ink dye is pretty tough, but the mini bases under the miniature figures are just metal fender washers, including their somewhat sharp edges. So, I bought some adhesive backed felt sheets at Hobby Lobby, which was about $1.29 a sheet…the sheets are about the size of typing bond paper.

I started with marking around one of the mini bases with a thin leaded mechanical pencil, and then cut the felt circles out. The next step is to peel the back off the adhesive and stick the circle on the mini bases’ fender washer. Finally, they need some trimming around the edges, as no matter how careful you try to cut with scissors, you’re going to have some external overage. I suppose you could use a craft knife, but I hate ER! You can run your thumb and forefinger around the edge to help round out the edges of the felt a bit better. Overall, a little tedious to do, but what a nice end product it produced!







I tried them on the tiles and what a HUGE difference! The metal minis still have the weight, but they are quieter to move around when you plop them down, and they slide effortlessly and not abrasively on the tile surfaces.

[Whiterook]

So there I was, shoulder to shoulder, backs to the wall… Ahhh, ooops, that was F-Troop! Let me start again… So there I was, in ACE Hardware, looking at electric weed trimmers on the Memorial Day Sale (yup, ordered one! …only had a floor model left but could order a brandy-dandy new one never touched!). As I was checking out, I saw a cluster keys with rubber edging on the finger grips… “do you sell those?”, I ask. They do! Looked the right size, so I went to look at the… kinda pricey at 99 cents a pop, but they had four colors so, what the heck!

Got them home aaaaaand, they fit perfect! In the pic below, note the four bigger rings I was using, which were hard plastic and a bit tough to move with the mini (not to mention, being BIG!). I have no idea to what they came with, but they served the purpose of testing out my theory of using such a design element.



…that little food saver box is where I currently store the minis, but I’ll be moving them to a nice storage box I found online recently…just gotta order it. Anyway, the Key Cap Covers (which is apparently what they are called) are a soft rubber, having a grooved inside diameter. The minis’ fender washers fit into them snug as a bug! The bottom is actually raising the mini up a snudge, which is an added bonus… the American units apparantly did not need the felt in the end, but the VC still do.



The whole point, as you may recall was to differentiate between the four American soldiers (characters in the game), especially when writing up After Action Reports (AARs).



I sent a pic to a gaming buddy, who was so intrigued, he looked up some bulk examples on Amazon; turns out you can get over 60 of these for under ten bucks! Man… ACE is worse than McDonald’s dollar menu! He’d mentioned he was looking to buy some, for some of his various minis.

Next up on the project is four Character Cards for each of the American soldiers, with a small bio, stats and charts. I’ll work on some sort of graphic color cue for each team member on the cards, to match their rubber bases.

[Whiterook]

After my success with colored key cap covers for the Americans, I decided to try black ones for the Vietnamese soldiers! I ordered these today, which are scheduled for delivery on Monday.







So, I guess the VC didn’t need the felt under the washer bases either, but oh well… part of a design process! Also, I noticed that, I wanted to make more Viet Cong without the rocket propelled bazookas (sculpted as bazookas, but probably meant as RPG-2’s) so, this is a good opportunity for that, as well.

[Whiterook]

Those black key cap covers came in and they fit my VC minis perfectly! …a lot cheaper cost for them, too. Had some issues with the felt bottoms I’d put on them, peeling at the edges while placing the covers on, which I was able to smooth back down… but those felt bottoms were indeed unnecessary  

The VC could have actually done without rubber base caps, but this ties everything together nicely. The added benefit is, they don’t slide on the tiles, either.



…that’s a lot of potential prisoners the team rounded up! (…kidding!)



Now that they are all done, I decided to place them in the aforementioned (earlier post) better storage solution I’d bought from Amazon; this in place of the plastic sandwich container they’ve been inhabiting in for months now  It’s nice to have VC that don’t smell like ham! (…KIDDING!!!)



…two ministers fit standing up, per well, very nicely… a few extra fit in the upper most layer, with my Gladiators for another game under design.






…it’s very well designed.

[Whiterook]

Back around June/July, I’d been stalled a bit on the project, due to sciatica sidelining me for a month and a half, as well as family obligations.

But I’d had this game in the back of my mind the whole time. I’ve come up with a solid plan to add character sheets for the combatants, which will give some back story color commentary, as well as be player aids with game mechanics for each.

Also on the workbench, are a box of the UH-1 Huey Helicopter Platoon (TUBX07), made by Battlefront, for the “Team Yankee”, WWIII miniatures gaming system; there’s a separate build thread on these. Pretty much the same era Huey as Vietnam with the look and allow what I need to happen scenarios-wise.



This box contains two plastic UH-1 Huey helicopters, two plastic flight stands, eight rare-earth magnets, one decal sheet and two unit cards.



I will of course, be able to use these with the Team Yankee system, which I own a substantial collection of miniatures and rulebooks/supplements… however, I bought these for use with my miniatures game, The Legion: Rumble in the Jungle. These helicopters fit in perfectly with the 15mm Old Glory miniatures of Vietnamese Viet Cong and American U.S. Army “Green Berets” (a.k.a, The Legion), which I based and hand painted. The thought behind the Huey’s is for use with evac at the end of some scenarios, or maybe even a downed rescue mission.

Rather than just make it to the map top and hop off, I thought it’d be cool to have The Legion hit an LZ, sometimes hot and a danger to the helicopter…just nice, added tension!

[chromdome35]

What an incredible amount of work you put into this, I'm blown away!!!

If you aren't going to market a game like this, who do you play it with?

[Tobi]

That's a heck of (art) work you're putting in there Emery.

I'm no player of this type of games, though I did enjoy playing a round of Squad Leader from time to time in my youth.



Maybe as a computer game, as a mix of Vietcong & Steel Panthers! 

[406 Silverado]

You really packed alot of good information into those posts Emery as there's a ton of work that went into all of this. I played D&D for a short stint when I was a kid and liked it but the crowd that put on the games suddenly didn't like doing it anymore so the opportunity to play it went away. There were complete books for those games....I do remember that.

That as a good catch on those key rings too.

[Whiterook]

Oct 20, 2023 22:47:11 GMT -5 chromdome35 said:

What an incredible amount of work you put into this, I'm blown away!!!

If you aren't going to market a game like this, who do you play it with?

Thanks so much… I appreciate ‘ya! This one is definitely solitaire and as is to this point, plays great and has a lot of fun factor going for it. It’s always a tricky proposition for me when I start working on a game or novel that draws inspiration from another out there on market already… it’s probably more silliness on my part, because I fear insulting the muse that inspired my design and wish to avoid any hint of plagiarism…which is kinda foolish in my instance, because “borrowing” concepts and mechanics are doe all the time by major designers.

In the case of this game, the only thing that shares a common design with it is the combat dice mechanic… a single 1d6 determines possible actions to move, shoot, render medic aid, and assault; a die roll of 2 for instance would allow say, a move of one tile or ability to fire at a VC in line of sight…you could do one or the other, no it both. But that mechanic is shared among other games, so in the end, it’s just me being anal me in over-constraint? Both my and the other designers’ games use square move spaces and similar stealth mechanics, but so do games like Flying Pig Games’ “Crowbar”, for instance. I guess what I’m saying is, I’d have to feel in my heart that it was clearly its own thing (whereas, other designers do not hold themselves to such constraints.

Of course, there’s the little thing of a publisher even wanting to publish it, LOL!

…sorry, not the question you asked! The answer to that is, I play it with my game buddies at their/my home, at wargaming clubs, and expos/conventions… making clear, this is not a published game, but rather a personal project. It’s solitaire with a Bot system that governs the Viet Cong… I roll two dice (2D6) for each VC miniature figure on the battlefield, in descending order from top of map to bottom, left to right each row; the two dice allow two choices of available actions to perform, like move up one, down, one, left or right one, or become aware of a hidden Green Beret(s) in an obstacle in Line of Sight (such as a Green Beret hiding in the jungle in the tile next to that VC, and they can therefore shoot at it since it’s in their LOS, even though they cannot “see” him directly). It’s simple and effective… 6 possible die results allow choices (or a Miss action opportunity, on 1) actions. The other designers’ game dries the same… but then again, so do other games. yeah, I’m an idiot.

Oct 21, 2023 5:47:17 GMT -5 Tobi said:

That's a heck of (art) work you're putting in there Emery.

I'm no player of this type of games, though I did enjoy playing a round of Squad Leader from time to time in my youth.



Maybe as a computer game, as a mix of Vietcong & Steel Panthers! 

Thanks Tobi! My college and post training was in Fine Art… I just ended up being on the wrong coast of America, where ‘artists’ were in actuality either graphic advertising illustrators or starving (literally) artist painters and such. I taught sculpture at a Community College for a sprint, did a few commissions… and ended up marrying a wonderful gal and wound up working for the Federal Government, hahaha. Modeling, miniatures building, and game design are but a few opportunities I use to flex those creative Artist muscles; though now that I’m retired, I do plan to get back to the easel!

I love Squad Leader… I still own the entire catalogue of four games, lol, though these days, I play its’ replacement, Advanced Squad Leader.

On computer games, I own precisely two, and have yet to play them, lol! I do have some iPad wargames I’ll dabble with; and I loved my PS2, which I’m still kicking myself for getting rid of, at my wife’s urging, lol.

Oct 21, 2023 6:50:52 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

You really packed alot of good information into those posts Emery as there's a ton of work that went into all of this. I played D&D for a short stint when I was a kid and liked it but the crowd that put on the games suddenly didn't like doing it anymore so the opportunity to play it went away. There were complete books for those games....I do remember that.

That as a good catch on those key rings too.

Oh man, D&D… I have had several offered to go down that rabbit hole, but I’m already too deep in the earth with other bunnies!!! I’ve several wargame systems that have a ton of guidance and games… the Huey’s for example are part of a WWIII miniatures game called “Team Yankee” (of the novel of exact name, inspired); has a ton of books, called, “Campaign Books” that each introduce different nationalities…and yes, I own a bunch! These Huey’s just happen to fit the Vietnam War, so are pulling double systems duty!

The key rings worked a peach! The problem I was having was, keeping track of which American miniature figure was which character; this is a character-driven game, where: One is a leader and gives you an extra die to roll when you are on the same tile with him (Leadership factor); another is more adept at medical aid, though all can triage to a lesser extent; another is a little too Gung Ho and you *should* play him more aggressively; and the last is the greenest of the team and you *should* play him more timidly (choose the safest option, I might do that on a 1d6 roll… 1-3, timid, 4-6 more aggressive). I like to post AARs (after action reports in or after game) online, too, so the color coded Americans help me write that narrative.

[Whiterook]

I think I mentioned, I’ll be doing character cards for the Americans… small player aids, actually, such as tracking Wounded status; but mainly, because this is (as just mentioned above) a Character-driven game in large part, and those cards will help introduce who these American warriors are, with their strengths and weakness, and quirks and foibles. One of the tings that becomes possible with having this is, writing up narratives in online after action report posts on places such as my forum, but could also be used in writing small story snippets within those kind of posts.

Saying all that, I just want to mention how inspiration comes out of the blue from many sources. Joe was just one of this in very fact, in his compliment in an above post about the rubber key rings for helping distinguish the different American team members was a good find. In my response, in part I said…

…this is a character-driven game, where: One is a leader and gives you an extra die to roll when you are on the same tile with him (Leadership factor); another is more adept at medical aid, though all can triage to a lesser extent; another is a little too Gung Ho and you *should* play him more aggressively; and the last is the greenest of the team and you *should* play him more timidly (choose the safest option, I might do that on a 1d6 roll… 1-3, timid, 4-6 more aggressive).

The part in regular type is already part of the game and how I’ve been testing it out. The part in bold is new as of the very moment I typed it, and have not been playing it out that way! One of the characters (Sergeant “Ziggy” Zigarelli, with the Yellow band), is kinda nuts and plays more aggressively… that wasn’t planed in my playtesting, but something that just developed out of nowhere while I was playing. That little interaction with Joe fleshed out that it should indeed be part of the (or another) character play! …and the other bit only one character having better medic training and doesn’t have to roll for successful healing, and the roll for timid/aggressive on the green character are game mechanics that transpired due to Joe. I’ll have to send him a bubble gum cigar!

Game design revolves around inspiration — either your own, or a nudge from someone else, or some “borrowed” bits. No one teaches this stuff, lol… well, no one I know, anyway. But that’s why I like designing games… even if they are never published, it’s the thrill of the creative endeavor! And intersections with friends and colleagues.

[Tobi]

I had look on the internet for Steel Panthers and I found a refreshed version from Matrix Games as freeware. The original was from 1995, but the version I found is Windows 10 compatible.
The game mechanics and appearance (turn based, hex-fields) always reminded me of the Squad Leader board game. You'd probably like it.

[Whiterook]

Oct 22, 2023 4:06:29 GMT -5 Tobi said:

I had look on the internet for Steel Panthers and I found a refreshed version from Matrix Games as freeware. The original was from 1995, but the version I found is Windows 10 compatible.
The game mechanics and appearance (turn based, hex-fields) always reminded me of the Squad Leader board game. You'd probably like it.

A member of my older wargaming forum was a huge fan of that game and I’d always meant to check it out.