What are our next projects?

eRules Campaign

Building on the technology of Table-Top Map maker, we think that what tactical wargame rules badly need is a campaign system so that players can pit their wits against each other not just on the battlefield but in the manoevres that lead to that confrontation.

Without campaign play, we have to invent set scenarios for battles and artificially set victory conditions, or else dice for terrain, starting positions and total points values of forces. For warfare in the twentieth century, in particular, table-top battles at the tactical level can only represent a tiny fraction of the total forces involved and the real art of generalship consists of concentrating overwhelming forces at a critical point.

To enable players to add this extra dimension, we plan to design software that will enable the movements of whole armies to be tracked on a digital map in such a way that new contacts will be identified, intelligence reports generated and the need for a table-top battle will be established. Initial positions of elements on the table will be plotted as well as the arrival time of reinforcements, air attacks and artillery bombardments.

Each player will provide high-level orders to each formation. Most deployments and movements at campaign level will be determined by the software on a default basis, though players will have flexibility to override the default settings.

Our campaign software should become the perfect complement to eRules by linking table-top battles with a wider strategic context.

Please let us have your ideas and suggestions.

eRules Ancient Wars.txt

If eRules Napoleonic.txt is a success, we will apply the same framework to the ancient period. We have read a lot of ancient rule sets recently and found them either too simple and mechanistic or else too fussy and artificial. Admittedly, we did read mainly the free sets of rules, so perhaps the popular commercial sets are much better. However, from discussion forums, our impression is still negative. Does the world need yet another set of ancient wargame rules? Can ours be any better than the others? Bear with us for a while, and we’ll see.