WARS and the Civil War HPS games

[CyberRanger]

Before we can get our section moving with WARS (http://www.war-forums.com/forums/wfhq-ld-faq.php), we need to decide how to score the scenarios, ie how many points to award for playing a scenario and how to divide the points.

Since the games provide for three levels of victory, I'd suggest we divide the points as follows:

Major Victory: 80% (to the winner)/20% to the loser
Minor Victory: 65%/35%
Draw: 50%/50%

For points, the base would be to score a certain number of points per turn played. I'd suggest 10 points per turn. This will allow even small, short scenario to have some points to divide between the winner and the loser.

I'd also really like to somehow weight the scenarios based on some measure of complexity - like the map size or number of units (strength) involved. I see that when I open up a scenario, I can get the current on-map strength per side. Is there anyway to get the total strength each side will have available in the scenario?

[rahamy]

The points break down seems reasonable, and while I think 10 points per turn is a bit high, it would certainly work the best for calculation purposes.

The only way that I'm aware of to get the final strength count is to cycle through the turns until all the units arive. There are other ways to get strengths, but you have to know which OOB was used and also if the designer reduced the unit strengths when placing the forces.

Also, in campaign games losses carry forward, so that will skew the data every time...

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

How about a bonus award for winning a campaign? I'd question a complexity or size modifier as what if a scenario calls for each side to have 70,000 troops but they agree to a termination bid while there are only 20,000 on the map?

[rahamy]

How about a bonus award for winning a campaign? I'd question a complexity or size modifier as what if a scenario calls for each side to have 70,000 troops but they agree to a termination bid while there are only 20,000 on the map?

Excellent points on both counts...probably best to stick with a simple calculation of turns completed + victory condition.

And I agree some sort of benefit should be given for completing a campaign, as that shows an additional level of commitment over and above a single battle.

[Don Maddox]

Some of the scenarios have nearly 200 turns. While I do think gamers should be richly rewarded for sticking with it through such a long battle, 2,000 vp might be a little high.

[rahamy]

Very true Don, but more often than not scenarios aren't played to completion. They reach a decision point well before that and people place PBEM termination bids and move on to the next game.

It is possible though...I did just complete a 200 turns scenario in a Napoleonic match...took about a year and a half to do it though. :crosseye:

[CyberRanger]

Some of the scenarios have nearly 200 turns. While I do think gamers should be richly rewarded for sticking with it through such a long battle, 2,000 vp might be a little high.Yeah, maybe that is a little high. A 200 turn game of TOAW's Europe Aflame would yield 235 points. So maybe we should use something more in line with the TOAW formula (http://www.war-forums.com/forums/wfhq-ld-faq.php#TOAW_points). We could set a base of 10 points for just getting the game going and then award 2 points for each turn after. So, a 20 turn game would be worth 50 points.

We definetly will want to factor in extra points for campaigns. Ideas on how to do that? Would a simple check box for campaign game be enough or does it need to be more variable? Would the extra points be fixed for a campaign game? I'm not experienced with these yet so any advice is welcome!

And I'm still uncomfortable with some of the really small scenarios getting the same number of points per turn as a Day 3 turn of the full Gettysburg battle. Any ideas on that area or should we just not worry about it?

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

I wouldn't worry about the size of the battle being a factor. We don't worry about in the ACWGC as there are just too many variables to try and compensate for. How do you compare a turn from Pea Ridge to a turn from Wilson's Creek to a turn from Franklin to a turn from Nashville to a turn from Corinth to a turn from Gettysburg? I say we just live with the differences and move on.

[rahamy]

I agree with Mark, don't worry about the differences.

[CyberRanger]

So for the ladder, are we agreed with a base of 10 points then 2 points per turn?

I would suggest that you get x number of points for winning a campaign, y number of points if you lose the campaign, and z number of points if it is a draw.

Okay, so we'd have the players report each "battle" of the campaign as a separate scenario report in WARS. Then, at the end of the campaign, the players would report the campaign to receive additional ladder points. Can you quantify x,y, and z and would they be the same regardless of the campaign chosen?

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Would it be possible to just have a place to enter in whether it was the last battle of a campaign and the victory level on the game report? If so that would be the way to go I think. As far as quantifiying the amount of points to get for a campaign I don't know. Would 20 points for a campaign victory, 10 for a campaign loss, and 15 for a draw work? Something along that line anyway.

[CyberRanger]

Would it be possible to just have a place to enter in whether it was the last battle of a campaign and the victory level on the game report? If so that would be the way to go I think. As far as quantifiying the amount of points to get for a campaign I don't know. Would 20 points for a campaign victory, 10 for a campaign loss, and 15 for a draw work? Something along that line anyway.
I'm not sure I follw your first question. Would you want the campaign report as part of the final scenario battle report? Or would the campaign be reported as it's own entity with a separate win/loss/draw? (Are there only win/loss/draw for campaigns?)

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

If it is possible on the form I would set it up so you just report the campaign result as part of the report for the last game of the campaign. It would save from having to file campaign results separately and would keep the campaign result from being a separate report in your history. Of course you may want it to be reported separately also?