From: torbenm@diku.dk (Torben AEgidius Mogensen)
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Re: Movement systems in general.
Date: 12 Oct 92 12:22:22 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, U of Copenhagen

mathers@sibelius.trl.oz.au (Steven Mathers) writes:


>Having just playtested a game, I would like to change the movement
>system.

>Currently each player moves all of his units, fighting battles as they
>occur, before play moves to the next person.  Other players may
>intercept the current players moving units if they are in a position to
>do so. (adjacent to the area the moving unit is coming from and going
>to...)

>The trouble with this system, and any turn based movement system, is
>that it favours the last player(s) in the sequence.  Its advantages is
>that it is easy to understand, needs almost no rules to define, and is
>fairly quick.

>What other systems are there out there?

>I have thought about a 'everybody moves all their pieces, then all
>conflicts are resolved' system.  This would have the following
>disadvantages.  Escalation:  If you move there, then I am moving
>here...oh, yeah, well then I am doing this, oh double yeah, then I am
>doing this...etc.. And it still has the problem of deciding in what
>order players move.

>I have been thinking about an operation-based system instead of a unit
>based system where players take it in turns to activate, move, attack
>and resolve one particular combat with a unit or group of units.
>Something like the system used in Pelopeneasan War, although I can't
>spell it.

Simultanious movement is used in several games I know of, Diplomacy
being the best known. The basic idea is that all players note their
movements down on paper, and then all move simultaniously according to
their written orders. If several players move into the same area,
different things happen depending on the game in question. In
Diplomacy, a move is the same as an attack, and all players moving
into the same area compare their strengths to see who succeds. In
Babarian Kings (An excellent game from an old Ares magazine) pieces
can move more than one space in each turn. First all moves that can be
completed with one movement point are completed, then those that
require two points etc. If two players are in the same area after one
such phase, they block each other for the remainder of the movement
round. Other players may move into the area in later movement phases,
but are blocked as they enter.  Enemy pieces in the same area must
fight in the combat round.

The main disadvantage of this kind of sim-movement is the time and
effort nedded to write down the moves. It works best with multi-player
games, as the overhead compared to player-by-player movement is less.
Obviously, it becomes unreasonable if each player has many pieces. In
Diplomacy the players each have less than 18 pieces, and usually less
than 10. In Babarian Kings, the normal number is less than 20, but it
depends on how many players there are in the game.

You could make a compromise between simultanious movement and
player-by-player movement by making the players in turn spend the
first  movement point of all their pieces, then in turn spend the
second MP etc. You can even draw lots in every phase about the order
in which the players spend their points.

Another way of reducing the last mover advantage problem is to make the
strongest players move first. This approach is taken in Civilization.

	Torben Mogensen (torbenm@diku.dk)