Tales of the Rampant Coyote

Adventures in Indie Gaming!

Turn-Based Combat – Tactics Versus Execution

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 6, 2010

As she was cleaning up our storage closet this week (making room for Christmas presents, I guess), my wife pulled out an old wargame of mine that has been preserved over the decades – the TSR release of the hard-core air combat game Air War. I’ve never been much of a wargamer, but Air War was one of the few I’ve played. And I loved it. I couldn’t help but pop open the box and look over the contents – zillions of chits, blank hex maps, laminated ‘control panels’, and booklets of rules, scenarios, and aircraft stats.

I mainly played it with my younger brother, and a couple of friends. This game was complex in the extreme, or so I have been told (having not played a lot of war games, I have to take people’s word for these things). The guy who sold it too me said it was almost – but not quite – the complexity of the popular and highly detailed war game of the era, Squad Leader.

Keeping track of all the factors at work with multiple jet-age warplanes (and missiles in flight) was quite the task. The game did a good job – within the rules, certain maneuvers usually came out pretty close to what could be accomplished in the real aircraft.  Of course, the game took three hours to simulate thirty seconds of combat, but it was an awesome way to learn about air combat tactics.

I haven’t had the heart to toss the game or sell it at a yard sale or anything yet. But consciously and subconsciously, I know that my likelihood of ever playing the game again is pretty much nil.

Why? Due to the complexity of the game, it’s really limited to small tactical engagements. I think the most I ever played in this game was a 4-on-4 battle.  It was difficult to maintain that many aircraft (especially with missiles). For an engagement that small, there’s not a whole lot the turn-based tabletop game can offer than can’t be handled better in a modern computer-based flight simulator in real-time. Especially with multiplayer, and the ability to record the entire battle and play it back from any camera angle.  Sure, the simulator adds real imperfections to the tactical side of things by participants not executing perfectly, or not even following the plan or orders correctly, but for me, modern flight sims really scratch all the itches that Air War once did back in 1983, and do it better.

So when it comes to air combat, I’ll take real-time over turn-based.

Strangely, my preferences invert somewhat when it comes to RPGs. And I’ve spent many, many hours running around wearing chain mail wielding padded swords, shields, and foam-tipped arrows for my bow, participating in combat that was about as visceral and as close to the real thing as you can get and still be relatively safe. I’ve enjoyed fencing with epee and rapier (thought I’d love saber fencing, too, but so far I haven’t warmed up to it). One would think that after a taste of real-time simulated combat, my preference for the weird abstraction of turn-based combat would also fail.

Not so. Maybe it’s because action RPGs feel nothing like the simulated combat I’ve participated in, but while I don’t mind a good action-RPG, I don’t salivate over them like I do over a good tactics-based RPG. Think Knights of the Chalice or the old D&D Gold Box games. But in simulated fights, especially when I was commanding a group of fighters on the battlefield, my mind tends to go into a place that feels more like turn-based combat than the twitchy-arcade feel and clicking mechanic of your average action-RPG. Yes, timing is everything, but a lot of it feels more akin to something like, I dunno … speed chess, maybe. Not that I’m a speed chess player, so I’m guessing.  But a lot of it is planning three or four “moves” ahead, moves and counter-moves, attempting to force your opponent into likely maneuvers and preparing the appropriate responses, including contingencies for the occasions they don’t play along with your script, and trying to fake them out concerning your own habits and tendencies so they can’t do the same to you.

With a small team of combatants, it feels even more like a tactical war game.  Again, timing is everything – which probably makes it feel more like a real-time strategy game than an action-RPG – but it’s still a case of move and countermove, each side trying to match their strength against the opposing team’s weakness in a dynamic, changing situation.  The “Real-Time With Pause” approach to combat popularized by the Baldur’s Gate series felt a lot like this, though turn-based combat still often better mimics the “ideal” in my head – the constant solving of tactical puzzles.

This assumes party-based combat. With a single-character, or a single character plus a henchman / pet / summoned help, I’m still a lot more on the fence over preferences between turn-based and real-time combat. But I really enjoy the tactical interaction of an entire party of characters — and that dynamic, sadly, has begun to disappear because it’s too hard to do it in real-time.

I’m not sure of why I have that shift in preferences. Maybe I prefer the execution of flying versus the tactics in terrain-free air, but don’t get that same visceral feel in fantasy combat. Maybe it’s something else. As I said, I do enjoy a good action-RPG. But they leave some major itches unscratched.

(Image by BoardGameGeek.com)


Filed Under: Design - Comments: 5 Comments to Read



  • cl said,

    I LOVED squad leader. And yes, very complicated. Especially for a 14 year old which was on the only time in my life I played. Had some older friends from church that played. They would setup 4×8 sheets of plywood in the kitchen or living room of one of the guys houses and play battles that would last days. Considering each “chit” was a squad of mean or the “squad leader” these guys would run brigade on brigade fights.

    They had all of the gear and books and chits…tool boxes to keep them all separated…German army from US army from Polish from Brits…etc.

    It was insanely fun for a 14 year old back before a 14 year old hanging out with 30 year old men from church wasn’t considered “dangerous”. Never played again after that time.

    I loved that game. I still love war games. Wish there was a modern computer version of Squad Leader.

    cl

  • UDM said,

    I’ve never really gotten into tabletop games, because those were (coincidentally) about a third of a decade behind my time, but I’ve been playing turn based games since the initial 90s. There was Ultima, the old SSI games, the Realms of Arkania trilogy etc. Those were good solid fun. Maybe it’s inherent in me, but I don’t see the thrill of real time over turn based in a game where character development and storyline are the focus.

    By the way, after reading your thoughts on Air War (which I haven’t played before too, sadly), you might want to take a look at Darkwind to see how a turn based game can become an insane mish mash of physics and adrenaline rush. 😉

  • Rampant Coyote said,

    I’ve posted about Darkwind a couple of times – it looks way cool. I just haven’t had time to try it out (along with a lot of other games on my “to do” list…)

    I commented last night on Twitter how it’s kinda funny that with all my promotion of turn-based combat in RPGs, my two favorite RPGs actually are actually in real-time. But they are also both party-based (Ultima VII and Baldur’s Gate 2). My only real conclusion is that, for me, whether it is in real-time or turn-based really doesn’t matter as much as having fun game mechanics and a compelling storyline.

  • WCG said,

    So when it comes to air combat, I’ll take real-time over turn-based.

    But you’re comparing table-top games to computer games, aren’t you? Isn’t that apples and oranges?

    As bad as I am at all “real-time” combat, I’m hopelessly inept at air or space combat in “real-time” – bad enough that I can’t play such games at all. So I’d very much like a turn-based alternative (though a single-player game, rather than something like Darkwind).

  • Yoel said,

    This assumes party-based combat. With a single-character, or a single character plus a henchman / pet / summoned help, I’m still a lot more on the fence over preferences between turn-based and real-time combat. But I really enjoy the tactical interaction of an entire party of characters — and that dynamic, sadly, has begun to disappear because it’s too hard to do it in real-time.

    You’ve summed up very concisely exactly what I don’t like about real-time, party-based RPGs. The tactical interaction has begun to disappear because it’s too hard to do in real-time. That’s why I prefer turn-based.

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