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Hey,

By now people have had an opportunity to take a look at the Fog of War boardgame that I wrote and whose rules are linked to in my signature. Given the game mechanics its difficult to rig up a copy of the game (yeah, that was part of the design specs - the game pieces are laser-cut from Litko), but they should give you a good idea of how the game works. So I was wondering if people had read it and what they thought so far (keep in mind that this isn't a 'beta-version' of the rules - once I get $12,000.00 together that I can afford to write off I'm producing the initial production run).

Incidentally I have ghetto-production prototype copies going for $10 (a serious loss leader since each copy cost $25.00 to make, but well worth it to give to people so they can try the game) if you have postage and want to try it out. Send PM with your address, and I take Paypal at my name at hotmail dot com.

Your thoughts, O Dakka?

Awesome to see you stepping up and having a go at selling a game!

Nice conceptual design, as well.

Thanks!

Something I might add is that I (stupidly) forgot that Paypal takes a piece of the pie, so I'll have to make it $11 per copy plus postage. To those people who have already bought copies, don't worry about it - my fault for not using Paypal in a while.

So I thought I might bump this thread in order to solicit feedback from people that have tried the game.

Something I might mention is that yes, the prototypes are pretty ghetto, except for the playing pieces which I'd had run up by Litko Aerosystems (if anyone brings up their Space Corridor system or their Industrial Towers I have it on good authority that the moderators will start pistol-whipping people).

Part of the notion in the game is that there's a double-blind going on (although beginners are encouraged to start with an open-faced game so that they can get into it more directly), so having laser-cut identical plastic pieces means that they can be concealed more easily.

Part of the game involves not only discovering where your unit pieces are and where the opposing unit pieces may be, but reintroducing dummy or blank pieces onto the board in order to play something like a shell-game with your units. Units may be revealed, but they can also be concealed.

Beyond concealing unit pieces, blank pieces confer a tactical advantage: a defeated enemy can usually choose to retreat rather than being destroyed, making it quite difficult to actually destroy the enemy. But you can use concealed blanks (blanks that haven't been revealed and thus still on the board) to block off avenues of retreat, interdict enemy movement (where the direct route would require moving through an occupied square, and thus limit the unit to a single square of movement rather than its full movement value), and to prevent avenues of escape from being cut off.

Put more formally, the notion behind the game is not simply handling space (the area of the board and position), time (number of turns to execute complexes of actions), and material (units), but also information (blanks).

With a sticker attached to their undersides, you can also use these pieces in other games such as Space Hulk and double-blind Warhammer 40k deployments.

Sounds like a pretty interesting mechanic to base a table-top game on. I'll have to download the pdf's when I get home and give them a try.

Nurglitch wrote:Units may be revealed, but they can also be revealed.

Units can be revealed, but can they really be revealed?

/Boosh

I had a look at you link a few days ago. Definitely an interesting idea. I will try it out if I can find someone willing to have a go. Good luck!

Right, fixed that typo...

Nurglitch wrote:Litko Aerosystems (if anyone brings up their Space Corridor system or their Industrial Towers I have it on good authority that the moderators will start pistol-whipping people).

I think you have the wrong company, you're looking for Litko Aerosystems, manufacturers of high quality Industrial towers and space corridors.

Anyway, I might give this a try, it looked good during my preliminary glimpse.

captain.gordino:

Thanks. Want to buy a prototype copy to try it out?

Hmm, little strapped for cash, even though the price does look good.

Game Review: Fog of War created by Robert Wood (Nurglitch)
Reviewed by: Pipboy101


Well, I am always interested in acquiring new board games to play around the house or in between rounds at tournaments when I get my butt curbed stomped. I see a lot of people breaking out CCGs or shoveling food into their maws. Now, I do not like CCG’s and I don’t need to eat every time there is nothing to do. But sitting there watching other throw dice around is boring so having a game is great to make time pass.

When I saw the post on DakkaDakka regarding the game made by Robert Wood (Nurglitch) I click the link he had posted. The rules seemed simple but had a mentally challenging aspect which I look for in the type of games for between tournament stomping's I normal receive. So, with a few key strokes and mouse clicks the game was in my mail boxes a week later. Upon opening the small box that arrived there was 40 laser etched game pieces, a folded laminated game board, instruction booklet and a colorized examples of play.

Gaming Pieces:
There are 40 game pieces enclosed, 20 Blue and 20 Red which are laser etched. For a homemade game I found these pieces to be of the high level of quality which is something not in very often seen in homemade games. The laser etchings were done well over a majority of the pieces giving a good contrast to read the information provided on each game piece. There are a couple pieces that the etching did not go as deep but this is not too much of an issue.

Game Board:
The game board is simply a laminated square piece of paper broken down into a game board with black in white printed by 10 squares wide and length. Out of everything in the box this was the only thing I did not like. The game board was folded into quarters so when the board has to flattened under a few large heavy books to make it truly usable. However, the quality of the gaming pieces make up for the gaming board’s issues.

Enclosed Documentation:
The small instruction booklet was easy to read and understand. Along with the rule set it gives some tactics that can be useful for those first starting out in the game. Now, the 2 sided color game play example was a good inclusion since in my first couple of games we had to refer to it. The only issue I had with the documentation was the with the game play examples. While they were helpful it would have been nice to have a line to separate the different examples. When looking at it the examples, they are staggered and can be difficult to figure out at first. However, this does not detract from the overall game.

Game Play:
Fog of War’s game play is similar to Space Hulk and Stratego. It is a turn based game where you conduct one action per turn. You can move a game piece(s), reveal or conceal game piece(s), and attack or defend. The rules are straight forward except for a couple of points. These points can easily be solved with some quick house rules but do not change the basic style of game play. A typical game lasted approximately 50 rounds if played as with every round the red and blue teams one action. Starting out just like most new games each turn and action can take long that you would think. But with more games played these turns go by like a snap.

Combat:
The combat aspect goes by quickly and does take a great deal of strategy to insure victory. Multiple games were played utilizing the game pieces concealed (Radar Blip side up) till combat was initiated by either party. This really made it a surprise when you turned a stack of three pieces over and all you had was a weak infantry unit and two blank pieces facing armor supported by mechanized and motorized infantry.

This is where strategy aspect of the game came into play. How many pieces should I reveal to I know where my forces are? Should I castle up stacks of game pieces to defend my corners or should I go all out and attack with everything?

The not knowing what was under each tile was the most enjoyable aspect of the game. Thinking that I am maneuvering to clear out a corner and all you have is a bunch of blank pieces makes one panic. This is especially true since pieces can only move forward or sideways, but in reverse unless retreating from combat which at times is the only right move.

How combat is resolved is easy to figure out. All you do is add the numbers in either the attack or defend column on the game piece plus the number of game pieces in your stack which you can only have a max of three per square. The party with the highest number wins. It is that easy.

Ideas and Recommendations:

Now that I have played several games I found a few items that we changed and made the game a little faster and easier to play:

1. While we waited for the folds in the game board to go away under a stack of old WFB and 40K books we used a portion of an old scrabble board with the raised square edges. This kept the pieces from sliding around when stacked three high.

2. Game play was agonizing slow by only conducting one action per turn. As a house rule each side could move all their stacks on their turn up to their max move or until contact with enemy piece. All movement would end till combat as resolved. If the side that attacked won then movement would commence. If the attacking side lost then the turn ended. This change made game play so much faster and added a quickly changing battlefield and a since of pressure on the players the ebbs and flows with a well planned out strategy.

3. Next, is a couple of additional house rules that made combat much more strategic. So, if you get your game pieces on more than one side of the enemy then the attacks of all the pieces are combined. If a defender that has support stacks on the side stands more of a chance of surviving the combat. Lastly, stacks that are in the corners receive a +1 to the overall defense number in combat. This is to represent the defending army in a no retreat, no surrender situation.

Conclusion:
Overall, Fog of War is an enjoyable game as is straight out of the box. With a few minor tweaks in the rule set the game became a much more strategic experience. However, the basic game one can tell was designed and thought out from beginning to end. One can see the possibility to expand on the game system with new pieces such as attack aircraft which would be fast, strong in attack and very weak in defense.

Robert Wood should be proud of his creation. The design of the game was great especially for a person’s first time out from initial concept to the getting a viable game into the gamers’ hands. I found the replay value to be relatively high and an enjoyable experience which I hope more gamers’ take a chance on this game in order to make it a success for its creator.

Pipboy101:

Thanks for the review! It's always good to have a fresh set of eyes on something.

The board is obnoxiously low quality. When I get the funds together for a production set it's going to be replaced with something larger and more functional.

I was a little confused by the comment about only moving forward or sideways: pieces and stacks of pieces should be able to move in any direction. If it wasn't clear in the rules, then the rules need some re-writing. Is that the case?

Regarding combat, you get to choose the attack/defense score of a unit piece, and add the number of other unit pieces, not only in the same stack, but in adjacent squares. That's why I like to bill it as kind of like Bloodbowl, because arranging units in adjacent squads and formations creates a synergy amongst a team. Of course, attackers and defenders only benefit from revealed unit pieces, not concealed pieces, so there's a cost to a well-supported defense.

Part of the motivation for benefiting from revealed unit pieces in adjacent squares was to avoid people just castling up a stack of Armour and Mechanized Infantry - by spreading out your forces they can still support each other and minimize the risk of loss when, as Pipboy101 mentions, you run a unit of Infantry into a concealed unit of Armour.

There's still a reason to stack though, because actions affecting stacks can affect up to three pieces, meaning you can condense reveal, move, and attack actions to better use time. Because it does go pretty slowly until you get used to developing patterns of play, or tactics.

That said, playing it Cross-fire style (acting until contact with enemy) sounds like an interesting way of speeding up play. I'm going to try that. Having supporting units on multiple sides grant additional bonuses is also an idea I'm going to try. This is why I like a fresh set of eyes on something: you get new perspectives.

The bonus to corner squares sounds like a good idea, but I had thought of that and decided to defer that to the Terrain expansion, so that players can set up Bunkers and other fortifications around their home corners.

Thanks Pipboy101!

captain.gordino:

Here's an idea: How about you buy one copy, I send two, and you can sell the spare to a friend that want's their own set? I'm doing this as a loss-leader to solicit feedback and to create awareness for when I'm able to publish a 1st edition, so it's easy enough to cut a deal.