Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So, there was a recent post about the 3 things that most annoy you about wargames, and it got me thinking about the opposite. What draws you to a game, what are you favourite design philosophies, mechanics, rules, ect...

1) List flexibility and customization: I love the feeling that I've created something special and unique. I love it when I bring a list to the table that no one has seen before, or no one has played the same way before. I love never knowing what to expect from the person who sits down across from me. To me, the endless possibilities are what keeps a game fresh.

2) Support for narrative play: While veteran gamers can often just come up with things on their own for this, it's nice to have a skeleton to build off of, and it's good to know that the designers aren't only focused on the competitive meta, if the game has one. I'd tangentially connect the rich lore of the game to this as well.

3) Asymmetrical combat (that works): Sometimes its fun to be the underdog, or to be the endless tide of inevitability. I love games that can take unbalanced situations and still make a fun game that fairly determines a winner based off of something other than a traditional victory.

A topic for positive things opposed to umpteen hundred threads containing only complaints!

Wonderful, great idea!

1) Eye candy! Carefully painted models on the table, moving through spectacular terrain. What a sight!

2) The social aspect: Meeting friends, doing some tabletop trash talk, laughing, maybe drinking a beer and eating super unhealthy snacks, without having to watch the clock all the time. Just enjoying playing a fantastic game with like minded people.

3) Listbuilding and making a battle plan: This is one my favorite things when preparing for a game: Thinking about a cool list; Not necessarily a minmaxed tournament list, but very often a themed list, in the vein of: How can I make this list "work" on the table?
If you decide, for example, to play a list based on the Cult of Khaine for Dark Elves, you want to field some Witch Elves, a Cauldron of Blood, some Executioners, Assassins... a lot of the list basically writes itself then. But what to fill the gaps? How many assassins? Death Hag as a general? What equipment would suit that playstyle? Things like that.

There are of course a lot of other things that are enjoyable but these three I consider to be the most important for me personally

1. Characters with a lot of personality, both in terms of sculpts and rules. Putting the model on the table is its own kind of fun, but I want it to do more than move and attack too.

2. Scenarios that drive the momentum of the game. I don't love overly complicated scoring and I'm a big, run to the middle and brawl kind of gamer, but good scenario design can make combat more tactically interesting while also creating dynamic shifts in momentum.

3. Rules that interact well with complex terrain. I want cool looking tables and I do not want gameplay to suffer for it.

My 3 favorite things in miniature wargames:

1) The models!
Be it 40k, Fantasy stuff, hitorical stuff of any scale, battletech robots, space ships, airplanes, boats, dinosaurs, superheros, etc. The cooler looking the better.
THIS is what draws me to these games.
And no matter how old I get, I get to keep playing with toys - as long as I call it a hobby.

2) list building flexibility.
Sometimes I want to throw random things together.
Sometimes I want to do something very specific/historical/comic/etc accurate.....

3) Variety.
I like all kinds of genres for getting my wargaming fix.
Sometimes we play 40k. Other times 15mm WWII. Or Battletech. Or a model airplane game. Or....

Well indexed and laid out rules. I don’t want to have to flip through the entire book looking to see what section the corner case that came up in game is hiding. Grognards of a certain age might recall Star Fleet Battles, which while ending up in a massive binder, was probably the best referenced game ever.

Engaging game play. I want to feel that I’m in command and involved. Yes, there are random elements, but not so many that I feel they are more relevant then me.

Cool models/high production values/value for cash spent. I’d prefer the game to have detaild bits and bobs, sturdy cardstock, and books that are not going to fall apart. I’m willing to pay a reasonable price for this (but lets not get crazy). That said, you want to publish a cool $5 game with paper maps and cut out chits, that’s fine as well. But without the eye candy, the game play needs to be on point.

Mine are pretty simple and mostly come from Historical games:

1. Scale and Model Agnostic
2. Opposed Dice Pools for resolution
3. No re-basing EVER!

Then, a bonus one for Unit vs Unit games:
4. No casualty removal for Unit vs. Unit games.

1. feeling like I took part in a game, i.e. if I lost feeling that was down to my own actions, and presumably if I win (stop laughing, its technically possible) that I had something to do with it - not feeling like a passenger.

2. feeling rolling dice matters, i.e. you roll the dice when the outcome has an impact not simply to roll a bucket of dice for no real impact, likewise when you work to get a modifier for some effect it actually matters - making player actions important and not just dice trumps all else

3. rules that make internal logical sense and remain consistent across the factions, e.g. if a thing works a certain way it works that way for all factions, with only limited exceptions, not half the factions in the game ignoring chunks of the rules - in effect it helps when the rules of the game follow what you expect to be able to do and it reals like the outcome is rational


on top of that a few bonus points
- a rulebook that has been proof read properly so while it may have mistakes they are not obvious ones
- a ruleset that has had some good play testing by people other than its creator, essentially so "how does that work?" issues have been picked up and corrected
- scenarios that appear to have some sort of logical objective beyond "two armies had a fight", what are they fighting for? how is victory decided?
- if the period/scale has an established base convention use it

and then finally if its a historical game, getting the basics of the history correct and not banhammering people who point out mistakes, when they have the evidence to back them up

This one is easy!
1. Crush my enemies
2. See them driven before me
3. Hear the lamentation of their women

Also:
A nicely laid out and referenced rulebook

1. Compelling setting and hobby opportunities. SW:Armada has a very good ruleset with a lot of ideas I admire, but the setting is meh and it's hard to do anything interesting with the models. I like the visual spectacle and always take pictures of my games, souvenirs from those epic moments.

2. Rules that reward creative problem-solving and make people go "Wow! That was a neat move! I didn't expect that" when somebody comes with a solution of a seemingly unsalvagable situation. I love the satisfaction of feeling smart, because I played well and I like when after the game I can think of a list of things I could have done at least a little bit more optimally (so the game needs to allow for many non-obvious levels of how optimal a move can be).

3. Randomness that improves replayability and provides variance but doesn't invalidate players' decisions. One where you can use the skill of risk management because there are probabilities to be counted upon and mitigated/manipulated with gameplay options. High-variance, high-impact single rolls, where game-breaking moments happen in a totally unpredictable way with little or no input from players could go and die in hell in my opinion.

1. Play tested stuff that’s play tested. And edited. Pulp Alley has to be one of the best examples of this I have ever seen/played.

2. Clever mechanics that are elegant. Deadzone cover comes to mind. Can I see 100% of the target? If yes, then claim a bonus for them being so open. If no, nobonus. None of this fraction of the model equals cover. No worries about antennas, backpacks, gun barrels. Either you see the entire thing or you don’t.


3. Just neat ideas. The first time or two I played WarMachine, my opponent explained that the jacks could throw other models. And if a jack was submerged, it was automatically out of play, regardless of its remaining damage. I remember being excited to see those kinds of cool things even if it meant I lost a unit—-because the concept was so original and thematic