Thread for discussion of the game style to use for the H3 Paper ruleset.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_vs....-based_gameplay has some background and some of the possibilities.

 

Also note our initial IRC discussion on the topic

There have been some great hybrid turn-based/realtime wargames. Most recently the Combat Mission series (Beyond Overlord, Barbarossa, and Afrika Korps...not the new stuff Battlefront is marketing as Combat Mission, but play more like the realtime Close Combat) shows a strong example. The great Gary Grigsby's early works like Kampfgruppe, Battlegroup, Mech Brigade, Kampfgruppe, Panzer Strike, Typhoon of Steel, and Overrun were all hybrids (all published by Matrix's prior SSI enterprise) . These programs go back to the Commodore 64/Apple II/Atari 800 days of computing. Another example (and a naval simulation to boot) would be SSG's Carriers at War. If anyone wants to check out these old examples of turn/real-time hybrid gaming look here:

 

http://www.gb64.com/search.php?h=0

 

 

Essentially the program plays out in reatlime phases but stops at preset intervals or can contine indefinitely until the player stops and wishes to enter turns. I think this kind of hybrid will serve the purpose of "speeding up" the action by default. If the player doesn't wish to alter prior movement plotting or weapon/sensor orders then simply let the 30 sec phases tick away.

 

Whether the program visibly emulates the paper rules turn sequence for the player to see and be involved with or it happens quietly under the hood is irrelevant to me, so long as it is faithful to the paper rules turn sequence. I assumed for years that what I read in the 3.1 ruleset was happening under the hood but over the past 10 years have come to accept the fact that "Computer Harpoon" was just a shell of a paper to PC conversion simply using the good Harpoon name for marketing and data. I'll take true paper Harpooning gone PC any way we can get it...real-time, true turn based, so long as it's all happening just like the book say!

2 more Grigsby/SSI examples (and naval simulations too) of turn/realtime hybrid: Battlecruiser and Warship. Another program I can recall was an old Avalon Hill computer game called Under Fire (designed by Ralph Bosson). All can be seen too at the link in the prior post's link.

 

Tony, you mentioned you are familiar with Battlefront's TacOps. I played the original TacOps back in the day when Arsenal Publishing first realeased it. I've not played the current TacOps 4 puplished by Battlefront, but the original TacOps was a turn/realtime hybrid. You plot your moves and give your orders wile in turn then a specified amount of realtime ticks away and your plots/orders are carried out realtime until that phase is complete then you're back to turn.