Another Point of Singularity

online Gaming 'luminaries' bare their soul in this topic discussion

Tom Vssel apparently hosted a panel discussion recently on the concept of luck in game design, and a lot of wargaming types chimed in. It's worth a look.

Musings On Number 18: The role of chance in Board Games

Of what I read, I like Alfred Wallace's comments the best.. when you get right down to it, in a military history style game, you are given miraculous control to a level that has never existed in history. At best, a real leader makes macro level decisions and has to surrender execution of them to other individuals.

The problem is that Alfred's example of giving orders to each and every individual piece on the board (and having them accepted or rejected, which could mean a lot of things) may be close to accurate, but let's all face it, a game like that would be terrible. The closest design I know of the Gamers/MMPs old Civil War Brigade System (CWB) which definitely approached that level (and it was playable, but nowhere near as indepth as Alfred uses in his example).

At SOME level, you have to make a compromise. The pieces will have to represent larger combinations of units. The effects of combat are going to have to be stramlined. And most importantly, a random factor must be added in, or it's not much of a game.