New Solo Game Design Book

Upcoming Book Purchase

I have purchased the first two volumes on game design by Wally Simon (and edited by Russ Lockwood) and really liked them. Now On Military Matters has published a third volume called SOLO SECRETS OF WARGAME DESIGN: Volume 3: A Tabletop Toolkit of Ideas, Analysis, and Rule Mechanics. The book's description is listed as:

The third volume of the SECRETS OF WARGAME DESIGN series concentrates on solo wargaming ideas. Peel back the layers of game theory to generate great solo games for a variety of periods. Delve into the real nuts and bolts of game mechanics to create a more compelling – and often more entertaining – tabletop battle.

• Simple Solo Guidelines: Morale, Data Sheets, and a Napoleonic River Line Attack
• Good Morning Vietnam: Cards, Squares, and Sequences
• WWII Efficiency: Too Much Damage, Loss Points, Reaction Points, and Combat Points
• Napoleonic Equality of Inequality: Simon's Theory of Fire Power
• Scenario Generation: A Line in the Terrain
• Speedy Solo Siege: Zones, Building Points, and the Passage of Time
• Third Time's Charm: Modern Solo Squad Skirmish
• Renaissance Squared: Grids, Groups, and Grinds
• Bad Blood in the Balkans: WWII Command, Control, Activation, and Quality
• Rules are Greener: American Revolution Response Chart and Efficiency Levels
• Solo Hastings: Flights of Fancy?
• NATO Rescue in Serbia: Pop-Up Squads, Prisoners, and Running Battles
• BONUS: The Wally Quadfecta: Universal Guidelines for Good Game Design

The book is $19 and is 50 pages.

Order Writing

The Solo Wargame forum on Yahoo has a thread about writing orders which triggered a thought or two in me. I was thinking about my younger days when I used to play the Colonial Skirmish Rules and how signals were used to change orders. As my first test of the Finite State Machine was to be using my Meso-americans and the Saga rules, I thought I would incorporate orders into my game. As signaling with banners is very much a part of that style of warfare, I thought I might come up with some rules for it, despite the fact that command and control doesn't really exist in Saga (or at least is largely abstracted away). I hope to have a battle report on that next, using a hex grid to regulate measurements. If you read my Dale's Wargames blog, you know that I am caught up in a BattleLore tournament over Vassal, so it is taking up a fair portion of my time.