A List of Sample Games These are some games with interesting features for us to consider. Feel free to add your own, especially in the latter categories. The important thing is to identify features that might be interesting/tricky to implement. Only those with a "*" are ones we might actually want to build as tests, the others are merely here to expand our conceptual base. Initials of the publisher are listed after the name, where known. Based on the discussions in the group, we have broken them down into four categories. * "Board" games - the sort of stuff you can find in a toy store * "War" games - the stuff 'serious' wargamers play, where you are a general commanding troops (infantry, tanks, plans, ships, etc.) Note that our *primary* goal is supporting traditional board wargames. Anything else is icing on the cake... * "Role Playing" games (RPGs) - where you take on a particular role and make complex decisions, some of which have non-fatal outcomes :-) * "Card" games - the pattern of play is amazingly similar, and a GUI for Card games is already available on the net. The primary target is the middle one. Whether we can find a mechanism which can handle all four - or if we will need "subkits" - is something that we will probably find out as we go along. I. Board Games A. Classical Games *Chinese Checkers - only one type of piece (with two kinds of movement), but it uses a hex board! Pieces are never added nor removed. Checkers - one type of piece with one type of movement, goes to two with Kings. Chess - like checkers, but with N different pieces and movement types. Pawns on the eighth rank convert to other pieces. A beautiful game to implement early. Simple rules, no terrain, capture is part of movement (an overrun attack, if you will). Implementing castling, pawn capture, and en passant will exercise the system slightly more, but only slightly. As with Go, easy if we don't have to make the system play the game itself. Othello (and 'capture' games) - one type of piece, which are only placed, not moved. Affiliations changes each turn. Go - Simple rules, but requires slightly non-trivial searching to determine if a group has no liberties left. As long as we don't have to write an electronic opponent, this should be easy. One kind of piece, no movement. Only change of state after placement is when a group is captured. Bob Abbot's Ultima (If I have the name right -DL) - A game related to chess, but using a wide array of movement and capture methods not found in other games. As I recall the author wrote it to use all of the movement and capture methods found in various games but not widely known (at least in the west), plus one or two of his own invention. This ought to demonstrate the ability to do most abstract board games. I think this is an excellent game to exercise the system. B. Strategy Games Stratego - Elementary game of hidden information. Rules are nearly as simple as can be for a board game--easier than chess or checkers, I bet. Excellent early test case, exercising whatever system we choose for hiding information from the players. Risk - Multiple players, complex connectivity of space. computer players, irregular geography. Attacker can also be hurt. Production tied to territory. Diplomacy - more politics than tactics, but no randomness. Have to be able to coordinate attacks from multiple players. Can convoy troops across waters. Often played by email. C. Computer Games MineHunter - find all the bombs without stepping on them. While there is no combat this does address the issue of "sensing." Splat - an extremely general "capture" game for NeXTSTEP. A wide variety of different boards and rules possible, with a unifying mechanism. Also adds cute graphics to dress up simple rules. Risk for NeXSTEP - possibly a useful example of computer players. II. Wargames A. Tactical Ogre (SJG) - Possibly the simplest popular wargame. Ranged attacks. Multiple attacks/defenes housed in a single object. Special rules for attacking tires. Without G.E.V.s has simple turn sequence, with them it becomes more complex. Implement first without the Ogres for a very simple tactical game. Ancients (3W) -Simplest ancients game I can recall. Simple internal states: normal or disordered. As simple as ogre. Another good choice for an early test case. SPQR (Great Battles of History, volume II: The Art of War in the Early Roman Republic--GMT Games) Movement is standard wargame style, but not much else is. Combat affects the attacker as much as the defender through a rather complex combat resolution procedure. Lots of individual attributes for each unit, and units have more complex internal states than most board games with this many pieces (still simple, though--a number reflecting loss of cohesion). Units and particularly leaders approach simple role- playing games in level of individual detail (comparable to melee/wizard). Turn sequence is highly unusual, based on leader's capabilities, and is modifiable during play (an event queue is probably natural, even though the turns are discrete). Squad Leader (AH) - Lots of interesting (awkward?) Terrain effects, and piece types. Car Wars (SJG) - Lots of state, lots of weapons and defenses, including automatic ones. Momentum is important. Complicated turn modes. Star Fleet Battles -Buckets of state information and individual unit detail. Mostly similar for our purposes to Car Wars, but would probably require a better user interface. B. Operational Africa Korps (AH) - Perhaps the best of the classics. Simple game with little terrain (it's North Africa) and low complexity. If we can't do this game, we can't do anything. Besides, if we don't consider even one game that credits Charles Roberts, we probably don't deserve to live. [DL] C. Strategic The main addition, I think, is the production of units, and oceans. Some also add political constraints on action. Supply is generally important, as well. - Advanced Third Reich (horrendously complex) - World in Flames (ditto?) - Axis & Allies D. Miniatures Generally involve real number distances, widely differing shapes, hidden information, and complicated command and control ordering Harpoon - This is the only one I've played. Subs and planes adds a third dimension. Uses "real-life" complexity in sensing and counter-sensing technology. If we can handle sensing in Harpoon, we can probably handle almost all realistic tactical sensors. Ancient miniatures: Ancients tactical miniatures: I [DL] have three sets of rules, but their rules are to good writing as Cobol is to good computer code. They probably wouldn't teach us much that SPQR won't, except for the continuous terrain. If we want to do this area, I'll go buy DBA and DBM (De Bellus Antiquitus/Multitudinus, but without buchered Latin). They are probably rather better rules choices for us. E. Computerized empire - the original computer strategy game, I believe. Has automatic production of units, standing orders, complex maps, even weather. xconq - probably our closest predecessor, though I haven't played it for years. Has a crude inspector paradigm, and a variety of units. Difficult to modify. nettrek - an arcade-style, mutli-player game, and thus probably outside our sphere of interest. However, it is useful to consider, in that a strategic-level version (rather than tactical) should be feasible under WarKit III. Role-Playing Games A. Text-based Adventure, wumpus, etc. - mostly puzzle solving. Does anybody even play these anymore? MUDs - Multi-user dungeons. These are extremely popular, and being used for things other than simple wargaming. Maintains lots of state information accesible to multiple players. B. Screen-based rogue/hack - the venerable Unix program. In addition to normal combat, there are magical attacks, buying and seling, etc. Ultima et al - these, as far as I can tell, are just rogue with fancier puzzles and front-ends. Any other useful characteristics? C. Socio-Political Simulations I'm not sure what these qualify as. There is an emphasis on territory and production, like strategy games. On the other hand, there are issues like puzzle-solving and non-combat which are more like RPGs. I doubt these problems would be solvable by WarKit, but they could be solved by an extension thereof. [Jim Dunnigan considers such games to be wargaming spreading out to new territory. I think that they ought to be doable. -DL] IV. Card Games (Eh, why not? Rules are always simple by wargame standards, they have hidden information, and we needn't think much about terrain. -DL) Poker Draw: Not much to attract us, except perhaps as a first game to exercise the system. Stud: Slightly more interesting, I suppose, since the hidden information is incrementally released. Rummy-style games: Perhaps good early test of messaging system, due to the large number of draws? Oh well, maybe not. Trick-taking games: perhaps a touch closer to wargames. I vote for single-deck partnership pinochle with cards passed! Actually, pinochle may be a good choice, since it essentially includes the features of the Rummy games and the trick taking family. Blackjack: Simple mindless fun, I suppose. Bob Abbott's Eleusis: A game where you the dealer makes up one of the rules, and the players try to guess it. We ought to do this game just because of it's originality. Beyond that, the table grows as the game progresses to include fairly complex state information that might be a good start toward allowing games which modify or build the terrain during play. Bob Abbott has invented another game (Construction) which explicitly builds it's terrain as it goes, and that would be a very good way to test dynamic terrain.