THE FIVE-SECOND GAME
RICHTHOFEN'S WAR, The 2nd
By Richard J. Burley
from THE GENERAL, 23, #1, pp 41-42.
. . . Your engine roaring, you bank hard right and pounce on the blood-red Fokker, your Vickers spitting out bullets that perforate the Fokker' s fuselage. As the triplane falls apart and smoke trails across the sky, success fills your soul and victory's glory gleams in your eye. Just as you are about to finish off the German pilot's career, your guns won't fire and your plane stops in midair! . . . Your turn is over. The Fokker's battered remains make a slow wide arc to the left, turning around and now heading for you, its guns flashing! You hear the bullets screaming by you, and you see your upper left wing surface sheer off, sending your Sopwith spinning down and down in a death spiral, out of control! You see the ground coming closer and closer and closer and . . .
How many times has this happened to you, you are winning but your opponent exploits the game's most serious flaw, the "Trading Shots Syndrome, which turns victory into instant defeat? I'm afraid that it is for that reason that I must agree with the words of Mr. Greenwood (Vol. 14, No. 4), "RICHTHOFEN'S WAR has always lacked something in the eyes of your editor." This is the reason for my writing this article.
When a friend of mine was once in desperate need for some money, he sold me some of his wargames in a package deal, with RW included in this deal. I had my doubts about this game and they were soon confirmed. The reason for my less-than-average enjoyment of elder dean of airwar games is the infamous ''Trading Shots Syndrome." True, the Richthofen's Unexpected Maneuver cards add much flavor to the game but they do not accomplish all that can be done to improve RICHTHOFEN 'S WAR.
The time scale of any wargame is one of its often overlooked crucial aspects. In a game where you have tactical aircraft combat, the ten second/one turn time scale of RW (see designer's notes) is just too large at these speeds, even for these antique aircraft. It is this too-long time scale which causes the "Trading Shots Syndrome." My solution to this problem is a surprisingly simple one: cut the time scale of the game turn in half, from ten seconds to five seconds. By cutting the time scale in half and not the scale of a hex, one cuts the movement factors of an aircraft in half and in so doing eliminates the capability of being fired on in an opponent's turn, and then in turn making a turn and firing on that opponent (i.e., trading shots).
A. MOVEMENT
As already stated, the cutting of the time scale in half will cut the MF of an aircraft in half. Thus, the maximum speed of any aircraft is cut in half, rounding any fractions up to the nearest MF. The minimum speed of the aircraft is also cut in half, with any fractions being rounded down. If the readers will take note, the maximum speed is rounded up while the minimum speed is rounded down; the sole reason for this difference is to provide the pilots with a greater number of strategic options and possibilities. Note however, that this will leave us with a unique situation. An aircraft in the original RW that has a minimum speed of 3, now has a minimum speed of 1 (3 divided by 2 =1.5, rounded down to 1). An aircraft with a speed of one must proceed into the hex directly in front of him on every other turn, and may turn a maximum of only one hexside per hex.
EXAMPLE: A Sopwith Pup is moving at a speed of "1". On this first turn, he must move the one hex straight ahead. On his next turn he now has the option of moving another hex forward or turning one hexside. If he turns the hexside, he must then move one hex straight ahead next turn. Notice in this example the aircraft has a maneuver schedule B.
As stated in the standard RW rules, any aircraft may change its movement factor by up to two MP's at the beginning of his turn. Logically, in half the time one can change speed only half as much, thus maximum speed change is now only one MP per turn .
In the standard game, the first hex any aircraft may enter is the one directly in front of him. This represents the pilot's inability to act instantly to his opponent s move. Common sense would say that since the new time scale is one half in proportion to the old time scale, to equal the pilot's reaction time, one would need to spend twice as many MP's in the new half-time scale. Although this sounds nice, playtesting has shown that two straight hexes are just too great a percentage of an aircraft's total movement allowance, so it should remain at one hex as in the standard game.
B. CLIMB AND DIVE
In RW, climbing and diving, like movement, is a direct function of time (meters per second). So, as is true in the movement factors, the maximum climb and dive rates are also cut in half. Note again that the maximum climb rates are rounded up to the nearest 50 meters, while the maximum dive rates are also rounded up to the nearest 50 meters.
EXAMPLE: An aircraft that has a maximum climb rate of 150 meters and a dive rate of 250 meters in the standard RW, now has a maximum climb rate of 100 meters (150 divided by 2=75, rounded up to 100) and a new dive rate of 150 meters (250 divided by 2=125, rounded up to 150).
As with the movement factors, the rounding of the climb and dive up is to create more options for the pilots.
The Maximum Dive Speed (Tournament Rules) is also cut in half, but with any fractions being rounded down. It is rounded down to give the pilot greater opportunities to dive. Also, using the Tournament Level Rules, one will get a movement bonus or loss corresponding to the extent of a dive or climb which is one MP for each 100 meters and remaining 50 meters. This is a function of the hex scale of the game (one hex--50 meters) not of the time scale. Therefore, the movement gain or loss is not affected by the new time scale, nor is the 100 meter per hex dive maximum or the gain of maneuver in a dive hex affected, as these too are in relation to the hex scale, not the time scale.
C. OVERDIVE
Overdive (Tournament Rules) is treated just as diving, only now one is allowed only up to an extra 100 meters of dive, instead of the extra 200 meters allowed in the standard game. The reason for this is similar to cutting the dive rates in half. The overdive speed is, like the maximum dive speed, cut in half with any remaining factions being rounded
down. Note however, that the special die roll for aircraft survival ("1" or "2" means that a wing has been lost and the plane has crashed), is not in itself a function of time, but rather a strict percentage of the risk of destruction for diving beyond the safety limits of the aircraft, and as such it is not changed.
D. MANEUVERING
Since the movement points necessary to turn an aircraft's facing within a hex represents that aircraft's ability to turn within a 50 meter hex area in respect to other aircraft and is not necessarily related to time, there is no change to the Maneuver Schedule Chart. Unfortunately, this factor leads to one serious drawback of the new five-second scale. The drawback is that actually, in the real war, most of the aircraft in RW could do a complete 180 degree reverse within a radius of 50 meters (one hex) but now with the aircraft's lesser movement factors and no change in the Maneuver Schedule Chart, few aircraft can now do a complete 180-degree turn within a single hex. But I find this a very small loss when compared to the advantage of this new RW system.
E. MAXIMUM. ALTITUDE
In no way whatsoever does the time scale, old or new, have anything to do with any aircraft's maximum altitude. Maximum altitude depends entirely on the physical capabilities of the aircraft itself. For this reason any aircraft's maximum altitude is not affected in any manner.
F. COMBAT
Here we've come to the meat of the situation and the main purpose of the new time scale. Airplanes will no longer have the MPs to turn circles and trade shots with one another, they now must maneuver to get on each other's tails or try to shake them off if their opponent succeeds at accomplishing this first. First--in combat resolution, since the hex scale is not affected by the five-second time scale, range determination, the 200 meter maximum altitude difference (standard game, it is 250 meter in the Tournament Game) and the angle of deflection (an optional rule which I highly recommend) are affected in no way at all. But the other side of combat resolution, the amount of damage inflicted, is the other side of this coin.
Since it was mentioned nowhere in the Designer's Notes of RW, I have assumed that this too is largely a function of time. Since fire usually could inflict about half the punishment in half the time, one could cut the damage inflicted in half. But instead of doing this (which would include messy fractions and rounding), the same effect would be achieved by doubling each aircraft's accumulated damage factor. The easiest way to do this is to draw a horizontal line through each of an aircraft's damage boxes, thus dividing it into two new boxes. Now as damage is taken, one simply marks off the number of half boxes as the damage number listed on the combat table (remember that no changes are made to the Target Damage Table.) Likewise, when considering an aircraft's ammunition supply, if it can only fire half as much ammo in one turn on a five-second scale as in a ten-second scale, that aircraft's ammo supply should last twice as long in the new five-second scale. So double each aircraft's ammo supply in the same manner as you have doubled its accumulated damage factor.
G. ACCUMULATED DAMAGE (Tournament Level)
Tournament Level Accumulated Damage, the reduction of an aircraft's maximum speed and climb capacities due to the damage it has taken in combat, is slightly modified in the new five-second version of RW. It begins, as it does in the standard game, when any aircraft has received damage equaling or exceeding one-half of its maximum accumulated damage factor. In the standard game, one MP is lost from an aircraft's maximum speed and 50 meters is lost off the maximum climb for each damage point sustained beyond that aircraft's accumulated damage point. Now, under the one half time scale, if we take one MP off the plane's maximum speed and 50 meters off its maximum climb for each damage box beyond its midway point, that is equal to two MPs and 100 meters of its climb under the original ten-second scale. This is obviously not equal. So, to keep things equal with one MP and 50 meters per damage box as was true in the ten-second scale, we must use half a MP and 25 meters off the climb per box in this five-second scale. But since we do not use half movement points or 25 meters, we must change the half-MP and 25 meters for one damage box to one MP and 50 meters for every two damage boxes. Therefore, in this new time scale version of RW, one must subtract one MP off an aircraft's maximum speed and 50 meters off its maximum climb for every two boxes (four half boxes), beyond that aircraft's 50% damage point .
EXAMPLE: You pilot a Fokker Dr-l triplane whose maximum speed is "5" and its minimum speed is "1". Its maximum dive is 200 meters and its maximum climb is 150 meters. Its accumulated damage is 10, (see diagram). When during combat, its accumulated damage factor crosses its half damage line at 5-6, the Fokker would lose one MP off its maximum speed and 50 meters off its maximum climb. It would lose another MP and 50 more meters off its maximum climb when it received more damage and had crossed the next line between three and four.
H. SIGHTING (Tournament Rules)
The tournament level sighting rules, that of having to spend the last two MPs with the target aircraft in line of fire, does not fit well with the new shorter time scale. The two hexes in line of fire is just too great a percentage of any aircraft's total movement factor for that turn, so instead of two hexes in your line of fire, reduce it to one hex.
[One last word about combat itself. Some sneaky soul--we all know these, the ones who take advantage of miniscule loopholes in the rules--may try to get his enemy off his tail by doing the move as shown by aircraft A in figure 1. If aircraft B would follow, doing the same move as aircraft A, his last MP would be expended turning in its final hex to keep on A's tail, thereby he would not satisfy the tournament level sighting rules. So therefore aircraft B would be forced, if he ever wanted to attack aircraft A, to take the path shown in figure 2, but now he is one hex farther away and at an angle of deflection. So, instead of allowing this to happen, we shall create one new optional rule: if an attacking aircraft follows the exact same path as the target aircraft (i.e., on his tail the whole time as in figure 1) and finishes his move with the target aircraft in his line of fire (ignoring the tournament level sighting rules), the attacking aircraft may fire at full effect. Please note that the attacking aircraft does not have to be adjacent to the target aircraft to employ this new optional rule (see figure 3). In figure 3, aircraft B has been right behind aircraft A during his move, and finished with aircraft A in his sights, at a range of two hexes. Therefore aircraft B may attack, at a range of two.]
I. CRITICAL HITS
Critical hits are one of the most exciting aspects of RICHTHOFEN 'S WAR, much too exciting to throw them out. I'm sure that the original designers of RW did not put the asterisks on the Target Damage Table to indicate a critical hit because it looked like a pretty spot; I'm sure that their placement was dependent on the probability of rolling that number and other such factors. Keeping that in mind, we would not want to increase the rate that critical hits happen. But now, with the damage capacities of all aircraft doubled, leading to twice as much combat, the number of critical hits would also roughly double, probably becoming much too important a factor in the game. To make sure that this does not happen, whenever a critical hit is rolled, roll one additional die--if that die comes up a 1, 2, or 3, that critical hit has no effect whatsoever; but if the die comes up a 4, 5, or 6, the critical hit takes immediate full effect as normal. The effects of any critical hit are not changed by the time scale change except for numbers '4' and "11” (engine damage), and number '10' (gas tank punctured). When the engine is damaged, the damaged aircraft's maximum speed is reduced by 1/2 that stated on the Critical Hit Table (1 MP for hit No. 4, and 2 MP for hit No. 11). In regards to critical hit No. 10, in which the fuel tank is punctured and one has but six turns before he is out of gas, those six turns on the original ten-second scale are equal to 60 seconds. That would be equal to 12 turns on our new five-second scale.
J. SUMMARY
This new five-second time scale greatly enhances the excitement of RICHTHOFEN'S WAR for all. The main way it does so is by eliminating, (in most cases), the "Trading Shots Syndrome." The first of the two major drawbacks of this modification is that it does significantly increase the length of a game of RW. But I see this as a small price to pay for the additional realism and excitement gained. The second major drawback is that, due to the rounding of fractions, there will be a loss of difference between aircraft. One that had a slight advantage in maximum speed in the original version, now may have no advantage. However I think that this loss is also acceptable.
Thus, a simple change in time scale can make a good game great. May this simple change make you gloriously victorious as you take off again, to do battle for the skies!
Updated 14 Jan 08.
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