Player Notes: Activation and Resource Management
Having been involved in some of the playtesting before publication and game play after publication, my appreciation for the ingenuity of the rules has grown. Since Graham offers a very good summary of the rules on the For Whom The Dice Rolls homepage and Amazon.com offers a Look Inside including a Table of Contents and several reviews from readers, I will not venture down the review road. What I offer today is a quick look at the interactions between unit activation and resource management. I suppose, this could be considered my Player’s Notes. I suspect more of my thoughts on game player may be forthcoming.
In miniatures’ rules, the turn sequence can be defined in a number of ways although most utilize one of only a handful of tried and tested methods for activating units. Once the turn sequence method is chosen, an explanation is given on activating units and resolving actions in a linear fashion. Other game sub-systems may be synchronous or asynchronous. In a game system as this, play can become routine and one-dimensional. Not so with For Whom The Dice Rolls (FWTDR). FWTDR offers a multi-dimensional and non-linear approach to turn sequencing and process control. In addition, FWTDR presents many opportunities for nuanced, optimized play. Clever.
What does this mean?
To begin, the two driving principles of accomplishing tasks and goals within the game are unit activation and resource management. Unit activation and resource management are both controlled by a hand of playing cards. A brief primer on these two system processes is helpful. Some of the foundational components to unit activation and resource (hand) management are:
- Activation is governed by the playing of a card from a regular, 52 card deck with or without jokers.
- Jokers are added into the 52 card deck to denote the arrival of Off-Table Assets. The number of jokers available and viable missions vary by scenario.
- Hand size is governed by the sum of Army Effectiveness, number of units in play, and an initiative die roll. The player with the largest sum of these three components is awarded the initiative for the turn.
- A player’s impulse is limited to either the playing of one joker or the lesser of Army Effectiveness and the number of cards in one suit.
- When a player exhausts all cards in hand, the opponent is allowed one more impulse before the turn ends.
- Factions may only activate on specified playing card suits. Some may activate on all suits. Others may activate only on one or two suits. Better troops may activate on more suits.
- Each card played allows one unit to activate one time.
- A unit may activate up to three times per turn. Notice distinction between “impulse” and “turn” in this context.
- Activations need not be sequential whereby one unit performs all of its activations before another unit is activated.
- There are never enough resources to accomplish everything on every impulse or turn.
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| Standard Activation Table by Type and Suit |
Suppose one army is composed of Spanish Foreign Legion and Moroccan factions with four units on table. With the Legion and Moroccans being highly trained and motivated, one might expect Army Effectiveness to be high. In this situation it is, with the Nationalists having an Army Effectiveness of ‘6’. With a 1D6 roll of ‘4’, the Nationalists’ hand size for this turn is ‘14’ (6+4+4). Foreign Legion/Moroccans can activate on all suits.
The Nationalists are opposed by a mixed force of Anarchist Militia and Communist Militia each having three units. The Republican army in this case has an Army Effectiveness of ‘4’. With a 1D6 die roll of ‘3’, the Republicans have a hand size for this turn of ‘13’ (4+6+3). The anarchists may only activate on hearts and diamonds. The communists may activate only on clubs and diamonds. The Nationalists will hold the initiative for this turn.
Suppose that in this example, suits are distributed evenly within each hand. The Nationalists will have four cards in two of the suits and three cards in the other two suits. The Republicans will have four cards in one suit and three cards in each of the remaining suits.
Since the Nationalist factions may activate on any suit, all cards will be usable by all units and the Foreign Legion and Moroccans will be able to coordinate actions with one another within the same impulse. In contrast, the Republican militias have a much more difficult task activating and conducting coordinated actions. Neither the communists nor anarchists may activate on spades. That makes one-fourth of the cards in hand unplayable in this impulse. To compound this constraint, diamonds are the only suit in which the two militia may coordinate activities. Only communists will be activating on hearts and only anarchists will be activating on clubs. One quickly discovers that playing the Republicans in this scenario offers up a much different experience and challenge than does playing the Nationalists. The use of suit activation tailored to faction provides a very interesting and asymmetrical set of problems for one player over the other. This simple, game mechanism offers much depth to game play. Brilliant!
With a player’s impulse limited to at most four cards in this example, is it advisable to activate one unit three times? Three activations would exhaust that unit’s capabilities for the turn (and impulse). Would it be more advantageous to activate several units one or two times each? Does the active player exhaust the suit in this impulse or save some cards for play in a later impulse? These decisions are situation dependent and introduce even more decision-making into the process. As the Nationalist player, perhaps, coordination among units within an impulse is top priority rather than a prolonged, three-activation strike by one unit? Can a player take the risk of holding cards back for later impulses when the opponent may run out of playable cards before all of his own cards in this turn can be played? More decisions to keep in mind.
This look at activation and resource management only scratches the surface of the array of decisions players face in FWTDR. Much more can be explored on this topic alone. For now, I end this Player Note with the conclusion that FWTDR offers up a decision-rich environment that handles the complications of activating and coordinating disparate forces in a parsimonious manner. When one pulls back the layers and looks a little deeper, there is much interesting and thoughtful design work behind the scenes. Perhaps an element of Poker and risk management thrown in for good measure.
If these insights are of interest to even those not familiar with the rules, please post a comment. If not, I may keep these ramblings to myself.
Thanks for reading!
The Nationalists are opposed by a mixed force of Anarchist Militia and Communist Militia each having three units. The Republican army in this case has an Army Effectiveness of ‘4’. With a 1D6 die roll of ‘3’, the Republicans have a hand size for this turn of ‘13’ (4+6+3). The anarchists may only activate on hearts and diamonds. The communists may activate only on clubs and diamonds. The Nationalists will hold the initiative for this turn.
Suppose that in this example, suits are distributed evenly within each hand. The Nationalists will have four cards in two of the suits and three cards in the other two suits. The Republicans will have four cards in one suit and three cards in each of the remaining suits.
Since the Nationalist factions may activate on any suit, all cards will be usable by all units and the Foreign Legion and Moroccans will be able to coordinate actions with one another within the same impulse. In contrast, the Republican militias have a much more difficult task activating and conducting coordinated actions. Neither the communists nor anarchists may activate on spades. That makes one-fourth of the cards in hand unplayable in this impulse. To compound this constraint, diamonds are the only suit in which the two militia may coordinate activities. Only communists will be activating on hearts and only anarchists will be activating on clubs. One quickly discovers that playing the Republicans in this scenario offers up a much different experience and challenge than does playing the Nationalists. The use of suit activation tailored to faction provides a very interesting and asymmetrical set of problems for one player over the other. This simple, game mechanism offers much depth to game play. Brilliant!
With a player’s impulse limited to at most four cards in this example, is it advisable to activate one unit three times? Three activations would exhaust that unit’s capabilities for the turn (and impulse). Would it be more advantageous to activate several units one or two times each? Does the active player exhaust the suit in this impulse or save some cards for play in a later impulse? These decisions are situation dependent and introduce even more decision-making into the process. As the Nationalist player, perhaps, coordination among units within an impulse is top priority rather than a prolonged, three-activation strike by one unit? Can a player take the risk of holding cards back for later impulses when the opponent may run out of playable cards before all of his own cards in this turn can be played? More decisions to keep in mind.
This look at activation and resource management only scratches the surface of the array of decisions players face in FWTDR. Much more can be explored on this topic alone. For now, I end this Player Note with the conclusion that FWTDR offers up a decision-rich environment that handles the complications of activating and coordinating disparate forces in a parsimonious manner. When one pulls back the layers and looks a little deeper, there is much interesting and thoughtful design work behind the scenes. Perhaps an element of Poker and risk management thrown in for good measure.
If these insights are of interest to even those not familiar with the rules, please post a comment. If not, I may keep these ramblings to myself.
Thanks for reading!
