From: LBurman@aol.com Subject: Confessions of a playtester- AGN I helped playtest Perry Moore's new DTP game, Army Group North. I had never playtested before, and thought members of consim-l might like to know about the experience. First off, playtesting is hard work. I figured it would basically be like playing a game, and then telling the designer how to improve it. Wrong. Since the rules aren't fully developed yet (that's why you're playtesting, stupid), I had to constantly refer back to Perry for interpretations, explanations, etc. Apparently I was asking a lot more questions than the other playtesters, but Perry always got right back to me. Often, he had to get me to clarify my request for a rule interpretation. It's harder to express yourself precisely in writing than you can possibly imagine. Perry was always helpful and upbeat, and never once called me a moron (though some of my questions were, in hindsight, kind of stupid). Obviously, he has dealt with playtesters many times. He liked some of my ideas, and when he rejected them, he always explained why. I learned a lot about the military situation from these e-mail discussions. On balance, I wasn't a very good playtester, as I didn't realize how much time had to go in to doing a proper job. Hopefully, my limited efforts did somewhat improve the final product. It was a very informative experience, but I won't do it again unless I really have the proper time to devote to the work. THE SITUATION: July 1944, German Army Group North was an accident waiting to happen. 16th & 18th armies were holding an advanced salient in the north, then there was a h-u-g-e hole, then the 3d Panzer Army in the south. The Germans were battered, and in sorry shape. A few decent divisions, a lot of crummy ones, and assorted ash-and-trash. The Russians, on the other hand, were about to launch two well-supplied, up to strength Fronts (plus one army from another) against the German positions, and through the gaping hole. I've never seen a wargame situation quite like this one-- a huge gap in the middle of your lines, plus the usual idiotic Fuhrer "no retreat" order in effect for the early game turns, so plugging the gap isn't easily done. For the German, it's a scarier situation than the Bulge is for the Allies-- at least in Bulge you can try to put a line together. THE GAME: Beautiful Youst map (as good as anything out there!). Map is 17 x 22", but it doesn't play like a small game; almost all of the map is used for play during the game. About 200 units counters, a lot, but never enough for either player to accomplish what he wants; you never get continuous conga- lines across the map. Units are mostly divisions, brigades and regiments for mech, a few battalions (Germans only). Maneuver is always possible, and what the game is really about. INNOVATIONS: I've always admired Perry as a designer, and he introduces more innovations here than I can recall seeing in a single game. That makes the learning curve a bit steeper than you might expect. Once you understand how it works, it is a fairly clean and uncomplicated game system, and plays quickly. There are no movement factors! Each unit type (mech or leg) has a maximum movement, but the usable factor is a function of the distance from its HQ. Combat factors are randomly determined, based on a unit quality Combat Class, which prevents that factor-counting to get a certain odds ratio (Perry said he would include an option to have fixed combat factors for those who don't like excessive wristage). With some exceptions, effective combat is possible only in a Main Sector where HQ or Artillery units can barrage. Supply is straightforward, based on tracing to HQ and then to supply in the rear. The effect of all of this is to force corps (German) and army (Russian) units to stay close to their HQ, without any artificial command rules. The Main Sector and movement rules create a situation very similar to that in the Gamers' OCS series, where you can't just launch attacks all over the place, but have to stockpile supply in the area of the attack. However, AGN abstracts all of this in a very simple way, with about 1/100th of the effort (and without all the supply markers). This is a very clever idea, which I predict will be seen in many other games. Combat is bloodless, with retreats the primary result. The only way to wipe out enemy forces is to surround them with ZOC's and force a retreat. Since only Class I and II divisions have real ZOC's, this is not as easy as you may think. There are lots of combat modifiers to reflect the terrain and situation, and especially armor. You can get a modifier up to +10 just from having enough armor (on a 10-sided die!). Armor-heavy forces can literally blow the enemy out (although there are no overrun rules- this is 1944, the Germans aren't as good as they were, and the Russians are still learning). Also, only armor can take advantage of large retreats; infantry attackers can only advance one hex, maximum. So you need armor if you want to advance fast. Artillery and air are only used to disrupt enemy forces, which provides modifiers in the ensuing combat. FIRST GAME: The Russians came on like gang busters, and the poor Germans were tied down by the Hitler standfast rule. The Germans were too crappy for anything but the most limited counterattacks. By turn 4, I told Perry that the game was defective -- there is no way for the Germans to win! He told me to keep playing. All I could do was use German battalions and weak regiments as speed bumps to slow down the onrushing hordes. In fact, I was so overconfident as the Russian that I made mistakes -- I didn't realize that infantry armies couldn't advance fast enough without a tank corps to get the big advances after combat. Still, it looked like curtains for the Germans. When the standfast rule finally expired, I redeployed German mech forces piecemeal to slow down the red machine. Unfortunately, the Russian advances in the east had cut off a lot of the crummy German leg divisions, so there was no easy way to redeploy them. In the west, the Reds quickly took Kauer and Wilkomir, got across the Memel river when a German engineer just couldn't roll a bridge demolition to save its life, took Poneswisch and Storgenberg, and seemed to be unstoppably on their way to the ultimate objective-- Riga (which would cut the 16th and 18th armies off from supply, and win the game decisvely). On the plus side, I now had enough German ash-and-trash blocking the forests and marshes in the center of the board, where it was hard for the Reds to manuever around and cut them off. Still looked like a matter of time, though. The Russians had not yet lost a single unit! Helpful hint: watch the order of appearance! On turn 12, two beautiful panzer corps enter the game. These are fresh troops, easily the best units in the game. There were two Russian tank corps on the east side of the Memel River; unfortunately for them, less than one move from the German entry hex. In one turn, an entire tank corps was surrounded and pulverized. The turn after that, the other tank corps bit the dust, and the Germans held the entire east side of the Memel. At the same time, the Germans in the center of the map finally had enough strength to attack, and (with a fair amount of luck) bit off the mech corps that was spearheading the Russian attack in the center, killing most of it. The new German units were enough to stabilize the center, and despite ferocious Russian attacks, the Russkies never got anywhere near Riga. DECISIVE GERMAN VICTORY. Whew. In a subsequent game, I handled the Russians better, and didn't leave any of the vital tank corps where they could get murdered. Still, the Russian has a long way to go to get Riga, and he has to stick his (mechanized) neck out to get there. Russia also runs into serious supply problems in the mid-game, with one or the other of his fronts basically forced to hibernate until uncle Joe decides to give them some gas. The game poses interesting problems for both sides, and has substantial replay value working out different strategies. It also seems to be fairly accurate historically. Either side can win. ASSESSMENT: This is a fast-moving game, just big enough to be interesting. With 21 turns, it will probably take about a weekend to play to completion, maybe less if both players are familiar with the system. It is nearly perfect for solitaire play. It contains a plethora of new ideas, some of which will certainly be adopted by other designers. It is a interesting situation. Further information is available at . Larry Burman