Suspense as a literary device doesn’t work very well when you’re writing about a wargame, so I’ll dispense with any mystery and state right up front that I quite enjoy the time I’m spending at the game table with Conflict of Heroes.
There’s nothing particularly revolutionary about either the design or the subject matter, but a lot of little clever elements add up to a larger game experience that differs significantly from many other squad-based games. I’ve read some comments that classify Conflict of Heroes as primarily a “resource management” game, but I feel that’s only accurate in so far as combined arms tactics themselves are partly concerned with resource management.
It’s all very tidy, but it has a lot of variability built in to an easy-to-use game format.
While there certainly is a management aspect to the design’s central fixture of Activation Points, the overall game is much more about feel and narrative than it is an exercise in accounting. The activation mechanism is structured, but it can create very fluid – sometimes nearly chaotic – game turns. Throughout any single activation both players have the ability to expend Command Action Points and Opportunity Actions as what amount to “interrupts”. This can lead to some very hectic sequences that get squeezed into relatively small amounts of game time.
Yeah, that’s right. I like hectic.
Just to enhance understanding, let me point out that I am not a ‘hardware’ gamer. You’ll likely never catch me arguing that in some-or-another game the DP light machinegun should have a firepower of ’2′ instead of ’3′ or that the armor rating for a platoon of Sherman tanks should be a ’4′ instead of a measly ’3′.
While I understand the need for accuracy in wargame design, I also understand it’s even more important that a game gives the players at least a little hint of how small units actually used the gear and how they fought. I don’t necessarily need to see a cinematic narrative emerge from every game I play, but when I’m finished with a scenario I do enjoy being able to reflect on those flashes of ‘story’ when all of the game elements come together to produce a moment of insight, historical connection or just plain fun.
The combat mechanism in Conflict of Heroes is fairly simple, but it’s capable of producing a satisfactory range of results. There are no combat tables in the game. To make an attack you a roll a couple of 6-siders, add the result to the attacking unit’s fire strength and compare the total to the target’s defense strength. A total higher than the defense inflicts a hit on the target. A total four or more higher than the defense strength scores two hits and eliminates the target. Single hits are resolved by drawing a ‘hit’ marker which details the various unpleasant effects suffered by the target.
It’s all very tidy, but it has a lot of variability built in to an easy-to-use game format.
My blog-plan for the next few days is to post a short-ish replay of a scenario along with some commentary to generate a few additional points of review. One thing I am NOT going to do is regurgitate the rules in any detail. If you’re interested in following along (and you haven’t yet saved up enough Green Stamps to buy your own copy of the game), you can download a PDF of the rules from www.conflictofheroes.com. You need to check out that site, anyway, if you’re interested in the game – designer Uwe Eickert has put together a nice site to support his game with updates, new scenarios and product news.
