Let Our Bloody Colours Wave

Aim

To create a medieval figure wargame that starts with the organisation, preparation and planning for battle that leads to the final decision on the battlefield.

All medieval armies were hastily thrown together. Any organisation and training of units and appointment of commanders must have been done after they had assembled. There were no recognised ranks, just the usual medieval ranks of King, Nobles and their servants.

Organising the army into their three wards would be an interesting debate - who to command who, which contingent to march next to another etc. There would have been incidents on the march - looting, fighting, arguments etc. - that would need to be addressed. The leader of the army would need to impress upon the men why they were fighting and why theirs was a just cause that God would favour.

Then there is the night before when planning for the next day of battle is very important.

Game Description

The game will be a multiplayer game that has five Acts. 

1. Warriors for the Working Day

2. Marching in the Painful Field

3. The Royal Captain Walking

4. Through the Foul Womb of Night

5. Cry “Havoc,” and Let Slip the Dogs of War.

All players are on the same side - a better de. They are in effect comrades - though of course some are more equal than others - as the army leader will be a King or Duke, and the other leaders will be Dukes, Earls, Barons and assorted knights. They are effectively trying to win the war and also win their own victory conditions. Sometimes these might conflict.

We are but warriors for the working day;

Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirched

With rainy marching in the painful field.

Henry V - Act 4, scene 3

Act 1 - Warriors for the Working Day

The players are assigned the role of a Lord. This comes with the usual list of lands, estates, offices, wealth and also a short biography. The Lord will also have a list of friends and rivals etc. who will be in the same army. Each Lord will have a personal “retinue” of loyal retainers and servants, who act as their bodyguards, and will enhance status. Some Lords will have a Commander - a professional soldier servant - in their retinue Next a series are cards are dealt from the “hosts” pack. These represent the companies, groups and contingents of soldiers who have turned up. The Lords will then assign and organise these into three Wards. A Commander is an experienced professional soldier who will be able to advise their Lord.

1. Cards

1. Lords and their Retinues 

2. Town, & City Contingents 

3. Mercenary Bands 

4. Professional Soldiers
   
   

2. Form Special Units

1. Mercenary Bands

2. Artillery

3. Scourers and Prickers

4. Forlorn Hopes of Archers

5. Men at Arms

3. The player places the cards into their “battles”

1. Three battles and a Reserve

2. Special Units assigned to a Battle

3. Commander of the Battle

1. Subordinates

2. Deputy

3. Professional Soldiers

Act 2 - Marching in the Painful Field

Incidents that might occur on the march.  A fight and a murder. A quarrel over loot or baggage or a bar maid!

What do you resolve each problem? 

How do you control the men, organise the baggage, the food, looting etc?

Act 3 - The Royal Captain Walking 

What methods do the leaders use to raise the morale of the troops; to tell them that their cause is just and honourable?

1. Masses

2. Theatre

3. Preaching

4. Victuals 

5. The Royal Captain Walking

Act 4 - Through the Foul Womb of Night

The planning for the battle on the night before. The field of battle is known or at least the terrain and some intelligence will be had on the enemy.

1. Any last minute changes to the Battles and Leaders

2. Any deployment of the Special Units

3. What is the battle plan

1. Deployment on the field of war

2. What signals and orders are pre-arranged

Act 5 - Cry “Havoc,” and Let Slip the Dogs of War.

The battle will require little intervention from the players. They will have a few decisions to take but might suffer from not being able to implement them.

1. Deploy the Battles and the special forces (some might be secret)

2. Some players might wish to now use another set of rules for a medieval wargame, integrating some of the factors from the campaign into the ruleset for the battle.

Recommended Reading for Games Design

So you are interested in game design and you want to know more? What should you read?

The following list is based on my reading in preparing to teach "Computer Game Design" to 16 to 18 year olds in a College in London. I am a life long boardgame, wargame and computer game player. For many years I have created face to face, boardgames, megagames and committee games as an amateur designer.

Boardgames or Video Games - are they really that different?

There is a divide between resources that focus on digital (video) games and those on analog (board) games. There is a lot of similarities between designing games for analog and digital. And there are a few, but important distinctions that seperate them.

Several designers suggest that you should design boardgames first. Their reasons are quite simple:

1. Boardgames are easier create; you can quickly get bogged down programming or learning game engines and get distracted from game design.
2. You can quickly make boardgame prototypes and get play-test feedback.

Costikyan, Greg "Don't Be a Vidiot: What Computer Game Designers Can Learn From Non-Electronic Games"

Game Design in General

Zimmerman, Eric & Tekinbas, Katie Salen  (2004) "Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals"

This is a book recommended to me by a professional boardgame designer and I have seen it recommended in selections of books for Computer Games Design. I have read it and I would also recommend it. If you read one book on games design, make sure it is this one.

It is a daunting size, 670 pages of small type. However, the book has a great saving grace in that it has a detailed summary at the end of each chapter. I read it by looking at the summary first and then flicking back to pick up ideas from the main body of the chapter that I wanted to read more about.

It is also a very thorough book covering all the aspects of games: what is a game, what do players want, what is emergent play, the social side of games, the cultural aspect of games etc. A great primer.

Hunicke, Robin, LeBlanc, Marc, & Zubek, Robert. (2004) "MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research"

I found this to be a very thought provoking read. It summarised the different aspects games design and game players have and how they interact. The idea of the MDA approach now appears in other works on games design.

Games - Social and Cultural

Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture by Johan Huizinga

This is a seminal work. It was one of the first books to examine the cultural and social impacts and uses of games. I found it a little too heavy on the literary study side of things, but still an interesting perspective on how games should be taken more seriously than they often are.

Computer Game Design

Lewis,J.P., Mcguire, Morgan, Fox, Pamela. (2007) "Mapping the Mental Space of Game Genres"

I would recommend this as a quick entry into why computer games are different from board games.

It has a very interesting take on what game genres are and the differences between game genres and the experiences gamers want. It also has an excellent diagram breaking down the different roles in the computer games industry.

Schell, Jessie (2005) "The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses"

I have only dipped into this book. Each time that I do I come away wanting to read the whole thing. 

It looks at games design from several different perspectives - lenses - each one enabling you to ask yourself how to make your game better. It is a game for established designers to improve their work.

Rogers, Scott. (2014) "Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design Paperback"

This is a book on my order list as it keeps getting honourable mentions from many sources.

Bryant, Robert Denton, & Giglio, Keith (2015) "Slay the Dragon: Writing Great Video Games" 

I read this as a specialist book to teach a course on narratives or story-telling in games. It is written by two experienced designers who write clearly on their subject. They break down story structure in films and why game's story structure is different. They give a very useful aid to writing scenes for computer games that asks three questions about each scene: "What can I do?", "Where am I?" and "Who am I?"

Further, further reading

Costikyan has an archive of articles on games and gaming. Well worth browsing for inspiring and controversial ideas.

Gamasutra
A great website that has game reviews and articles on design and gaming issues. Well worth popping over and browsing.


** Note: I intend to pop back and update this list, as I read more.