GUWS! Draft, Deploy... Discuss?

Whoa! Another GUWS Game Day? What a great way to spend a Sunday!

We were excited to take a look at our two new polypropylene maps (East Ukraine/Russia and East Med/Syria) and luxuriated in the super smooth mapiness of it all. The Ukraine map is all plains -- super flat in terms of elevation values. I think it’ll be a great fit down the line for Mobile SAMs to get a bit more play than on our PACAF-focused maps. For some reason, no one ever wants to hang out next to Mobile SAMs?

After a few demo matches -- including one particularly involved demo match between Jamie’s and Joseph’s single-ship Multi-Role Fighters -- we knocked out a four-player free-for-all (where I might have been a little over-aggressive) and a 2v2 where we successfully cracked open the Advanced Capabilities again!

The first match showcased the Advanced Air Superiority Aircraft, Advanced Multi-Role Fighter, Electronic Warfare Fighter, Advanced Bomber, Advanced SAM, and Advanced Mobile SAM. I was caught up teaching another player, but it sounds like it was a close match, with some poor mission planning by the Advanced Air Superiority Fighter getting it pinned in the corner of the map by an Advanced SAM.

Excited, the group re-formed around another map -- our classic Bohai Gulf/Korean Peninsula map! We happened to have two members with a maritime defense focus in their day jobs, and they were happy to flex their knowledge. Rather than doing a snake draft, I decided to go totally symmetrical, with each side getting its initial Base Game draft plus:

• 1x Destroyer

• 1x Frigate

• 1x Surface Strike Missile

• 1x Attack Submarine

• 

• 

• 

• 

There was the methodical poking and prodding you’d expect from the mainland team. The Joseon Peninsular team nabbed both Intelligence AND Deception Tactics, gaining a clear advantage in the information space. Hilariously, the Surface Strike Missiles (originally intended to be coastal defense missile systems) coastally defended each other into oblivion. The rest of the match was hairy, but in the end, it was determined by the preservation of one team’s Frigate and the loss of the other’s.

The post-game debrief was interesting because one of the main points Joseph raised was how much he loved the debrief discussion. I shared that a lot of the game’s development was done with Josh and me just doing Draft, Deploy, Discuss -- omitting the combat phase completely! (Josh! Love you man -- hope your program's going well!!) That version of the game is still captured in the Rules of Engagement if you haven't yet checked it out!

Brad raised that it would be easy to bring in the real-world scales, particularly on an aeronautical chart like the one we were playing on. I agreed, but highlighted that I intentionally made some decisions that eliminate realism (like keeping the Detect range and Shot range at the same values) but boost playability in service of the “beer & pretzels” vision I had for the project (thanks for the language, Curtis!).

Regarding scenarios, I pointed the gang toward the haphazard scenarios I built for Johns Hopkins. I would love to build more of those out if/when playing the game in a more academic or professional-development context ever comes to fruition.

Another wonderful day of dice rolling, explosions, and plans not surviving first contact with the enemy -- happy to have had another successful VUL at Georgetown!

Issue Orders!

- Ric