Game at club

[martin goddard]

We played some ENEMY PBI at club on friday night.
Albeit early days the game ticked along OK.
Jumping needs  some refinement.(Wanted to use the word "algorithm" but that seems pretentious).
Reducing blocks by 1 per turn as attrition seemed good.

This is the first game wherein "fall backs" took effect. 3 fall backs were achieved.  I wanted about 5 per game.

We took 2.5 hours for 4(?) turns. But these are very early days.
PBI ENEMY   or ENEMY PBI  both seem OK.  Any preference or leanings



martin

[Sean Clark]

Enemy PBI seems to flow better.

To be clear, are we looking at a supplement to PBI, with slightly different mechanics for motivation and such?

[Colonel Kilgore]

I also prefer Enemy PBI.

The alternative, "Poor Bloody Infantry Enemy" (when spelt out in full) is also grammatically rather dubious - surely that must seal its fate?

Simon

[Stewart 46A]

Martin, I would look at using 'Redeploy' instead of jump

Stewart 

[Leslie BT]

Stewart isn't jumping something you do when the door is slammed behind you? Or in our garden it's for the grasshoppers, ticks and fleas!

[martin goddard]

Words really do matter in wargame rules.
An example of this is the SS,Foe, Enemy title progression.

I try to avoid words that non English speakers would find difficult. Also words that can sound like others (homophones).  Hence foe/faux.   SS/Schutzen.

I still make some good howlers though.

Spell correct often makes "gun" into "gin" and other silly things without me noticing.

Acronyms specific to a set of rules are  mostly avoided by me too.  Horrible.   MU, DBM, VP, STD.PC  et al

Better not get started on faction idiots.


martin

[Big Mike]

I enjoyed the "Enemy PBI" game on Friday. It has been some weeks since I played it and the rules have developed hugely. Some thoughts.
It is an excellent introduction to PBI for a new player before progressing to the full 1 v 1 game. 
For the gamer without opponents it is a good system for solo play.
Martin is always clear that rules take time to evolve with play-testing and  that applies here.
In addition, bringing in some SCW style mechanisms (PBI 2020) is a good way to test them out, without a full re-write of PBI, but is does tax the grey-cells of us older players!
Overall, Martin is on a winner here.     

[martin goddard]

Thank you Mike