Maps for Fall of Empires & Lawrence of Arabia

[Matt W]

I'm far more concerned with the effect on scenario balance. Unless the objectives are very similar and the layout of approach to the objectives of similar length and with similar cover (or lack thereof) any previous playtesting is relatively worthless.

I know that most of the work that Daniel and I have put into the scenarios that we have developed has been focused on playing the scenarios with the OOB and maps as relative givens but trying to come up with victory conditions that provide both players with a reason to play. That does not mean that we wouldn't fuss with the maps or with the OOB if necessary but simply that the bulk of the work has involved crafting victory conditions that make the players feel that they still have a decent chance at least 3/4 of the way through the play.

If one is particularly used to the process it is relatively easy to see how certain objectives may be impossible and others incredibly easy. With PG and the number of plays that Daniel and I have had we typically could come to a conclusion about a scenario within a few turns of initial contact. That was helped by having hundreds of different scenarios under our belts and also by the fact that Daniel and I are temperamentally very different. Daniel is a patient, thoughtful and careful player whereas I tend to be more impulsive and aggressive. This gives us the ability to consider a wide variety of options for both sides quickly and to determine if a scenario has a fair chance of keeping both players' interest.

I am not sure that anyone has the benefit of that kind of experience for either IA or PG Modern. A change of this magnitude in combination with the change in the artillery rules may lead to some less competitive scenarios. This, of course, was an issue with the earlier products within the PG line as well. I expect that the newer IA products will still be fun to play and given the ease of playing the games solitaire (and the artillery change will help that), a lack of balance will be less of an issue.