Monday 12 September 2011

Battlefield Evolution: 1979

In between swapping heads and pushing putty this weekend, I've  been working on some point values for Battlefield Evolution: Modern Combat.geared towards Winter of '79

I started this back in the spring but found it was just too much for me to deal with then. In the interim I had considered just using the points system straight out of Cold War Commander or from my old copy of WRGs Armour & Infantry 1950-1985.

I thought I'd give Bevo: Modern Combat one more chance and luckily found myself more in tune with their points structure and able to make some headway. I established a baseline using the existing points values of the British Army soldiery, AFVs and weapons given in the rules to approximate the placement of troops and kit common to the 1979-80 era. The point values of broadly similar foreign hardware also proved useful for guidance - eg the Spähpanzer Luchs at 110 points equates nicely to a Fox CVR(W) in role and combat value.

Still a little rejigging to do, but the hard work is done. I'm not a slave to points, preferring to use knowledge and judgement to make sure a scenario is not wildly unbalanced. However, with both Winter of '79 and Crisis in Alcovia, a points based system will provide focus to collecting our forces and allow us quickly and simply to create ad hoc, off the shelf games.

Cheers
Mark

4 comments:

  1. Mark, when the evocommand forum was still up and running I used to be contributer of card decks (together with Pietia) and moderator. I still have those card decks (pdf) files.

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  2. @ Chris :
    Hi,
    I have many of these great files but I think some are missing, I'll very pleased to read them again. You (and Pieta) did a fantastic job adding new units/revising point costs.
    UluElsomalien AZ gmail PUNKT com

    @Mark : BF Evo rules !!!!!! (bought 2 more copies of this book [had already 1] just because I'm too lazy to check each page during battle [card system was more convenient])

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  3. Thought you might be interested in this, a Panorama episode about Sandhurst from 1975. What makes it really interesting is that the cadets take part in an exercise that imagines civil strife/war in England with the Army stepping in. There is also an interesting discussion, amongst the officers, of whether the Army could launch a coup.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00kfytm

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  4. Brilliant! Thank you anonymous!

    Chris - thanks - I already have the card deck pdfs from the forum.

    Cheers
    Mark

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