All those research teams working on the best possible interface for board-gamey computer war games can stop now: The boys from Down Under did it again. SSG’s Battlefront proves once again that if you take an old-school war-game design and build a great interface around it, you’re most of the way to having a darn good game.
The question is, what about the new school? Awhile back, I asked SSG’s Gregor Whiley about the company’s attitude toward new mechanics in board games—using We the People as an example—since they’ve obviously mastered the older ones. Whiley responded:
“I haven’t played We the People, but [SSG designer] Ian Trout has. I’m sure that if it had ideas that were useful, then they would have been part of the design somehow. Steps and overruns have been used for 30 years because they work. What I think is more important is the way we’ve been able to add to the basic step concept in our Decisive Battles series with things like timed replacements and refit rules, which allow us more scope to differentiate between the capabilities of different sides…. Subtle power is what we like to see in our game mechanics—simple rules with lots of different outcomes.”
Battlefront demonstrates this subtle power very well. But you can only get so far with 30-year-old mechanics, which is probably why it leaves me a bit cold. How thrilling would it be to see these great designers use their talents to devise new
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