I remember the old SPI series on a Warsaw Pact invasion of NATO on a battalion/regiment scale (BAOR, Vth Corps, etc), which used "fatigue points" to reflect a large number of "attritional" effects (both equipment, and actual soldier fatigue), which also permitted a unit to "rest" and slowly rebuild (recover "fatigue" by resting troops and repairing equipment). Some modification of that system might actually work well in your OWS games to reflect wear and tear on individual units, and the need to permit them to recover. Just a thought. Actual force replenishment might be a function of having a "pool" of available "fatigue points" which you could assign to individual units to allow them to recover more quickly, and which would reflect replacements and new equipment arrivals.
Being a life long wargamer (and a retired engineer with some experience in modeling and simulations and working with operational analyst as well) )and as a result (from a all of these) having spent much time contemplating wargaming I might suggest an additional mechanic to these games that would typically not be all that practical for say a typical commercial wargame and wargamer but might be so for a professional wargaming situation. This new mechanic would be to add an additional board that depicts what in Unified Modeling language (UML) is called a sequence diagram. A sequence diagram is a way to show interaction between objects over time. In this case the objects would be the units on the map, say companies or brigades. As such one would need a duplicate counter (or what one might call a clone counter) for each unit in the game. Theses would be at the head of a column (or what might be called a swim lane) on the sequence diagram board. Thus say if one had a game that had had say a hundred units for each side (i.e. 200 total) then one would have 200 such swim lanes with 200 clone counters at the head of those swim lanes. These can be ordered based on the unit formations into higher levels such as battalions, regiments, divisions, or what not. The rows along the swim lanes depict event slots where an event might be a fire action, move action, etc. each event would have (typically) three elements, the actor that performs the action, the target or recipient of that action, and the action itself. For example if Blue Unit A (say a HIMARS) fires at Red Unit B (say an Ammo Dump) then one would place action counter (in this e example a Fire action) in the HIMARS swim lane and along the same row place a receive fire action counter on the same row (as being part of that same event) in the B units swim lane. In addition one might stack an effect counter on that receive action counter such as it took a one step loss. As such one can build a depiction of all the events that occur in the game as each new event is so marked by adding new rows. As such one can readily see why this might not be all that practical for a commercial wargame in that it requires not only a set of clones counters plus action and effect counters and a very large board with many swim lanes and rows but much extra time to record those events. But for a professional wargamer these practical limitations might not be as acute in that they might have table space (for table top version) for such a large board (in addition to the map board) and a willingness to take that extra time to place the events counters on that sequence diagram board. To illustrate how this sequence diagram here is a small example. Note the arrow ---> show the direction of action where A1 ---> B2 would depict A1 acts on B2. Sequence Diagram Events---Time ------------------Blue Forces-------------------Red Forces-------- Actions A1, A2, A3 _______ Effects X1, X2, X3, X4--- etc.--- Swim Lanes: S1-------------S2------------------S3 S2 S3 S4-----------------S5 S6 S7 S8--------------------S9, S10, S11--------------------S12, S13, S14, S15--- etc. -- OOB (clone counters) ----A1 A2 B1 B2 ----------------A1 A2 A3 B1----- E2 ---------Turn 1--------------------A2----------------------------------------> B1-------------------------- A2----------------------------------- X2 E3----------Turn 1 --------------------------B1 B2------------------> A2 ----------------------------------- A2-------------------------------X1 E4 ---------Turn 2--------------------------------B2
I might add that events can be kinetic actions liking moving or shooting or changes in state such as achieving some objective like crossing a phase line or occupying a town or some hex. And the recipient of an action could be say a game hex Thus Unit D2 moves to Hex 32,36 could be such an event with D2 being the actor and hex 32,36 being the recipient of that action and the effect could be how many movements points it consumed or supply points in doing so. Also, one might implement a sequence diagram using a physical board with counters (if one has the table space for such a large board) or mount it on the wall using magnetic whiteboard with magnets on the counters, or implement it virtually say on a spreadsheet. Also one might create it using a gaming tool such as VASSAL and maybe even write code that (in part) automatically creates the sequence diagram as one moves the vassal counters. If the sequence diagram is created virtually one can add filtering commands where one can only see certain units or actions etc. And the swim lanes depict the world line of a unit in the game or the action of the effects. Also swim lanes can be added that denote rules that affected a given action. e.g. F23 moved to hex 35,28 cost 2 MPs based on Rule 23.3.6 with Rule 23.3.6 having its own swim lane and counter markers (in addition to Unit F23 and hex 35,28's swim lanes and the cost 2MP swim lane). So the sequence diagram is a compact way of depicting a detailed after action review that can be created on the fly as the game progresses. And though it is 'compact' it never the less can be quite large given one has lots of units and such and lots of events but (if virtual) can be reduced in size by filtering for any given view. These can also be used to compare one game play with another where one can see how each games sequence diagram match or differ. Thus creating such sequence diagrams might be one mark that distinguished a causal wargamer who plains for fun verses a profession wargamer who employs wargaming as a tool to train, learn, and analyze.
The public perception and influence meter. 600,000 Russians in Ukraine. The logistics problem and influence meter of displaced people who move themselves with their own family cars can't really be considered a helpful mechanic in hindsight and retrospect reagardless of how excellent the good humanitarian intention tied into the wargame mechanic to estabilsh the truths. Displaced Ukrainians as displaced persons working in the underground resistance might be individual bravery but hardly influential compared to organised SBU and the normal military intelligence gathering and targeting and behind-the-lines commando missions secondary to that. with Displaced Persons negligible with vast bravery compared to Signals Intelligence, Satellites, etc The way in which this sliding game mechanic may have influenced the USA to restrain Ukraine in infrastructure attacks and done nothing to restrain Russia in levelling and burning out cities.
I remember the old SPI series on a Warsaw Pact invasion of NATO on a battalion/regiment scale (BAOR, Vth Corps, etc), which used "fatigue points" to reflect a large number of "attritional" effects (both equipment, and actual soldier fatigue), which also permitted a unit to "rest" and slowly rebuild (recover "fatigue" by resting troops and repairing equipment). Some modification of that system might actually work well in your OWS games to reflect wear and tear on individual units, and the need to permit them to recover. Just a thought. Actual force replenishment might be a function of having a "pool" of available "fatigue points" which you could assign to individual units to allow them to recover more quickly, and which would reflect replacements and new equipment arrivals.
Gushing praise and in awe of everyone who made such great timely efforts with a sense of urgency
Being a life long wargamer (and a retired engineer with some experience in modeling and simulations and working with operational analyst as well) )and as a result (from a all of these) having spent much time contemplating wargaming I might suggest an additional mechanic to these games that would typically not be all that practical for say a typical commercial wargame and wargamer but might be so for a professional wargaming situation.
This new mechanic would be to add an additional board that depicts what in Unified Modeling language (UML) is called a sequence diagram.
A sequence diagram is a way to show interaction between objects over time. In this case the objects would be the units on the map, say companies or brigades.
As such one would need a duplicate counter (or what one might call a clone counter) for each unit in the game.
Theses would be at the head of a column (or what might be called a swim lane) on the sequence diagram board.
Thus say if one had a game that had had say a hundred units for each side (i.e. 200 total) then one would have 200 such swim lanes with 200 clone counters at the head of those swim lanes.
These can be ordered based on the unit formations into higher levels such as battalions, regiments, divisions, or what not.
The rows along the swim lanes depict event slots where an event might be a fire action, move action, etc.
each event would have (typically) three elements, the actor that performs the action, the target or recipient of that action, and the action itself.
For example if Blue Unit A (say a HIMARS) fires at Red Unit B (say an Ammo Dump) then one would place action counter (in this e example a Fire action) in the HIMARS swim lane and along the same row place a receive fire action counter on the same row (as being part of that same event) in the B units swim lane.
In addition one might stack an effect counter on that receive action counter such as it took a one step loss.
As such one can build a depiction of all the events that occur in the game as each new event is so marked by adding new rows.
As such one can readily see why this might not be all that practical for a commercial wargame in that it requires not only a set of clones counters plus action and effect counters and a very large board with many swim lanes and rows but much extra time to record those events.
But for a professional wargamer these practical limitations might not be as acute in that they might have table space (for table top version) for such a large board (in addition to the map board) and a willingness to take that extra time to place the events counters on that sequence diagram board.
To illustrate how this sequence diagram here is a small example.
Note the arrow ---> show the direction of action where A1 ---> B2 would depict A1 acts on B2.
Sequence Diagram
Events---Time ------------------Blue Forces-------------------Red Forces-------- Actions A1, A2, A3 _______ Effects X1, X2, X3, X4--- etc.---
Swim Lanes:
S1-------------S2------------------S3 S2 S3 S4-----------------S5 S6 S7 S8--------------------S9, S10, S11--------------------S12, S13, S14, S15--- etc. --
OOB (clone counters) ----A1 A2 B1 B2 ----------------A1 A2 A3 B1-----
E2 ---------Turn 1--------------------A2----------------------------------------> B1-------------------------- A2----------------------------------- X2
E3----------Turn 1 --------------------------B1 B2------------------> A2 ----------------------------------- A2-------------------------------X1
E4 ---------Turn 2--------------------------------B2
I might add that events can be kinetic actions liking moving or shooting or changes in state such as achieving some objective like crossing a phase line or occupying a town or some hex.
And the recipient of an action could be say a game hex
Thus Unit D2 moves to Hex 32,36 could be such an event with D2 being the actor and hex 32,36 being the recipient of that action and the effect could be how many movements points it consumed or supply points in doing so.
Also, one might implement a sequence diagram using a physical board with counters (if one has the table space for such a large board) or mount it on the wall using magnetic whiteboard with magnets on the counters, or implement it virtually say on a spreadsheet.
Also one might create it using a gaming tool such as VASSAL and maybe even write code that (in part) automatically creates the sequence diagram as one moves the vassal counters.
If the sequence diagram is created virtually one can add filtering commands where one can only see certain units or actions etc.
And the swim lanes depict the world line of a unit in the game or the action of the effects.
Also swim lanes can be added that denote rules that affected a given action. e.g.
F23 moved to hex 35,28 cost 2 MPs based on Rule 23.3.6 with Rule 23.3.6 having its own swim lane and counter markers (in addition to Unit F23 and hex 35,28's swim lanes and the cost 2MP swim lane).
So the sequence diagram is a compact way of depicting a detailed after action review that can be created on the fly as the game progresses. And though it is 'compact' it never the less can be quite large given one has lots of units and such and lots of events but (if virtual) can be reduced in size by filtering for any given view.
These can also be used to compare one game play with another where one can see how each games sequence diagram match or differ.
Thus creating such sequence diagrams might be one mark that distinguished a causal wargamer who plains for fun verses a profession wargamer who employs wargaming as a tool to train, learn, and analyze.
The public perception and influence meter. 600,000 Russians in Ukraine. The logistics problem and influence meter of displaced people who move themselves with their own family cars can't really be considered a helpful mechanic in hindsight and retrospect reagardless of how excellent the good humanitarian intention tied into the wargame mechanic to estabilsh the truths. Displaced Ukrainians as displaced persons working in the underground resistance might be individual bravery but hardly influential compared to organised SBU and the normal military intelligence gathering and targeting and behind-the-lines commando missions secondary to that. with Displaced Persons negligible with vast bravery compared to Signals Intelligence, Satellites, etc The way in which this sliding game mechanic may have influenced the USA to restrain Ukraine in infrastructure attacks and done nothing to restrain Russia in levelling and burning out cities.
Sláva Ukrayíni ! Sun Tzu : " Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected !"