Greetings! This is one of those posts that I occasionally make that isn’t explicitly about naval gaming per se. Instead, the topic at hand, point systems, is more of a general wargame/game design type of discussion. However, I promise that I’ll eventually come back around to relating the discussion to naval gaming, so bear with me.
What are Points?
In the interest of level-setting and defining some terms, I figure it would be good to start with a brief discussion of just what a points system is and how it is used. In this context, I’m defining a points system as a series of values assigned to a given model or unit within a wargaming ruleset. Typically, these values are directly proportional to how potent a unit is on the tabletop; battleships are generally much more “expensive” in terms of points than a destroyer is, for example.
Why Are Points a Thing?
Points are part and parcel to miniature wargaming simply due to the way that miniature wargames tend to be played; as one-on-one contests of skill and luck between two opponents. In that construct, the ideal is to have a situation where neither player has an advantage over their opponent due to factors outside of their control, such as the rules and stats for their models. Instead, each player steps up to the table with an equal chance of victory. Now, before I go to much further, I know that this is only one way of looking at gaming, and that there are plenty of ways to play asymmetric scenarios and such, but I don’t think it’s such a controversial statement to say that such modes of play are more the exception than the rule across the entirety of the hobby.
So, if we accept that most of the time most players prefer to engage in what we might call a “fair” fight, that suggests that there has to be some way of levelling the playing field. How do you ensure that the fleet/army/what-have-you that you are bringing to the table is going to stack up evenly to whatever your opponent is bringing to the table? That is where points come in. Assuming that the game designers have valuated the models in the game well, you can expect to have a reasonable chance against your opponent if you both bring forces whose combined totals add up to and equal amount. To go back to my earlier example of battleships and destroyers, if I bring 100 points of battleships and my opponent brings 100 points of destroyers, then it should be a “fair” fight.
Advantages of Points
The fact that points systems are so ubiquitous across the miniature gaming hobby suggests that they have great utility. So just what do they bring to a game? Well, the big thing that permit is a certain portability to the game. By that, I mean that a player can take his miniatures, rule book, templates, dice, and other gaming implements, put them in a bag, roll down to their FLGS, and find a game with someone they may or may not have met before, let alone pre-arranged a game with. By simply agreeing to a generic scenario played at a chosen point value, the players can get to moving models and rolling dice in fairly short order, secure in the knowledge that they are playing on reasonably even terms. Points values also give even organizers the opportunity to run tournaments and other competitive events. And while these events can be fun and engaging to participate in, the real advantage of these events is that they tend to elevate the visibility of a game system, and draw in more players.
Disadvantages of Points
Of course, the downside of points values is that getting things perfectly balanced is a notoriously challenging task, and it’s rare that any game system ever achieves a state that is widely acclaimed as “Balanced.” Instead, most games undergo a constant iterative process where imbalances are gradually identified and corrected over time with updates and errata. This process naturally consumes time and effort on the part of a game studio that might have otherwise been dedicated to developing brand-new content for their game. It also means that the reputation of most game studios is going to be at least partly reliant upon how well they are able to implement balance via their points systems, and by how quickly they address problems that are identified by players.
Points as an Abstraction
To a degree, implementing points into any wargaming system is something of a way of artificially brining order to chaos, in that war is chaos, and war is what we as gamers are attempting to represent on the table. As such, all points systems are an abstraction. As I see it this is not an advantage or disadvantage, but it does mean that points systems can lend a sense of artificiality to the proceedings, and that may not be desirable if the game in question is historical in nature. Indeed, I’ve seen that exact complaint from some gamers when they hear that a new historical rule set is including points values.
Flawed but Useful
I see point values as a useful tool and something that definitely has a place in game design. As with all tools, point systems aren’t inherently good or bad. However, they can be used in good and bad ways. That is something that I want to investigate in more detail in the future, but for now I want to make good on the promise I made earlier in the post to somehow relate these ramblings back to naval gaming. To wit, Warcradle Studios just recently made major updates to their Dystopian Wars ORBATs, to inlcude point adjustments. This is a great (and free) example of how this process plays out in real time, and is worth a look!
https://www.dystopianwars.com/factions
Until next time!