The question of the hour

[larry marak]

Now that River Fleets is finished....how many additional pages of special rules were needed?  Was it enough for a separate rules folder?  Are there rules for the effects of tides during a full moon?

[Matt W]

Too many! The problem is that I have lots of ideas and Daniel wants it to actually work as a game! These two hex pieces drive us nuts.

We could have had it "done" three months earlier if we were willing to have the rules "fixed" on line. River Fleets is essentially a completely new game system welded into the PG chassis. If it is anywhere near as fun to play as it was painful to produce it will be phenomenal!

[larry marak]

Dawn on the Danube Bend. Heavy fog lies on the waters and ensign Stumpnik on watch strains his eyes into the same hex to 2 hex visibility morning fog. Is that a barge, a floating hulk, or an Austrian raider off to the port side. Only the crack of thunder will tell.

Mike wrote a decade ago with the release of Eastern Front that he hoped to see a riverine gunboat expansion for PG someday. He was thinking of the Soviet and Yugoslav brown water navies. Both of which saw heavy action in gunfire support missions.

Matt...we need the armored train book next.

[Hugmenot]

No, we don't.

The 2-hex pieces in Landship Cruisers and River Fleets required too much of my time. I could have developed a 40-scenario game in the same time it took me to develop the River Fleet rules.

[larry marak]

Aw well, there's material there for the future. The Soviets continued to field armored trains into the 80's. During the sixties they had rapid deployment armor companies for deployment on the Manchurian front. In the 80's they carried ICBMs, using armored trains as land going SSBM's.

God only knows what Putin has running on his train set.