Post by Gustav6 on Sept 29, 2015 16:03:39 GMT 1
In case you don’t know, MBT, the classic game of modern tactical ground combat published by Avalon Hill in 1989 and designed by Jim Day, is going to be released again by GMT using the proven Panzer 2nd. Ed. game engine. I guess this qualifies the new MBT as MBT 2nd. Ed.
I've been one of the fortunates of the MBT playtest group and I'd like to share with you my impressions of the playtesting process and to advance what you will get when the new MBT is released.
First of all, I want to thank Jim Day for its outstanding job in the whole process. It's really a pleasure to work with him: he's a very professional designer, with very clear ideas, he knows what he wants and how to achieve it; but at the same time he's open to suggestions and new points of view. This has made easy the playtesting process, with constant updates (always for the better) and convenient and clarifying explanations of playtesting issues that came across. Although I’ve not been the best tester this game deserved due to a long absence during the process, if I ever have to repeat this experience I want it to be as ideal as this one has been.
In case you get involved in something similar one day, I will explain how the playtesting process has been. First of all, Jim Day provided to all testers an initial playtest kit with the following items:
-Rulebook
-Playbook
-Game Cards
-Data Cards
-Data Card Key
-VASSAL module
As I’ve said, this was serious work, so an ambitious schedule was set: it all began in late June, with the call for playtesters. The actual testing period began in early July and it ended in mid-September, with nine updates in between. With such a tight schedule, the only advice Jim gave us was to get involved. Like Yoda said: “Do or do not, there is no try”. I, like Luke, was able to take out the X-Wing from the mud…
At the end of the playtesting period, the game, which was an already very solid design, has matured into an outstanding product. During this time there has been some rulebook edits, data cards corrections and scenario adjustments, in addition to the corresponding VASSAL updates, but the game was so tight that there hasn’t been any major change in the game. Very, very appealing.
But let’s stop talking about testing processes and let’s move on to the real heart of this post: what MBT is about and what you will get from it.
In order to talk about MBT 2nd. Ed. I’ll have three different kind of people in mind: those that know nothing about Panzer 2nd. Ed. nor AH’s version of MBT (case 1); players of the AH’s MBT version but who haven’t played Panzer 2nd. Ed. (case 2); and players of Panzer 2nd. Ed. (case 3).
New players (case 1):
For those of you that haven’t played neither AH’s MBT nor Panzer 2nd. Ed., the new MBT game will bring to your tables a detailed, straightforward and very clever game of tactical modern warfare set in a hypothetical WWIII conflict in Central Europe in 1987. The game scale is one hex equals 100m across; each game piece represents one vehicle, squad, half-squad or section; and each turn represents between 15 seconds to 15 minutes of real time, depending on the situation. This game scale, given the stats of the military equipment simulated, allows for a very mobile game that emphasizes manoeuvre and combats at typical real-life ranges.
I won’t tell you no lies: the game is detailed. You have units with homogeneous, composite and ERA armour; SABOT and HEAT ammo with different penetration stats; different armour ratings for turret and hull front, side and rear aspects; detailed spotting rules; different smoke types; different vision devices with different spotting ranges; anti-tank guided missiles; helicopters; fixed-wing aircraft; artillery; different infantry tactics; unit and formation grade and morale… Although at first you may feel overwhelmed, all this plethora of data is governed by a table-engined system which guides you through the different charts and tables and that makes this potentially difficult detailed combat system into a straightforward process. Once you get used to the different tables and charts, the game moves fairly quickly and you tend to concentrate more on tactics than on game mechanics.
If we dig in a bit more into the game mechanics, we could say that MBT is a three layer game: the combat game, which includes one of the best spotting rules written for a tactical game; the command and control game; and the morale game.
Let’s start with the command and control game. Command and control includes different types of orders to be given to units; limited number of orders the different formations can be given; performance of individual units; and initiative.
All units of the game are commanded using five unique orders: fire; move; short-halt (fire and move); overwatch (opportunity fire); and no command (which is used either for fooling your enemy or for enhancing the probabilities of certain actions, like recovering from suppression). Only a unit with a fire order can fire, only a unit with a move order can move, and so on. Some commands have their nuances, like having a legitimate target in order for a unit to be given a fire order. But, as in real life, you will never have enough commands for all your units. The better the grade of a formation, the greater the number of commands you’ll have, but you will always be short of commands, so some units must share orders. This is one of the best features of the game, as you have to best plan your manoeuvre in order to take the maximum profit of your available orders. Formation grade also affects the range of commands. Units that share commands must be at a certain range of each other in order to do so. Very interesting.
Another major feature of the command and control game is initiative. Initiative depends on the force grade. By the way, the order of battle of a scenario is divided into force, which is the whole force a player commands, and formations, which are typically at the company level. Force grade is used for initiative. Formation grade is used for command placing and morale. OK, as we were saying, the better the force grade, the greater the chance of getting the initiative. In case you don’t know, MBT’s sequence of play is sequential, this is, one player fires all his units and all results take effect, and then the second player fires all his remaining units and applies results. Then the second player moves first, and afterwards the first player moves second. This means that being the first player is important when both players have multiple firing units with legitimate targets, as the first player will have the edge. The same applies to movement, as the second player moves first, so his units can be fired upon by overwatching first player’s units. Although initiative depends on a die roll, having a better force grade enhances your chances of getting the initiative, although, as in real life, you never can tell… This implies a careful thinking of command placing, as you place commands on your units before knowing who will have the initiative for the turn. Although this rule has been criticized by some, I like it a lot, as it forces you to plan carefully your turn and to take some risks sometimes, as in real life; but for those that may complain you have the staggered initiative optional rule, which breaks initiative into a formation by formation basis, lowering the impact of this rule somewhat.
The second layer of MBT is the combat game. Basically you have two types of combat: AP and GP combat. AP combat depends on the type of ammo fired, the armour of the target, and range. Typically, when you use AP combat, you select ammo, check range and apply the corresponding modifiers (firer suppressed, target or firer moving, etc.) Then check if you hit your target. If hit, determine hit location and compare penetration against armour. If penetration is greater than armour you finally check damage. Very detailed and all done with a few die rolls. GP combat is a bit different. You check range, determine the GP factor and the GP defence. Apply modifiers and roll a die. You can achieve three different results: no damage, suppressed or effective. And that’s all.
Combat is very entertaining in itself and sometimes is very tense when you need to destroy a unit and you check that your shot hits your target only to do no damage to it. First time players tend to concentrate on this combat layer. Although important, as you need to know before firing if you have any chance of damaging your enemy and it is better to fire at the best range for you and the worst for your enemy, the combat game is indeed secondary. The real core of the game is the command and control system.
Finally, we have the morale game. Morale is related to the chance of breaking. The higher the morale of a formation, the higher the chance of that formation of being combat capable even when taking a lot of casualties. Take too many casualties and your formations will break and be worthless.
All in all, when you play MBT you have to have in mind all these layers working together: place your units so you can give the right commands to them. Manoeuvre your units to get the best firing positions. And don’t take too many casualties, or your formations will reject combat. And all this without the need of being constantly checking the rulebook: you can concentrate on the game, not on the rules. An amazing achievement.
AH’s MBT players with no Panzer 2nd Ed. experience (case 2):
For those of you, old MBT players, who are wondering what the differences between old and new MBT are, here I will remark some of them:
-Sequential versus simultaneous sequence of play: this is the major change between the old and the new MBT and the one that I’m sure will bring more comments from old players. If you want to know more about this design decision, go to the Panzer Pusher site (https://sites.google.com/site/thepanzerpusher/) and read the Inside the Game section (https://sites.google.com/site/thepanzerpusher/inside-the-gam...), where you will find some designer notes (they’re for Panzer, but they work for MBT, as they share the same system).
-Reworked command system: the new MBT only uses five commands for all the possible actions units can perform. The command system has been streamlined, but is more powerful than before. For example, the Fire command now includes the ATGM capability (in the old game you had two different commands for direct fire and ATGM fire), but you can perform even more actions than before, like dodging incoming ATGMs. The number of commands and their range are limited by the formations’ grade, which has been expanded from three to five grades.
-Lack of doctrine: Soviet doctrine no longer exists. But the powerful initiative and command system can simulate doctrine in a much better way, and they do not limit it to the Soviet side, as you can apply it to any side by rightly combining force and formations’ grade. This greatly enhances the DYO possibilities. And you can better simulate different countries’ doctrine, not only the Soviet one. In addition to the command and initiative system, you can use the scenario’s special, setup and victory conditions to further improve special doctrine cases. A great achievement.
-Streamlined combat system: Spotting has been reworked for the better using more clever tables and cases, and combat has been simplified using a better thought range system that sets five basic ranges: point black, short, medium, long and extreme. These ranges change from unit to unit, so at the end you get the same results as before with less die rolls. These changes also imply clearer data cards, which helps to better understand the combat system. You still have different ammo types, armour types, hit angles, etc. But you achieve the same results with less work and very neatly. An example that sometimes less is more.
-Morale system: the inclusion of the morale layer offers a new aspect to the game that improves the game experience when using all the rules.
-Modularity: and talking about rules, the game system has become fully modular, this is, once you have mastered the basic rules you can add or subtract the number of advanced and optional rules you are more comfortable with, so you can adapt the game to your gaming or difficulty preferences.
-Components: the game components are clearly superior. Colour game cards, data cards, play book and rulebook; thick data cards; a lot of key cards; big and colourful counters, etc. There is only one but: maps. This is the worst part of the game. Maps are fully compatible with Panzer 2nd. Ed., but they are now paper maps. This is a step back from the beautiful mounted maps of the old MBT, but this is the price you have to pay in order to keep production costs at a reasonable level. Remember that game sales are not the same nowadays than in the 80s. I can live with that, can you?
If you liked the old MBT I think you will love this new version. If you are not sure of the initiative system, you can always use the staggered initiative optional rule, so don’t worry about this issue. The whole gaming experience is much deeper than before and you achieve this with a streamlined game engine. You won’t be disappointed.
Panzer 2nd. Ed. players (case 3):
If you are a veteran Panzer player, your transition from Panzer to MBT will be fast and easy. Some rules have been clarified; other rules that were optional in Panzer have become advanced; there are some new rules, of course, as modern combat is not the same as WW2 combat (ATGMs, helicopters, vision devices, etc.), but they are written in the Panzer fashion, so you will have no difficulty in dealing with them. I only hope that when Panzer is re-released, the new live rulebook incorporates some of the additions and changes of this new MBT, so imagine how good this new version of the game is. If you liked Panzer, you will like MBT. And they are fully compatible, so you can make some DYO scenarios combining both games.
Conclusion:
I don't know if MBT is going to be a top seller, but I know that this game will be a top quality wargame, with a lot of work behind it and with very clever and very well thought rules that simulates very well modern combat with a detailed but streamlined system. It deserves to be a top seller.
The three layer game (command and control, combat, and morale) offers a very deep simulation. The rulebook is clear and when you get used to the tables they become second nature: you can concentrate on gaming, not on rules. Components are over the top (except for the maps) and there is one thing that puts this game apart: it is a Jim Day design.
If you are new to the system, you will be surprised by a very good game. If you are an old MBT veteran, I think you will appreciate the changes of this new version. And if you are a Panzer veteran, you can't miss this game.
And one last thing: I will support MBT in the Panzer Pusher site. So you are late if you haven't already pre-ordered this game.
I've been one of the fortunates of the MBT playtest group and I'd like to share with you my impressions of the playtesting process and to advance what you will get when the new MBT is released.
First of all, I want to thank Jim Day for its outstanding job in the whole process. It's really a pleasure to work with him: he's a very professional designer, with very clear ideas, he knows what he wants and how to achieve it; but at the same time he's open to suggestions and new points of view. This has made easy the playtesting process, with constant updates (always for the better) and convenient and clarifying explanations of playtesting issues that came across. Although I’ve not been the best tester this game deserved due to a long absence during the process, if I ever have to repeat this experience I want it to be as ideal as this one has been.
In case you get involved in something similar one day, I will explain how the playtesting process has been. First of all, Jim Day provided to all testers an initial playtest kit with the following items:
-Rulebook
-Playbook
-Game Cards
-Data Cards
-Data Card Key
-VASSAL module
As I’ve said, this was serious work, so an ambitious schedule was set: it all began in late June, with the call for playtesters. The actual testing period began in early July and it ended in mid-September, with nine updates in between. With such a tight schedule, the only advice Jim gave us was to get involved. Like Yoda said: “Do or do not, there is no try”. I, like Luke, was able to take out the X-Wing from the mud…
At the end of the playtesting period, the game, which was an already very solid design, has matured into an outstanding product. During this time there has been some rulebook edits, data cards corrections and scenario adjustments, in addition to the corresponding VASSAL updates, but the game was so tight that there hasn’t been any major change in the game. Very, very appealing.
But let’s stop talking about testing processes and let’s move on to the real heart of this post: what MBT is about and what you will get from it.
In order to talk about MBT 2nd. Ed. I’ll have three different kind of people in mind: those that know nothing about Panzer 2nd. Ed. nor AH’s version of MBT (case 1); players of the AH’s MBT version but who haven’t played Panzer 2nd. Ed. (case 2); and players of Panzer 2nd. Ed. (case 3).
New players (case 1):
For those of you that haven’t played neither AH’s MBT nor Panzer 2nd. Ed., the new MBT game will bring to your tables a detailed, straightforward and very clever game of tactical modern warfare set in a hypothetical WWIII conflict in Central Europe in 1987. The game scale is one hex equals 100m across; each game piece represents one vehicle, squad, half-squad or section; and each turn represents between 15 seconds to 15 minutes of real time, depending on the situation. This game scale, given the stats of the military equipment simulated, allows for a very mobile game that emphasizes manoeuvre and combats at typical real-life ranges.
I won’t tell you no lies: the game is detailed. You have units with homogeneous, composite and ERA armour; SABOT and HEAT ammo with different penetration stats; different armour ratings for turret and hull front, side and rear aspects; detailed spotting rules; different smoke types; different vision devices with different spotting ranges; anti-tank guided missiles; helicopters; fixed-wing aircraft; artillery; different infantry tactics; unit and formation grade and morale… Although at first you may feel overwhelmed, all this plethora of data is governed by a table-engined system which guides you through the different charts and tables and that makes this potentially difficult detailed combat system into a straightforward process. Once you get used to the different tables and charts, the game moves fairly quickly and you tend to concentrate more on tactics than on game mechanics.
If we dig in a bit more into the game mechanics, we could say that MBT is a three layer game: the combat game, which includes one of the best spotting rules written for a tactical game; the command and control game; and the morale game.
Let’s start with the command and control game. Command and control includes different types of orders to be given to units; limited number of orders the different formations can be given; performance of individual units; and initiative.
All units of the game are commanded using five unique orders: fire; move; short-halt (fire and move); overwatch (opportunity fire); and no command (which is used either for fooling your enemy or for enhancing the probabilities of certain actions, like recovering from suppression). Only a unit with a fire order can fire, only a unit with a move order can move, and so on. Some commands have their nuances, like having a legitimate target in order for a unit to be given a fire order. But, as in real life, you will never have enough commands for all your units. The better the grade of a formation, the greater the number of commands you’ll have, but you will always be short of commands, so some units must share orders. This is one of the best features of the game, as you have to best plan your manoeuvre in order to take the maximum profit of your available orders. Formation grade also affects the range of commands. Units that share commands must be at a certain range of each other in order to do so. Very interesting.
Another major feature of the command and control game is initiative. Initiative depends on the force grade. By the way, the order of battle of a scenario is divided into force, which is the whole force a player commands, and formations, which are typically at the company level. Force grade is used for initiative. Formation grade is used for command placing and morale. OK, as we were saying, the better the force grade, the greater the chance of getting the initiative. In case you don’t know, MBT’s sequence of play is sequential, this is, one player fires all his units and all results take effect, and then the second player fires all his remaining units and applies results. Then the second player moves first, and afterwards the first player moves second. This means that being the first player is important when both players have multiple firing units with legitimate targets, as the first player will have the edge. The same applies to movement, as the second player moves first, so his units can be fired upon by overwatching first player’s units. Although initiative depends on a die roll, having a better force grade enhances your chances of getting the initiative, although, as in real life, you never can tell… This implies a careful thinking of command placing, as you place commands on your units before knowing who will have the initiative for the turn. Although this rule has been criticized by some, I like it a lot, as it forces you to plan carefully your turn and to take some risks sometimes, as in real life; but for those that may complain you have the staggered initiative optional rule, which breaks initiative into a formation by formation basis, lowering the impact of this rule somewhat.
The second layer of MBT is the combat game. Basically you have two types of combat: AP and GP combat. AP combat depends on the type of ammo fired, the armour of the target, and range. Typically, when you use AP combat, you select ammo, check range and apply the corresponding modifiers (firer suppressed, target or firer moving, etc.) Then check if you hit your target. If hit, determine hit location and compare penetration against armour. If penetration is greater than armour you finally check damage. Very detailed and all done with a few die rolls. GP combat is a bit different. You check range, determine the GP factor and the GP defence. Apply modifiers and roll a die. You can achieve three different results: no damage, suppressed or effective. And that’s all.
Combat is very entertaining in itself and sometimes is very tense when you need to destroy a unit and you check that your shot hits your target only to do no damage to it. First time players tend to concentrate on this combat layer. Although important, as you need to know before firing if you have any chance of damaging your enemy and it is better to fire at the best range for you and the worst for your enemy, the combat game is indeed secondary. The real core of the game is the command and control system.
Finally, we have the morale game. Morale is related to the chance of breaking. The higher the morale of a formation, the higher the chance of that formation of being combat capable even when taking a lot of casualties. Take too many casualties and your formations will break and be worthless.
All in all, when you play MBT you have to have in mind all these layers working together: place your units so you can give the right commands to them. Manoeuvre your units to get the best firing positions. And don’t take too many casualties, or your formations will reject combat. And all this without the need of being constantly checking the rulebook: you can concentrate on the game, not on the rules. An amazing achievement.
AH’s MBT players with no Panzer 2nd Ed. experience (case 2):
For those of you, old MBT players, who are wondering what the differences between old and new MBT are, here I will remark some of them:
-Sequential versus simultaneous sequence of play: this is the major change between the old and the new MBT and the one that I’m sure will bring more comments from old players. If you want to know more about this design decision, go to the Panzer Pusher site (https://sites.google.com/site/thepanzerpusher/) and read the Inside the Game section (https://sites.google.com/site/thepanzerpusher/inside-the-gam...), where you will find some designer notes (they’re for Panzer, but they work for MBT, as they share the same system).
-Reworked command system: the new MBT only uses five commands for all the possible actions units can perform. The command system has been streamlined, but is more powerful than before. For example, the Fire command now includes the ATGM capability (in the old game you had two different commands for direct fire and ATGM fire), but you can perform even more actions than before, like dodging incoming ATGMs. The number of commands and their range are limited by the formations’ grade, which has been expanded from three to five grades.
-Lack of doctrine: Soviet doctrine no longer exists. But the powerful initiative and command system can simulate doctrine in a much better way, and they do not limit it to the Soviet side, as you can apply it to any side by rightly combining force and formations’ grade. This greatly enhances the DYO possibilities. And you can better simulate different countries’ doctrine, not only the Soviet one. In addition to the command and initiative system, you can use the scenario’s special, setup and victory conditions to further improve special doctrine cases. A great achievement.
-Streamlined combat system: Spotting has been reworked for the better using more clever tables and cases, and combat has been simplified using a better thought range system that sets five basic ranges: point black, short, medium, long and extreme. These ranges change from unit to unit, so at the end you get the same results as before with less die rolls. These changes also imply clearer data cards, which helps to better understand the combat system. You still have different ammo types, armour types, hit angles, etc. But you achieve the same results with less work and very neatly. An example that sometimes less is more.
-Morale system: the inclusion of the morale layer offers a new aspect to the game that improves the game experience when using all the rules.
-Modularity: and talking about rules, the game system has become fully modular, this is, once you have mastered the basic rules you can add or subtract the number of advanced and optional rules you are more comfortable with, so you can adapt the game to your gaming or difficulty preferences.
-Components: the game components are clearly superior. Colour game cards, data cards, play book and rulebook; thick data cards; a lot of key cards; big and colourful counters, etc. There is only one but: maps. This is the worst part of the game. Maps are fully compatible with Panzer 2nd. Ed., but they are now paper maps. This is a step back from the beautiful mounted maps of the old MBT, but this is the price you have to pay in order to keep production costs at a reasonable level. Remember that game sales are not the same nowadays than in the 80s. I can live with that, can you?
If you liked the old MBT I think you will love this new version. If you are not sure of the initiative system, you can always use the staggered initiative optional rule, so don’t worry about this issue. The whole gaming experience is much deeper than before and you achieve this with a streamlined game engine. You won’t be disappointed.
Panzer 2nd. Ed. players (case 3):
If you are a veteran Panzer player, your transition from Panzer to MBT will be fast and easy. Some rules have been clarified; other rules that were optional in Panzer have become advanced; there are some new rules, of course, as modern combat is not the same as WW2 combat (ATGMs, helicopters, vision devices, etc.), but they are written in the Panzer fashion, so you will have no difficulty in dealing with them. I only hope that when Panzer is re-released, the new live rulebook incorporates some of the additions and changes of this new MBT, so imagine how good this new version of the game is. If you liked Panzer, you will like MBT. And they are fully compatible, so you can make some DYO scenarios combining both games.
Conclusion:
I don't know if MBT is going to be a top seller, but I know that this game will be a top quality wargame, with a lot of work behind it and with very clever and very well thought rules that simulates very well modern combat with a detailed but streamlined system. It deserves to be a top seller.
The three layer game (command and control, combat, and morale) offers a very deep simulation. The rulebook is clear and when you get used to the tables they become second nature: you can concentrate on gaming, not on rules. Components are over the top (except for the maps) and there is one thing that puts this game apart: it is a Jim Day design.
If you are new to the system, you will be surprised by a very good game. If you are an old MBT veteran, I think you will appreciate the changes of this new version. And if you are a Panzer veteran, you can't miss this game.
And one last thing: I will support MBT in the Panzer Pusher site. So you are late if you haven't already pre-ordered this game.
