Origins

The initial inspiration to have a go at building this system came from a presentation by Scott Good at Lotusphere in 2009. Scott presented on the construction of objects in Javascript, and the use of JSON (Javascript Object Notation). I had heard of JSON before, but had regarded it only as a lightweight alternative to XML in transporting data. That hadn't seemed a compelling enough reason to use it. What I had not understood, and which Scott brought home to me then, was that a simple eval() statement turns that mass of text into an object, which can then be manipulated programmatically. Yeah, I know. I'm a really  slow learner sometimes.

Anyway, it got me wondering about how many pieces of information I could juggle at once, and how many distinct images it would take to put together a mosaic that looks like a decent map...

On the plane on the way home I did some arithmetic, banged out a few simple terrain images, and started writing some code. Oh, by the way, I also immediately thought of a couple of cases where this could very usefully be applied to business problems - actual work for which I am paid. I have since put them into production, but it was fooling around with maps on aeroplanes and trains that taught me how to do it.

While I am on the subject of origins, there are a few games I have played or been involved in that will certainly be (if they are not already) influential in how I am approaching this. Some will influence the map, others the game rules. We'll see. Some of you may recognise particular influences as I start to reveal what I am doing.

Old Cossacks was a players' clan devoted to the multi-player Realtime Strategy game Cossacks, a few years ago. I am not a huge fan of RTS games, but what I really liked about Cossacks was that it was historically based, and on a period that is unfashionable but interesting. Indeed, I find the period interesting enough to re-enact, and have been doing so for many years. While I was involved with the Old Cossacks they ran a campaign called Europe in Flames. It was intended to supply a quasi-historical backdrop to a series of battles fought out on Cossacks maps, introducing a diplomatic element and giving the battles some degree of strategic significance. I didn't think the campaign was all that successful, but it did provide food for some very stimulating exchanges between those players who were interested in emphasising the historical realism aspect of the games, and with the designer and administrator of the campaign. Some of the first set of conversations led to the Old Cossacks game mod, by Old Cossack Davout. The strategic/campaign discussions, for me at least, didn't lead anywhere... until now.

At University, and for a number of years after, I was part of a circle of wargamers who got together fairly regularly for games of various sorts. A couple that I played many times, and which are shaping the way I think about this project are War Between the States, by Victory Games, and World in Flames, by Australian Design Group. Both are hex-based games, the first depicting the American Civil War, and the second World War II, at strategic/operational level. World in Flames, in particular, is a big, ambitious game, depicting the whole war with many units and fairly intricate rules. We played one evening a week, and the game needed to stay set up for months at a time.


Rise and Fall was another game we enjoyed - a Late-Rome-vs-the-Barbarians multi-player scenario that was simple but satisfying, not least because a player could at any time give up on his present nation and return as somebody else - a formerly dormant but now vigorous and expansive barbarian, or a newly-coalesced successor kingdom. Area movement was used, with relatively few military units (and few types) and simple rules.

Finally, there is Empires in Arms, a Napoleonic game at strategic/grand strategic level. It used area movement, and I did not play the game much as written. I did, however, use it as the basis for a tabletop campaign. Twenty or so players were involved as corps commanders in a replay of Napoleon's Russian campaign of 1812, with engagements at corps or higher level being fought on the tabletop with System 7 Rules.  Perhaps Empires in Arms could even be considered a dominant influence, for the first set of rules I propose to issue on top of Geocomb are Napoleonic, and the first scenario the War of the Third Coalition (the 1805 campaign, which historically culminated in the battle of Austerlitz).