INTRO:

I have enjoyed miniture wargaming for some time now, but I have always wondered about how "one designs" the rules for a wargaming system - Dark Age, Warmachine, or Urban War, etc... How does one translate their ideas into a functional set of rules which provides the player(s) with a fast, uncomplicated, but realistic game system which reflects modern day, near future or SCI-FI skirmish combat.

The above question is fundamental, to both the war game designer and to those who simply love playing. In order to really understand the process involved in designing rules for such games there needs to be a starting point, or template to compare a given rule set; I have elected to compare the Dark Age rule set to a generic system which would work with most of todays settings and miniatures. This generic rule set is called F.A.D (Fast and Dirty, wargame rules for modern and SCI-FI combat), this system of gaming rules was created by Mr. Ivan Sorensen.

The rules in F.A.D are based on the idea that there are certain basic military principles which do not seem to change over time, for example troop morale, motivation, and basic ranged combat. If "we" assume, as Mr. Sorensen does, that the above are essential elements in war gaming design then a starting point can be established.

The first topic I would like to explore is troop quality. The following is a excerpt from F.A.D:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Troop quality:
All models are rated depending on their training, skill, experience, competence and other factors. This is summarized in the units Quality level. There are 4 different levels:

Conscript