Why the topic : We must admit that our group is not a group of youngsters and most of us are aging . I try to get fresh players who are ready to play maximus, who play SAGA and are afraid or very reluctant because a MEG game can be awfully long. They like the scale, the rules, manoeuvring an army but are deterred by 3h30 minutes games . yes, a friendly game could be played in 5 hours with beer und bretzels but playing a game afterwork is a bit too long, to time consuming. But they like maximus ( not magna, nor pacto).
So if we want younger people to join us we need to speed up the game or accept we are a dying dinosaurs race and that MEG will eventually dissapear by lack of players.
That started me thinking: how could we speed up MEG while keeping to the MEG spirit .
Some ideas do come from REG, that will be obvious but it should not be against MEG as mEG is now
We already try to speed up shooting by mutualising shooting dice ( when possible ) and in a friendly way remove a base either by collective agreement or rolling a normal die to determine where the dead base is. :) a few minutes here, a few minutes there it is a game after all !
You could also just group part of the shooting, not the whole shooting.
As we do have many melees, "S" the special effect could also inflict a wound at melee as to speed up some of those endless melees ( he dreaded white die will be more dreadful ). It will speed up things and even superior troops might fear some inferior troops but their S on green, yellow and red will also be more efficient.
"S" a wound in a kaB test ? Why not
"S" should remain what it is for shooting or test to a general .
I think those smallish changes would already speed things enough but any other ideas are welcome if we do it in a friendly constructive manner
Any other ideas
Play Pacto? Double-size your UGs so each 15mm UG is 80mm frontage.
Richard
I find ReG a significantly slower game than MeG, although not because of the changes you suggest bringing over from it.
I'm not convinced we want to 'flatten' the differences between the dice by making an S a hit, Is MeG currently dominated by smaller elite forces? I don't find it so.
Martin
Absolutely Marty - the game tends to favour the big 'average' battalions not the small elite. Simon even stated this was a deliberate intention of MEG. Of course, I'm not smart enough to pick up on this intention and continue to field small armies😂
Personally, I would be reluctant to make significant changes. The example of Battlefront developing FOW Version 4 to get the kids on board might have been a commercial decision but it killed the game for a lot of us. I am all in favour of encouraging new players but not at the expense of morphing the game into something I don't enjoy. I am not that altruistic.
I am also not convinced that we would we get a lot more players by offering 'MAXIMUS-lite' rather than MAGNA, in Australia anyway.
I play a lot more RED than MEG. They are two different games trying merge elements of them ignores this fact. And I more that happy with a slower game.
Wayne
I suppose if you want a variant that is faster than the standard game, you could upgrade all dice by a colour and increase all moves by a BW.
Quote from: lionheartrjc on March 01, 2023, 08:05:04 PM
Play Pacto? Double-size your UGs so each 15mm UG is 80mm frontage.
Richard
People want to play a maximus size game but quicker ( they are SAGA generation)
Quote from: badhabum on March 02, 2023, 04:43:09 PM
Quote from: lionheartrjc on March 01, 2023, 08:05:04 PM
Play Pacto? Double-size your UGs so each 15mm UG is 80mm frontage.
Richard
People want to play a maximus size game but quicker ( they are SAGA generation)
just try to play Maximus 8000 points on a 150x100 table :) :) :)
In my experience the fact that the game is on square bases with over 50 models per side is enough to turn away most players. Time wise for a mass battles game MEG moves at a fair clip compared to other games. It already substitutes handfuls of dice for a single roll-off, which is a major time-saver. Really if time is a big factor, the solution is just to play DBA. I think its okay for MEG to just not be the game for people who don't want what it offers, which is a good mid-complexity ancients to medieval ruleset with an eye for simulating the historical feel of real armies.
Quote from: badhabum on March 02, 2023, 04:43:09 PM
Quote from: lionheartrjc on March 01, 2023, 08:05:04 PM
Play Pacto? Double-size your UGs so each 15mm UG is 80mm frontage.
Richard
People want to play a maximus size game but quicker ( they are SAGA generation)
Have you tried Pacto with double-sized UGs? It is (almost) a maximus-sized game but quicker...
Quote from: Agoz on March 03, 2023, 12:48:00 AM
In my experience the fact that the game is on square bases with over 50 models per side is enough to turn away most players. Time wise for a mass battles game MEG moves at a fair clip compared to other games. It already substitutes handfuls of dice for a single roll-off, which is a major time-saver. Really if time is a big factor, the solution is just to play DBA. I think its okay for MEG to just not be the game for people who don't want what it offers, which is a good mid-complexity ancients to medieval ruleset with an eye for simulating the historical feel of real armies.
I am not sure I agree with your first sentence. The size of the Maximus game does turn away some players, but is also an attraction for others.
However if the number of models in Maximus is an issue, then try playing MeG Pacto. About the size of a double-DBA game.
Quote from: lionheartrjc on March 03, 2023, 07:32:29 AM
Quote from: Agoz on March 03, 2023, 12:48:00 AM
In my experience the fact that the game is on square bases with over 50 models per side is enough to turn away most players. Time wise for a mass battles game MEG moves at a fair clip compared to other games. It already substitutes handfuls of dice for a single roll-off, which is a major time-saver. Really if time is a big factor, the solution is just to play DBA. I think its okay for MEG to just not be the game for people who don't want what it offers, which is a good mid-complexity ancients to medieval ruleset with an eye for simulating the historical feel of real armies.
I am not sure I agree with your first sentence. The size of the Maximus game does turn away some players, but is also an attraction for others.
However if the number of models in Maximus is an issue, then try playing MeG Pacto. About the size of a double-DBA game.
It's very dependant on local sensibility, as an American, most wargamers around here start with either 40k or some other skirmish game and, as they age, slowly dip their toes into historicals, typically something WW2 as we tend to glorify our contribution to that war in popular media, as well as just plain not having much history past that. Unfortunately the common factor in all of these tend to be games with round bases operating in loose squads. Because of this, something like SAGA, which is similar, has a sub 50 model starting point, has a decade of name recognition, has flashy special rules bordering on fantasy, and is frankly dead simple to play, is an easy sell. I think for what MeG is trying to achieve it's as streamlined as it is going to get.
Quote from: lionheartrjc on March 03, 2023, 07:29:45 AM
Quote from: badhabum on March 02, 2023, 04:43:09 PM
Quote from: lionheartrjc on March 01, 2023, 08:05:04 PM
Play Pacto? Double-size your UGs so each 15mm UG is 80mm frontage.
Richard
People want to play a maximus size game but quicker ( they are SAGA generation)
Have you tried Pacto with double-sized UGs? It is (almost) a maximus-sized game but quicker...
Thanks Richard but I prefer Maximus and only maximus for now. The community is small and dedicated to maximus because of the scope of the game and the full rules.
We do face some different realities . In Belgium we do not play Pacto, nor Magna (perhaps for now) but we do play Maximus and up to now I am the only one who organises 2 MEG tournaments and some games in Belgium. We have no clubs, no rented place, no money, no time to go to inexistent shows (Crisis is gone). It's a fact. There are some clubs but they do not play MEG and there is little contact between clubs i People want to play quick games , bolt action, SAGA and the like
I do not have the will nor the time to organise more events and tour Belgium to try to convince people to play pacto while having no real interest in pacto and people are not really interested in wargaming play ADLG (France is next door) . I also lack time to do it.
I tried to find a solution, one adapted to my reality but it's not your reality so I must accept it.
Thank you for your timr