A play-test re-visited

One of the advantages of photographing each and every move and dice throw during a play-test is that enables one to go back and look at the effect of changes that might be made to the rules … and that it what I have done today. I wanted to see whether the possible changes that I am thinking about making to my ITCHY AND SCRATCHY NAVAL wargame rules would have produced a very different outcome. I have done the analysis and my results are shown below.

(The analysis has been done turn-by-turn, with the original results shown first and in italics.)

Flotation Values

Original play-test
• Tsarina = 10; Monopoli = 6

New Rules
• Tsarina = 16 (4 x 2 x 2); Monopoli = 9 (4 x 1.5 x 1.5)

Turn 1

Original play-test
• Neither ship fires.
• Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 10; Monopoli = 6

New Rules
• Neither ship fires.
• Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 16; Monopoli = 9

Turn 2

Original play-test
• Tsarina fires: No effect
• Monopoli fires: No effect
• Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 10; Monopoli = 6

New Rules
• Tsarina fires: Hit on Monopoli – one FV lost
• Monopoli fires: Hit of Tsarina – one FV lost
• Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 15; Monopoli = 8

Turn 3

Original play-test
• Tsarina fires: Hit on Monopoli – one FV lost
• Monopoli fires: No effect
• Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 10; Monopoli = 5

New Rules
• Tsarina fires: Two hits on Monopoli – two FV lost
• Monopoli fires: Hit of Tsarina – one FV lost
• Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 14; Monopoli = 6

Turn 4

Original play-test
• Tsarina fires (Turret): Hit on Monopoli – one Gun Turret knocked out
• Tsarina fires (Broadside Battery): Hit on Monopoli – one FV lost
• Monopoli fires: No effect
• Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 10; Monopoli = 4

New Rules
• Tsarina fires (Turret): Two hits on Monopoli – one Gun Turret knocked out and Movement Rate reduced by one grid area
• Tsarina fires (Broadside Battery): Two hits on Monopoli – two FV lost
• Monopoli fires: Hit of Tsarina – one FV lost
• Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 13; Monopoli = 4

Turn 5

Original play-test
• Tsarina fires: No effect
• Monopoli fires: No effect
• Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 10; Monopoli = 4

New Rules
• Tsarina fires: No effect
• Monopoli fires: No effect
• Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 13; Monopoli = 4

Turn 6

Original play-test
• Tsarina does not fire: -
• Monopoli fires torpedo: Hit on Tsarina – four FV lost
• Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 6; Monopoli = 4

New Rules
• Tsarina does not fire: -
• Monopoli fires torpedo: Hit on Tsarina – four FV lost
• Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 9; Monopoli = 4

Turn 7

Original play-test
• Tsarina fires: Hit on Monopoli – one FV lost
• Monopoli does not fire: -
• Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 6; Monopoli = 3

New Rules
• Tsarina fires: Hit on Monopoli – one FV lost
• Monopoli does not fire: -
• Flotation Values at the end of the turn: Tsarina = 9; Monopoli = 3

Conclusions
The result of the battle was not significantly different although under the new rules the Monopoli should have broken off from the action at the end of Turn 4 and not tried to torpedo the Tsarina. By increasing every ship’s Flotation Value it is possible to simplify the gunfire rules, and I think that this is the way forward I would like to explore in future play-tests.