In my dreams, I wandered through a large game store so packed with gaming tables, it was hard to walk. There were a couple games of Tide of Iron being played, and even more being set up as I watched.
“All Tide of Iron, all the time?” I asked one of the gamers who was setting up.
“The two top winners here go on to the next round,” he said. I nodded, and wandered off.
Some time later, a woman – a ToI player, most likely – questioned aloud how and why units that are separated from the rest of the troops get “panic” tokens. Someone tried to explain it to her, but she just didn’t get it, and was becoming frustrated. I tried to explain it from the human, rather than game-design, angle:
“These guys – maybe it’s just four, maybe it’s a dozen, maybe as many as 40 – they’re by themselves, behind enemy lines. They’re lost in the woods. They’re running out of food. They’re running out of ammo. And they don’t know if they’ll ever see their families again. So they’re a little freaked out. Thus, the panic token.”
That seemed to satisfy the woman, and the dream moved on.
I’ve never actually played Tide of Iron. I have read the rules, though, and I don’t believe there’s anything in there about unit cohesion. I’ve never liked unit cohesion rules. I find them restrictive, no matter how realistic. But maybe my subconscious likes them better than I do.
