A salute to Ed Williams for design in Serbia '14

[Partizanka]

I had just finished playing the 2nd Invasion scenario from Serbia '14, and though I remarked in my end of game comments on the brilliant design--who reads those end comments? So I am restating here how much I appreciated the design of that and other scenarios from Serbia '14. I have been playing the games awhile and there are multiple scenarios that deserve applause, but I am getting older and my mental skills are deteriorating so strategy and gameplay are suffering as well. Sometimes this leads to frustration with the games rather than pleasure but Volcano Man seems to have anticipated such in his design and despite not knowing whether I was coming or going in the 2nd Invasion, I had nothing but complete enjoyment, (even after meleeing those pesky partisans that just refuse to disrupt or die.)  Serbia has become one of my favorites due to the unique experience and I recommend it.  

Now I did not mean to inflate anyone's ego and just wanted to say thanks, but feel free to chime in on other of your favorite well designed scenarios or games.

[Mr Grumpy]

Glad to hear you are enjoying S14, you must try out the 4th campaign at some point as it is a blast, HUGE map with lots of room to turn each other flanks and an interesting force mix with the two usual suspects plus the Bulgarians, Montenegrin's, French, British and even Russian units! We are at turn 220 and it has been huge fun. 

Having helped Ed test his designs for many years starting with his _Alt scenarios and then moving onto the First World War series, I am in awe of his design abilities (especially after trying my own hand at scenario design), his attention to detail and his almost fanatical desire to have consistency of values and features across all of his designs are the hallmarks of his work.

It is enough to say that when the Panzer Campaign Series was updated it was his values that were adopted in order to bring consistency across all of the PzC titles and his _Alt scenarios were adopted into the titles as default rather than as an "add on" you could download from his website, that is an indication of how much respect JTS/WDS held his work in.

But what is not always understood is what (for me) makes Ed stand out from the list of talented designers who have created various titles in these series, is that Ed is a regular (and very talented) PBEM player and that makes him rather unique in that designer list, you never have to explain to Ed why a feature does or does not work as he knows already, he also has a full understanding of the effects of the myriad of optional rules that have been added to these titles, he also understands the murky world of the PDT values that drive much of what goes on in these games.

Enough to say that I have learnt a HUGE amount about these games working with him and I don't think I would have enjoyed the last 20 years of playing/testing these games anywhere near as much if I had not been so lucky as to be asked to help him out.

The next FWWC title is still in development, going is slow as we all have regular jobs that curtail the amount of time we have to lavish on it, so be patient we will get there in the end !!  LOL

[Ricky B]

Agreed 100%. Ed has a feel for tweaks to make each game play differently, based on how the sides involved fought. Sometimes he even captures differences down to the scenario level, with simple design tweaks and what rule changes/options he can get implemented.

He may even come up with a way to make 1916 France bloody stalemate battles fun! I don't know how but he will think of something.

[jonnymacbrown]

I had just finished playing the 2nd Invasion scenario from Serbia '14, and though I remarked in my end of game comments on the brilliant design--who reads those end comments? So I am restating here how much I appreciated the design of that and other scenarios from Serbia '14. I have been playing the games awhile and there are multiple scenarios that deserve applause, but I am getting older and my mental skills are deteriorating so strategy and gameplay are suffering as well. Sometimes this leads to frustration with the games rather than pleasure but Volcano Man seems to have anticipated such in his design and despite not knowing whether I was coming or going in the 2nd Invasion, I had nothing but complete enjoyment, (even after meleeing those pesky partisans that just refuse to disrupt or die.)  Serbia has become one of my favorites due to the unique experience and I recommend it.  

Now I did not mean to inflate anyone's ego and just wanted to say thanks, but feel free to chime in on other of your favorite well designed scenarios or games.

I read all those end notes: keep them coming!    jonny

[jonnymacbrown]

Agreed 100%. Ed has a feel for tweaks to make each game play differently, based on how the sides involved fought. Sometimes he even captures differences down to the scenario level, with simple design tweaks and what rule changes/options he can get implemented.

He may even come up with a way to make 1916 France bloody stalemate battles fun! I don't know how but he will think of something.

Yes it is amazing how Ed figures out a way to reflect the various armies. I remember when I first played East Prussia 1914. That one (1) hex command radius for Russian brigade commanders was a stroke of genius mein Fuhrer!!    jonny