The Digital Tabletop

Published by Fantasy Flight Games (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/), Tannhauser (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/tannhauser.html) is, at its core, a tactical miniature combat game.  Players take control of  soldiers either from the Army of the Union or the Reich’s Obscrura Korps in a paranormal infused alternate reality in which WWI never really ended (refer to the promotional video released by Fantasy Flight games at the bottom of this post for a more robust presentation of the game’s storyworld).  There are 10 characters (miniatures in the game (5 for each side), each of which have unique abilities and equipment (and who can be further customized if the players wish).

While the documentation says that the game can be played by 2-10 players, it is really optimized for 2 players.  As more people play, it becomes harder to equally distribute the characters/miniatures between them.  As a result, there always seems to be a slight imbalance between the players from the same side.  In the grand scheme of things, however, this doesn’t really have an impact on he game’s mechanics, just its flow.  In fact, a multiplayer experience (and by multiplayer, I mean more than 2 players) is responsible for an interesting game mechanic which is not present is a standard 2 player game (more on that later in the post).

At the beginning of the game, each player equips their character with abilities, equipment, and weapons.  Its its at this point of the game where the vast majority of customization comes into play.  Each character has a series of pre-configured “packs” of equipment (usually containing three items, abilities, or weapons).  Each “pack” is designed to optimize a specific facet of the character.  For instance, the Combat Pack makes the character more offensive, while the Stamina Pack makes the character more defensive.

The goals of each individual game are determined by the mode the players choose.  In total, there are 4 modes: Story Mode, Deathmatch Mode, Capture the Flag Mode, and Domination Mode. Story Mode games have missions, which are specific objectives that your characters must complete.   A Story Mode game ends once either player accomplishes two of his Main Objectives, or one of his Main Objectives and two of his Secondary Objectives. The player with the most Victory Points when this  happens is the winner.  Victory Points are accumulated by defeating opposing characters in combat as well as completing certain objectives (such as reaching a specific location on the board).   Victory Points are interesting as they are both a part of the victory condition as well as a resource. In addition to determining the winner after the story mode’s stated objectives have been accomplished, Victory Points can be used through the course of the game to purchase temporary benefits.  For instance, players can spend victory points in order to heal their characters, counterattack an opponent during combat, or move farther than their character would normally be able to.  This mechanic creates a situation in which a player might spend their victory points in order to gain an advantage over their opponent during gameplay, but ultimately lose because their opponent has more Victory Points after the Story Mode’s objectives have been met.  In this regard Tannhauser features a resource management mechanic in which Victory Points are the resource.

Combat in Tannhauser is fairly straight forward.  Ranged combat, close quarters combat, and hand to hand combat are all facilitated by attack and defense values that are modified by the character’s current equipment.  Each character has a limited number of what effectively amounts to hit points that are drained if an opponent is successful in their attack.  As a character takes damage, all of their statistics (such as movement, attack, and defense) decrease.  In this regard, Tannhauser is similar to HeroClix or HorrorClix.

One of the more interesting features of Tannhauser is an innovative new system for tracking movement and line of sight called Pathfinding. Each area on the game board is represented by a circle, and each circle possesses one or more colors which will indicate which Path (or Paths) the circle is on. Circles that share colors and are on the same Path have line of sight to one another - for the purposes of either ranged or close quarters combat.

What Makes This Game Fun?

There are two things that stand out with this game.  First off, the theme/storyworld is well thought up, detailed, and quite entertaining - which leads to a interesting line of thought.  Can a game’s theme/storyworld be considered part of its mechanic?  At its simplest, a game mechanic is  a construct of rules intended to produce an enjoyable game or gameplay.  A game’s theme/storyworld constrains the gameplay, provides structure, flow, victory conditions, etc.  So, in this regard, one might argue that a game’s theme/storyworld is a construct of rules.  As a result, one might think of a game’s theme/storyworld as a meta-mechanic, constraining and defining the game’s more traditional mechanics.

The second thing that makes this game particularly interesting and enjoyable is an unintended consequence of playing with more than two people.  As mentioned earlier, while the game can technically be played by up to 10 individuals, it is really optimized for two players.  However, when you play with at least two people on both sides, an experience emerges which is distinct from that which exists with a 2 player, head-to-head game - cooperative turn based strategy.  The enjoyment gained from planning strategy with your fellow player during your off-turn is quite compelling - and, given how it appears that the game was optimized for two players, probably not the intended focus of the game’s design.

A third thing that makes this game fun is the expandability.  Fantasy flight never intended Tannhauser to be a standalone game.  Instead, as with many other games in the market, they intend to release a series of addons and expansions.  These addons range from new characters (miniatures & associated unique equipment), boxed sets (with additional characters, items, locations/boards), as well as downloadable scenarios.  While the commercially available expansions are not a unique thing by any stretch of the imagination, the free downloadable content is noteworthy.  A wealth of free scnerios (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/tannhauser_support.html) as well as bonus tokens (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/tannhauser_tokens.html) is very akin to downladable content for digital games.

How Would Tannhouser Work as a Digital Game (or What Aspects of Tannhauser are Important for Digital Games)

To be honest, Tannhauser has all of the hallmarks of a digital game already - character “creation,” equipping, RPG, dice rolling combat mechanic (which, if you look under the covers of most RPGs, is the standard hit/damage/combat mechanic for digital games).  There are some interesting aspects of Tannhauser that bear discussion in the context of a digital game.

First off, setting/storyworld.  Heavily themed boardgames often feature robust storyworlds (that may or may not extend into other properties such as books, comics, other games, etc.).  My own research strongly suggests that the depth, detail, and expansiveness of a game’s storyworld has an impact on the player’s level of enjoyment.  While there are  digital games that feature deep storyworlds, they are arguably in the minority.  As a result, digital game designers might consider a greater investment in developing a storyworld (which would easily be extended into the realm of transmedia) to be a worthwhile pursuit.

Second, as mentioned earlier, the turn-based cooperative tactical strategy nature in Tannhauser is one of the most enjoyable features of the game.  This mechanic is something that, to the best of my knowledge, we don’t see that often in digital games.  Yes, we get cooperative real time strategies, cooperative real time action games, cooperative real time RPGs - but we don’t see cooperative turn-based strategies.