So here's my take on wargaming:
Obviously these depend alot on the players and their familiarity with the game being played but in general:
Ease of flow and simplicity of decisions.
Pretty self explanatory, the game should flow with constant involvement from all players involved without the need to regularly check rules or get bogged down in multiple steps to what should be a simple action. The decisions available should be simple to recognise but not necessarily easy to make.
Bookkeeping
This refers both to the ease of set up prior to the game and the way in which players organise their armies. It also includes how events are tracked throughout the game with regards to things like ammo/overwatch/wounds/actions/effects etc
Transparency
The ease with which a player can assess threat upon the table during the flow of battle based upon what they can see and understand. You may not have a deep understanding of your oppositions force and you may not be aware of certain tactical combinations but there�s a difference between a tactical miscalculation and a decision based upon a misunderstanding or lack of disclosure prior to that critical moment.
Feel
This is a very broad and personal category; it�s how the mechanics play, it�s the intuitiveness of the �real life� overlay/comparison, it�s the look of miniatures on the table and the pace of the game, some games are hinged on one single error others award the player that made the least mistakes or only penalise if the opponent can capitalise on them.
My personnal Preferences:
- Games that allow one to make their own troops and armies by picking from a global pot of skills and abilities... eg UF... I like these styles because it allows more creativity on the modelling side and allows miniatures and units to be who they are instead of a 'counts as' or 'proxies'. It avoids power creep between factions and one doesn�t have to re-jig their views every time a new supplement or list with extra rules is released.
Cons... it�s very easy to have hidden surprises, misrepresent or intentionally �accidently� overlook abilities, it requires more bookkeeping prior to the game. Once a winning formula is achieved some will only ever use these power-builds. It has the potential to be very unbalanced. - Games that do all the calculations prior to rolling the dice so what you see is what you get when the roll is made... this is difficult to do without more than 1 die type.
- Opposed rolls
- Using different sized dice to represent odds
- Rolling doubles or multiples regardless of actual face showing... just not on too many dice.
- Making counters invisible... wound counters aren�t counters they�re individual miniatures in the unit, smoke is wire wool etc
- Systems that give a unit a single focal point from which the mechanics are based the rest of the unit and how it is positioned/armed being aesthetic to their gaming position.
Pet hates:
- Complex mathematics ... 7.6 damage means 8 wounds = 1/10 of the company equates to a single figure removed ... (old Napoleonic rules still send me running)
- Re-rolls... actually what really happened was...
- Buckets of dice... hang on the votes are still being counted, 36 for and 32 against...
- Special individual optional rules, sorry black hole in his back pocket you�re all dead, it�s in the latest addition, came out yesterday, my vet.sgt only did i not mention it, see here�s the small print... no it wasn�t on the other sgt earlier!
- Counters... necessary evil but what starts as a simple solution for games mechanic can soon spiral out of control when every unit has a pile of different coloured tokens and counters in front of them... or the ambiguous nearby, were they the ones we removed last turn or are they still in effect??
- Skirmish games that count units as more than a single entity, although a unit should be able to multi-task.
- Games that feature more irregular core breaking rules than they do basic mechanics
- Opponents that forget to have fun in the pursuit of glory
- Being told that a unit is a waste of points and that to better optimise my force is...
- Core mechanics that allow a unit to be completely inconsequential.
- Looking at a table of numbers mid-game for every dice rolled.