Attack and Defense on Territories

A little bit more information would be useful in order to help you.

1) Do you have different unit types (planes/tanks/infantry/whatevers) or are the units generic "armies" like in Risk?

2) Does combat occur between adjacent territories, or when units move into enemy-occupied territories?

3) What level of intensity are you interested in?

4) Are you shying away from the specific combat mechanic of Risk (which is a good idea... they already have a game that's exactly like Risk, and it's called Risk ;)) or dice combat in general? Would some randomizing element similar to dice (spinner, dice cards, etc) be a satisfactory substitution?

5) What's the theme/era? Is there anything specifically interesting about you game that makes it stand out? There must be some point that drove you to build a game, what is that point? Sometimes the answers to those questions can help to suggest a combat mechanic.

~Josh

Maybe I should have substituted "level of detail" for "level of intensity". Combat in a game like Risk is virtually detail-free (read: low intensity) whereas in a game like Advanced Squad Leader the combat details practically ARE the game. (Combat in that game takes into account terrain, camouflage, morale, weaponry, fatigue, possible weapon malfunction, line-of-sight, injury, cover, light/darkness, support troops, radios, explosives and explosions, and any number of other factors.)

Knowing that you are using generic armies tells me that you want the level of detail to be reasonably low, since all the abilities of specific units get erased by the genericization of the "army".

Knowing that it's a '30s mafia game tells me that it's on a smaller scale than Risk or A&A, probably restricted to one city, likely Chicago or New York, and maybe even just a region of a city. Each unit on the board probably represents one troop, or at most a small group of troops, whereas in Risk each unit represents a battalion.

How does that help decide on a mechanic? It may not suggest the specific actions of a mechanic, but it can lead you towards the FEEL that you want.

I would guess that you want combat to be quick and dirty. These are not the waves of soldiers colliding on the battlefield of Risk, they are the run & gun tactics of the streets. Pistols, Tommyguns, Molotov Cocktails. Many repeated rounds of multiple-dice rolling a la Risk represents the crash of mighty armies against each other.

Maybe action cards instead of dice? I send 4 troops into your turf, and as my first attack, lay down a Pistol card. (the most common attack) You must play a response card that applies (Dive For Cover, Hit The Dirt, Human Shield, whatever) or take a hit. Take a hit, roll a die to see if that troop has been injured or killed. Then you attack me, and so on, until someone wins or withdraws. I would suggest that troops from neighboring territories be allowed to join the fray as backup, attracted by the sound of gunfire.

That lets you be creative with your attack and defense system in the cards, while retaining the facelessness of the actual pawns on the board.

Maybe you don't want to go with cards... a simple customized dice combat system is very doable, the Risk model is far from the only option.

eg - combat is not attack/defense, but occurs simultaneously. We both roll 2 dice (or 1, or 3, or whatever suits the scale.) Subtract the lower roll from the higher. The one who rolled lower subtracts that number from their forces. Continue until victory or retreat.
example - Combat is initiated. We both roll. I roll a 9, you roll a 7. 9-7=2, so you lose 2 units. Maybe rolling bonuses can be applied for various reasons.

Hope this helps

~Josh

How many armies are going to be involved in each battle? If you are talking about small numbers of armies you could work on a system of rolling for each army. From there, you could go with the "roll x to score a hit" technique as in axis and allies, fortress america, samurai swords, warcraft, etc.

Or you could add the totals and compare to the other players totals to determine battle damage, then give armies a "hit point" number of some sort to determine how many armies the loser loses. Maybe something like roll 1 die per army, each army has 2 hit points. For every 2 points higher your total rolls are, the other guy loses 1 army.

I love war games and have played many and designed 2 (unpublished). I would be happy to help out more if I can. Your game sounds interesting.

Xan

www.rentoys.com

Just out of interest here is my take on Mafia fighting over territory in New York.

a Few other details :

Do you only use D6, or can you allow your self to use dices with more faces?

In the same spirit than what jwalduck said,

There is the casulalty and the victory. In risk, you msut kill every body to get the victory. You can make these 2 elements separate items in your rules. You will first determine who win/lose and then determine how much troops is lost on each side. This mean that gettting victory can be very expensive or can simply be a quick victory with few loss.

This why, you gain 2 level of tactics : What territory and positions do you have, and how many soldiers do you have. Of course, gaining more territory with few casulaties is always better.