Idea for war boardgame

I literally thought of what I had maybe 48 hours ago -- I haven't fleshed it out yet.

The ultimate goal is to control the ENTIRE board -- and in order to claim a square for your side, one of your soldiers must physically go there to claim it. A World War I-style stalemate can develop. However, if that happens, neither team wins as no one will be able to claim more territory as no one will be able to move.

Another thing to keep in mind is that people WILL make mistakes which will lead to breakthroughs. A tentative mechanic involves a 30 second timer -- you have up to 30 seconds to perform all four of your actions (in wartime, you often have to make split-second decisions without thinking things through completely). If you don't finish your actions by 30 seconds, too bad -- it's the next guy's turn. If you finish early, the timer gets flipped back over and the opponent has the small amount of time you had to counter your moves.

Incidentally, I'm giving the Martial Artist 1 hit point and the ability to not be flanked (he's got very good senses and reflexes, so he can hear stuff coming and dodge stuff he can't see). The Cannoneer will turn into a Mortar: speed 1 (the mortar is heavy), but it can shoot over walls.

I've also removed the vehicles -- too confusing.

ACG

Here are the latest rules. Enjoy!

Rules for War Game

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2
AGE: 10 to adult
DURATION:

COMPONENTS
1 8x8 game board
1 rule booklet
1 privacy screen
1 set of Black army pieces
1 set of White army pieces
1 8-sided die
60 minefield tokens
60 wall tokens
1 30-second timer

OBJECTIVE
To march your army across the board and occupy the corner nearest your opponent.

SETUP
Before play begins, each player announce which classes of specialists s/he is going to use for this particular game and how many s/he will use of each class. The specialist units consist of Mortars, Snipers, Martial Artists, Engineers, Miners, and Grenadiers. Each the player must use 12 specialists, distributed however he or she sees fit. A player may use at most 6 of any given type of specialist.

Next the players set up their army, consisting of the 12 chosen specialists and 20 ordinary Soldiers. Place the board diagonally between the two players, with the corner marked with a hill facing each player. With the privacy screen in place across the center of the board, each player sets up their army units in the 28 spaces of their half of the board. The units start out all facing forward (arrow pointing at the opponent). Not all 32 units need be deployed at this time – some may be kept in reserve as needed. More than one unit may occupy a given space, and not all spaces need be occupied.

Finally, the players remove the privacy screen and roll the die. If the number comes up odd, Black starts. Otherwise, White starts.

GENERAL PLAY
Each player takes one action on his turn – but he has only 30 seconds to perform this action. One time has elapsed, it is his opponent’s turn. The opponent flips over the timer and then takes his turn.

An action consists of ONE of the following.

1. Add a reserve unit (if the player still has reserves) to the board. Reserve units start out on the corner nearest the player and have their arrows pointing forward.

2. Have a unit aim its weapon at a target by turning his head to look in that direction. The direction the unit is aiming at is indicated by the arrow on that unit’s token. The little letter on top of the token, indicating the type of unit, should always be positioned so that the opponent cannot see it. A good way to handle this would be to hold the letter steady and rotate the octagonal base so the arrow points the right way.

3. Have a unit perform a special activity. For instance, a Miner may spend an action laying a minefield in an adjacent square.

4. Have a unit attack an enemy unit, provided that the enemy is in range, in the unit’s gunsight, and there are no obstacles (for instance, hills or enemy units) between the unit and its target. The player declares his attack by announcing the target and telling the opponent what type of unit is attacking him (as in Stratego).

5. Have a unit move into another square. A player may have any number of units in a given square. However, he may not share a square with an enemy unit. A moving unit automatically rotates its weapon to point in the direction of travel.

FIELD OF VIEW AND DODGING AN ATTACK
A unit may face one of eight directions and has a field of view of 90 degrees. That is, if he is aiming his gun north, he will be able to see enemies from his northeast to his northwest. Seeing an enemy can be quite useful as it gives the soldier the chance to dodge an attack. If someone shoots at him from behind, however, there isn’t much he’s going to be able to do about it!

If an enemy in a unit’s field of view fires at him, the player rolls the die to determine whether or not the unit was able to dodge successfully. If the resulting number is less than or equal to twice the distance from the enemy, the enemy has missed. Otherwise, the enemy has hit and the unit has been eliminated.

CASUALTIES
Destroyed units are taken off the board and placed in a casualty pile. A player can look at his opponent’s casualty and reserve piles whenever he or she wants.

EFFECTS OF TERRAIN AND OBSTACLES
There are several little hills on the board. If a unit on top of a hill is firing at a unit on the ground, the unit on the hill gets to add one to his maximum range. For instance, an ordinary Soldier will be able to shoot objects three squares away instead of just two. If two units which are both on hilltops attack each other, no one gets a bonus.

During the course of the game, players may try to construct walls between them and the
enemy. A unit standing immediately behind a wall is given a chance to avoid enemy fire, even if he is not facing the enemy. The player rolls the die. If the number is 5 or less, the enemy has hit the wall and the unit has survived. Otherwise, the enemy has avoided the wall and the unit is in trouble (though he is entitled to a dodge roll if he is facing the opponent behind the wall).

Finally, enemies may encounter minefields. ANY unit moving onto (or through) a square with a minefield must roll the die. If the die roll comes up 6, 7, or 8, the unit steps on a mine and is eliminated. Otherwise, the unit survives that particular minefield. Squares with multiple minefields require units crossing them to roll the die multiple times: if any of these rolls come out 6, 7, or 8, the unit is eliminated.

DESCRIPTIONS OF UNITS
Each army has several different types of units, to be deployed at will. He starts out with 20 Soldiers and 12 of the six specialist units. The units are described below.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF A UNIT
Unless stated otherwise, all units have a range of 2 (that is, they can attack targets within two spaces of them horizontally, vertically, or diagonally in a straight line). They have a movement value of 2 as well: that is, they may move up to two spaces DIAGONALLY ONLY during an action, and they may not walk through walls. They may only target one unit in a square at a time (they may choose the target from those in the square).

The Soldier
The basic Soldier unit has precisely the abilities described above.

The Mortar
The Mortar unit can fire projectiles over obstacles. Enemies facing a Mortar cannot use a wall, other unit, or hill for cover: the attack takes place as if the wall were not there. The problem with Mortars, however, is they may hit the wrong square if they miss!

If a Mortar misses, roll the die. A 1 means the Mortar hit the square directly above the target square. A 2 means that it hit the square to the upper right. A 3 means it hit the square to the right of the target square, and so forth clockwise. If the new target has any units in it, one of those units, chosen at random (roll the die) must dodge the Mortar or be eliminated. You’ve got to love friendly fire!

The Miner
The Miner unit is unarmed. However, as a special ability, he can lay one minefield in an adjacent square or remove one minefield from an adjacent square. He can still be blown up if he walks onto a square with a mine.

The Sniper
The Sniper unit has a range of 4 – he a very good shot and as a result is difficult to dodge. Enemies a dodge a Sniper’s bullets as if the Sniper were half the distance from them. The Sniper, however, can only move one square per turn. After all, if he’s lying prone on the ground with his eye in the gunsight, he won’t be able to get up in a hurry.

The Engineer
The Engineer unit is unarmed. However, he has a special ability. He can spend an action either building a wall or demolishing a wall in his current square. This wall may be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal. Horizontal or vertical walls are placed across the square (the Engineer can choose which side he winds up on). Diagonal walls are placed along one of the edges of the square.

The Grenadier
The Grenadier unit uses hand grenades. He only has a range of 1 – after all, he has to physically throw it. Then again, grenades explode. ALL units in the target square will be attacked by the grenade blast and will have to dodge as if the Grenadier attacked them.

The Martial Artist
The Martial Artist unit is very dextrous and good at hand-to-hand combat. He only has a range of 1, but he can move very quickly – up to four spaces per action.

Good luck!

The problem with the Martial Artist is that I needed an occupation which (at the time) allowed for 2 hit points. But now that I think about it, an Assassin will be fine. He's probably going to have quick reflexes and a dagger, so he'll do what the Martial Artist does now.

Quick reflex are important because of another change to the game. Instead of having turns, both players think of actions (once one player thinks of an action, the othe rguy has 5 more seconds to think of one). Each person takes one action.

The actions are resolved in RANDOM ORDER -- flip a coin to see who goes first. Talk about confusion on a battlefield -- it shows how chaotic war is. Think of it this way: you've got two guys who already have guns pointing at each other, and both of them choose to fire. If we used a turn mechanic, the first player to play woudl tell his guy to shoot and would probably win! This way, we have no idea who will win, and there is no "first player". The 5 second rule is there to make sure the people think quickly -- once someone has committed to an action, battlefields require split-second thinking. If the other guy can't decide what to do quickly enough, the first guy gets to perform his action and the second guy can't.

The Martial Artist/Assassin now has the following trait -- any action involving a Martial Artist/Assassin comes first because he gets initiative due to high dexterity (to use the D&D analogy).

Incidentally, I've added another type of action -- if there is more than one person in a square, they can rearrange themselves in the square without changing their aiming directions. This can allow a weaker unit to be covered by another friendly unit in his square.

Finally, if two or more people are lined up in a row (either in the same square or in different) and someone tries to shoot the first guy and misses, now the guy in the BACK has to dodge as well if he's in range of the weapon that missed the first guy. If that's a friendly unit in the square next door, too bad: friendly fire.

ACG

Hi!

Here are the latest rules for the game based on some quick test playing against myself. This is the simplified version, with only one type of unit -- the Soldier. I was amazed how short the rules became with only one type of unit! Two pages! No messing around with mines, grenades, and walls! This is probably simple enough for a mass-market game!

Rules for Introductory Soldiers

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2
AGE: 10 to adult
DURATION:

COMPONENTS
1 8x8 game board
1 rule booklet
15 Black Soldier unit tokens (with arrows)
15 White Soldier unit tokens (with arrows)
1 black-and-white Reversi piece
1 pad of paper
1 15-second timer

OBJECTIVE
To march your army across the board and occupy the corner nearest your opponent.

SETUP
Place the board diagonally between the two players, with the corner marked with a hill facing each player. Each player then arranges his or her army in the five rows of the board closest to him, in the shape of a triangle. Start the timer to begin the game.

GENERAL PLAY
The game consists of a series of rounds, during which each player has 15 seconds to commit to an action by writing it down (or indicating it in some other way) and placing the record of the action face down in front of him or her. A player may change his or her mind and switch to a different action if time permits. A general must make quick decisions on a battlefield to avoid losing control of the situation.
***
An action must be ONE of the following three choices.

1. Move and Aim. Move a unit up to two spaces (diagonally only – parallel to the lines of the board) and have him aim his weapon at a target by rotating the arrow to point in the desired direction. He may not enter, or pass through, squares occupied by an enemy unit, and he may set himself up anywhere in the destination square.

2. Aim and Shoot. Have a unit pivot in his square (rotate his arrow) and attack a target. A target may be attacked if any piece of it is along that unit’s line of sight (represented by the arrow), it is in range (2 spaces, with a diagonal step counting as 2), and there are no obstacles (hills or other units) between it and the attacking unit.

3. Shoot and Move. Have a unit fire in the direction he is currently facing and move as in the Move and Aim option. He may not reorient his weapon during this action.

Note that a unit may forgo one of the two halves of an action: for instance, he may choose to move but not fire if there is nothing to shoot at.
***
After 15 seconds, the actions are performed. If a player failed to commit to an action, that player skips his turn and the opponent performs his action without any opposition. If both players have decided on an action, the actions take place IN RANDOM ORDER – the players flip the Reversi chip to determine whose action is performed first. If it is obvious from the nature of the actions that the order won’t matter, the players need not flip the chip: they just perform the actions simultaneously. Note that one player's action can prevent the second player from performing part of his action!

Once the actions are resolved, the round ends and the players begin thinking about their next action.

LINE OF SIGHT AND DODGING AN ATTACK
If an enemy in a unit’s line of sight (represented by the arrow as the unit has his eye in his gunsight) fires on him, the unit can see the attack coming and has a chance to dodge the attack. The defending player under flips the Reversi piece to determine whether or not the unit was able to dodge successfully. If the Reversi piece comes up white, the enemy has missed. Otherwise, the enemy has hit and the unit has been eliminated.

If the attacker is not in the unit’s line of sight, the defender never sees it coming and as a result has no chance to dodge. He is hit and eliminated.

Line of sight goes on indefinitely, until it is blocked by an obstacle or unit. Contrast this with an attack range, which has an upper limit. A unit is visible if any piece of that unit’s token lies on the defender’s line of sight.

Note that if other units are in line directly behind the target (from the perspective of the attacking unit) and are still in a position where they could have been attacked had the unit in front of them not been there, they must face the bullet in turn if it does not hit the unit in front of them. This can lead to all sorts of issues with friendly fire.

EFFECTS OF TERRAIN
There are several small hills on the board. Units on hills can add 1 to their maximum
range if they are attacking units on ground level. However, a move onto a hilltop costs 2 spaces as it is difficult to climb a hill.

CASUALTIES
Destroyed units are immediately removed from the board and placed in a casualty pile. A player can look at his opponent’s casualty pile whenever he or she wants.

Good luck!

ACG

That's it, then. We're down to three versions now:

1. The simple version of the game. Everybody shoots in one of eight directions and there's only one time of unit.

2. The latest version of the "simplified" game: one unit.

3. The complex version of the game, with lots of units.

I'm guilty of test-playing it myself as a gamer and trying to gear it towards gamers as a result: a useful lesson to learn :)

ACG