Ever notice how you always seem to have ideas for 50 or so board games floating around in your head, and never get a single one done? Well, it is time for me to shift another semi-completed game to the back burner while I pursue another idea before I lose it.
I love card driven board games. I've been playing with various ideas for a wargame where each unit (one unit = one man) is represented by a card, and each is unique. The problem is translating this to a game board. Last night, I had a pseudo-brilliant idea: What if each card was the size of a hex on the board? Obviously, you would need 2" hexes to accomodate these hex-shaped cards, but the idea got some gears spinning in my head.
Here are my thoughts:
Three Attack Types - Melee, Ranged, and Magic. These compare to three defense types - Light, Medium, and Heavy:
Melee is good vs. Medium, Poor vs. Heavy
Ranged is good vs Light, Poor vs. Medium
Magic is good vs. Heavy, Poor vs. Light
Units would have one attack type and one defense type, so a mounted knight (a powerful unit) might have Melee 3, Heavy 5, for example. A damage value would be attributed as well. This knight might deal 3 damage per attack.
Attacking would be done via dice. Roll a dice to attack. If you meet or beat the opponent's armor, you deal damage.
Melee attack ratings add to the dice roll. Ranged attack ratings would indicate range (Ranged 4 = 4 hexes of range). Magic... I'm not sure of yet.
Hit points:
In the past, I've worked hard to scrap 'damage counters' from games (I dislike messing with counters where possible). With the hex shaped cards, you could print HP around the outside of the hex itself, and drop each card into a hex-shaped 'dish' (for lack of a better term). You can rotate the cards to line up an arrow on the edge of the dish with the unit's current hp - much like a rotating base on a miniature. Different colored dishes denote ownership by different players.
Movement and Range:
With larger hexes, movement would have to be kept to low numbers - perhaps 2 or 3 hexes for an average unit.
Actions:
Units get two actions per turn - Move twice, Move and Attack, Attack Twice, Move and use a Special Ability, etc.
What do you think?
Well, thus far, all of my games only see casual play, so production hasn't quite come to mind yet, but my map does roll up :)
As far as the magic vs. heavy idea, I 'borrowed' (*cough*stole*cough*) the idea from Warcraft III - the different attack types (normal, piercing, magic, siege, hero, chaos) deal different percentages of damage to the different armor types (unarmored, light, medium, heavy, fortified). For example, siege rocks fortified armor (the kind used by buildings), but piercing is very ineffective against it. In Warcraft, magic attacks deal more damage to heavy armor.
A friend suggested I drop the varying armor types altogether, and instead use a generic defense rating that is common for all units. He also thought the 'magic' attack type was a bit vague, and I should drop to only melee and ranged. Spellcasting units can have spells printed on their cards, something along the lines of 'Fireball - This unit can spend an attack action to target a hex with an explosive blast. Units in that hex, and all adjacent hexes suffer a 2 point attack. Use this ability once per round.'
He also thought both melee and ranged attack types should get an attack bonus (added to the die roll), rather than just melee. He also suggested that die rolling will slow down the game, and that I should make attacks automatic... though he does play a lot of magic the gathering.