So I have an idea floating around in my head of this game I'd like to develop. Here of some of the elements I'm thinking about:
Theme: Medieval warfare. Knights, bowmen, castles, the whole deal.
Board:
A large hex grid of individual tiles (like Heroscape or Settlers of Catan) that can be rearranged every game or use pre-balanced map layouts. Fairly small (maybe 1-1.5") tiles, but a lot of them. A couple types of tiles: grassland, hills, mountains, and water. Tiles you control are worth money each turn (maybe some are worth more?), mountains are impassible, and land units can embark onto ships to move across water.
Buildings:
A castle for each player that goes into their "corner" of the board (depending on the shape the map takes). Castles occupy several tiles and a give a defensive bonus to surrounding armies. Forts occupy a hex and can be built anywhere adjacent to unit (for $) and give a smaller bonus (maybe attack and defense). Players can also buy Walls (length of 1 side of a hex tile) and place them adjacent to of their units. I think structures should be destructible over time and players can attack them directly as if they were an enemy unit. If a player's Castle is destroyed they lose. The Castle and Forts generate more $ per turn than normal tiles.
Units:
Types I'm considering: Longbowmen, Crossbowmen, Knights, Pikemen, Siege Engines (Trebuchets and/or Catapults), Longswordsmen, Galleys (Transport ships), and Caravels. Units can move from hex to hex each turn (some more than others). Galleys are used to ferry land units at sea. Units claim territory by moving over it and placing markers (flags?) on the hexes. The more territory you own, the more money you make. You use money to purchase new units or buildings.
Combat:
I'm thinking dice rolls (attacker and defender) for this. The last game I made directly used the "Combat Board" system from Axis and Allies, but I'd like to simplify it a bit. The complicated part is some units will have bonuses against other specific types (Pikemen get a bonus against Knights, Siege Engines vs. Walls, etc).
Winning:
The main objective is to destroy the other player's Castles. However, I can see this leading to a long "Risk-esqe" battle of attrition, so maybe there should be another way to win, for example reaching a certain income/turn.
I'm open to all suggestions, criticisms, and ideas!
I like this idea. Actually in between the time I posted that and your reply, I had a conversation with a friend who suggested something similar. He suggested wood being needed for siege units and ships, and mines/quarries you need to build walls or forts.
I think this is a good idea, there are two ways I could go with it:
1) Limited supply - as you suggested, # of resources directly determines # of things you can build. This means resources are more common (to encourage larger armies).
2) Binary system - You either have a resource, or you don't. If you do, you can build the things that require it. This would mean resources need to be more limited.
For the income I was just thinking cash (gold, coins, dollars, whatever) that you use directly to buy things. For example, say a Plains tile is worth 1 gold per turn and a Knight costs 10 gold. So if you control 10 tiles, you can buy a Knight each turn if you want. Income is tracked on a side board with markers for each player on a grid of numbers.
I think both cash and resources can be used side by side if I am careful not to make it too complicated.
EDIT: I forgot to mention, yes some kind of token (flag?) would be placed on tiles indicating ownership. You take a tile by moving over it. You own all tiles you have units/buildings on, and any with your flags on them. An enemy can take an unoccupied tile and replace your flag with theirs.