Combat Design Challenge

I'm not a big dudes-on-a-map player.. can you give a rough sketch of what combat looks like? How many vs. how many, what you intend an attack to look like, is it the sort of thing with multiple rounds, or like a "Risk" attack where the whole thing is over in one roll?

You have some RPS type defensive counters amongst the dice. The dice are different (like 2x1dmg punch, 1x2dmg kick, 2xblock, 1xmiss; another die has same offense but has dodge instead of block; dodge is good against kick, block against punch.) draft one then roll your die. This weakens a first pick advantage and still has random results.

You can have lots fun with the dice mix, maybe a heavy defense die when a hard hit was made.

Have you considered incorporating a bluffing element to the dice-based combat? If both players roll a pool of dice (different numbers for different characters/combat styles such as ranged, melee, etc), then look at their own pools, you could then ask them to play liar's dice with the available, rolled dice. If you haven't played liar's dice, here's a quick sequence of play:

1. Roll dice, and look at your rolls. Do not reveal them to your opponent yet.
2. Beginning with [the attacking?] player, state a number on the dice and a quantity of those dice that they believe are present among the rolled dice (theirs and their opponent's). Note: 1s are wild, and count as any number.
3. Subsequent players in the round must now either raise the bid, or call out their opponent based on the information they have. TO raise a bid, either increase the number on the dice that you claim (meaning, if your opponent bids that there are two dice showing a 3, you could raise the 3 to a 4, 5, or 6, but keep the same quantity (2)), or you could increase the quantity of dice and choose any number (you cannot place a bid on the number of dice showing 2s after a bid of 2x 3s unless you increase quantity - e.g. 3x 2s).
4. In liar's dice, if your opponent calls your bluff, everyone reveals their dice, and all dice with the rolled number (including 1s, which are wild), are pushed to the middle and counted. If there were a number of dice equal greater than the bid showing the chosen face, the person who called their bluff loses a dice and play continues. If there were fewer such dice, the bidder loses a dice, and play continues.

You could alter the punishment as you see fit for your game, of course

This system would give each player an opportunity to bluff/mindgame their opponent with each combat, but it would be relatively simple and quick if the number of dice doesn't get too high in each combat (limited to 6-10 dice, for example). It also allows for multiple players to participate in the combat relatively easily.

IMO, the general solution is to incorporate some form or form(s) of hidden information.

I like @let-off studios idea of using cards. Maybe you could even use the cards from Roll For It for some quick rough testing.

My idea on how to implement a combat system is to have each force in combat fight with the combined strength and initiative of it's units. (In this scheme one or more units compose a force) Each unit would have one die sized spot strength and one die sized spot initiative. The default value for strength would be one. The default value for initiative would be six. Players would draft dice and cover the default values. I have not thought of how to determine the number of dice in the pool, but maybe less dice available in draft then is needed for the completely cover all of the strength/ initiative spots. After all the dice have been drafted and assigned, the force with the lowest total initiative (the sum of the initiative each unit) attacks first. It could eliminate so many enemy units based on the force's strength (the sum of the strength each unit)(maybe like it requires 2 pips to eliminate a unit). Then remaining units from the opposing player attack the force that attacked first using the their strength.

There are some possible extensions to this basic scheme. One would be to allow players to use dice to activate other abilities like blocking. Another would be to use sliding scales for the default strength and initiative as units are added. Also players could have different cards with different values and abilities.

If you went down this route you could have everyone have the same starting hand of combat cards and have players acquire new cards along the way.

One way would be to add combat cards to the draft. This provide players with an interesting decision to draft a combat card or die. It could also be used as a balancing mechanism, if you lose a combat select a new combat card possibly out of a visible pool of cards.