Combat System without dice

Here is the breakdown of the cards. These inherit the Predator Prey system Indicated by the Predator Prey rectangles beside the card artwork. The colors in the rectangles represent what cards it can kill and what cards can kill it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/04l3n2duh59w9l8/Card%20Breakdown.docx?dl=0

Not quite sure actually... No higher than 12 I would presume average would be somewhere around 4-5. And points I'm assuming you mean cost of the card?

There are other attributes to the card as shown above... So mobility, attack cost, mobility cost, resource value, special ability, the cards occurance in the deck/Predator Prey. If I were to replace the Pred. Prey. system with this attack/defence system that would also affect the cost. Also there are sometimes costs to the abilities as well.

I would say max attack would be 4 and max defence 6-8

Many different kinds. From mobility abilities "Can move diagonally twice", to support abilities "Cards around radius are immune to cards with range"

I suspect that stacking means being able to do things more than once with an increased price? or literally stacking cards on top of each other? If the first just attacking. If you attack two times it will be a bigger price. This is difficult because abilities are still limited in some ways. If its the second cards can only be stacked if they have an orientation badge. All cards have the orientation to be alone on a space. If lets say a card has the orientation badge and can go under cards, this is a modification to its original orientation on any given space.

Units have agility (number of actions able to preform on a turn.

Attacking Unit:
3 agility
2 attack cost
1 movement cost
3 defense cost

Resources player has: 12

Defending Unit:
2 agility
2 attack cost
3 movement cost
2 defense cost

Resources player has: 6

Sequence:

Attacking unit moves to an adjecent space in range of defending unit. Cost: 1, 11 left.

Attacking unit engages defending unit with an attack. Cost: 2, 9 left

-Pause-

At this moment the defending player must make a decision...

Defend, retaliate, or dodge.

These do not deplete the agility of the card.

Defend is the natural cost on the card an deflects the enemies attack, forcing the enemy card to either attack again or disengage, resulting in the defending player getting "hit" and brought back to its casting zone.

Retaliate is the defense cost plus the attack cost. This will result in the enemy unit choosing to defend the retaliation which will result in both cards getting "hit" or accept the kill and lose the card also causing the defending card to be "hit".

Dodge is the addition of the defense, attack and movement cost. This results in an automatic disengage and allows the defensive unit to move away from the attacking unit.

-Resume-

Defending unit defends. Cost: 2, 4 left

Attacking unit attacks again. Cost: 2, 7 left

Defending unit retaliates. Cost: 4, 0 left

Attacking unit accepts the attack due to the depletion of his agility points and dies with 7 resources left to spend on his turn. Defending unit is "hit" and brought back to its casting zone with no more resources left to defend with.

This allows for a very simplistic base and combat is resolved in a few seconds. Its strategic in that you want to conserve resources in order to defend in the enemies next turn but also want to use them in your own. Similar to mana in MTG. Instant spells can be casted on your enemies turn but you need to conserve mana in order to use it.

Thoughts?

The thing that balances this is that attacking costs agility points as well as resources while defending only costs the defense cost. If you have the resources you can defend as many times as need be. Eventually the attacking player will run out of agility and disengage.

Another thing. Typically aggressive players with a lot of resources tend to be lacking in other areas such as the amount of cards in your hand or actual active cards on the field. A great way to counter this is save all your resources for defending and shut the enemy down. Resone being you can easily retaliate and kill the enemy attacking unit without becoming vulnerable.

Dodging and retreating is expensive but it allows the defending card to control the battle.

Defending player has as much control as the attacking player but in different areas.

Defending player typically lacking in access resources (not always) from his previous turn but has more options of what to do to counter the enemy.

Attacking player should have access to most if not all of his resources but really has no control of the outcome.

Keep in mind even if you have more resources than the defending player you may not want to use it all because then you will have nothing to defend with your next turn. If you want to be aggressive you are going to be very vulnerable in the defending turn.

Give and take.

And for the above sequence the attack used one agility to move, one agility to engage or attack the unit, and his last agility point to attack after the first defense, depleting his agility to zero.

This mechanic also supports multiple unit battles, where the above scenario only covers a 1v1. Certain cards allow others to join them on the same space in a "group" or "squad". So in order to make a group you have to have a card that has the "Squad Leader" attribute. Something of that sort.

The game truly is fun. So much strategy with little luck (the card draw). Everything else is cognitive decisions. Its such a powerful system that you can literally add any theme and it can qualify. Soccer for example: move would be move, attack would be steal, and defense would be dribble/foot maneuver used to deflect a steal. It honestly is endless especially with the card design that I'm going for.

I am very excited. It took me five long years to get close to perfection.