In my semi-cooperative worker placement/economics war game, I chose to introduce dice into the game, much to my own surprise (I don't seem to take to dice games all that much). Each player plays a general which controls one type of troop--militia, infantry, cavalry, and officers. Each player rolls a specific set of dice for his respective troop type and together they fight in a battle. In addition, each player can move their general to any location to actually be in the battle. I have two other reward mechanisms in mind for success(es) in those battles and am wondering which would be the best way(s) to handle them. The assumption for this example is that the battle resulted in a win for all four of the players because all four of the troop types were involved. Losses would not trigger these reward mechanisms. Here is a summary of the game mechanics involved:
1) The battle consists of two types of victory conditions: 1) Troop Victory Condition for each troop type for which the dice results for each Troop meet or beat that value. 2) overall Battle Victory Condition--a single value that if the total sum of Troop dice rolls meet or beat it, the players win the battle regardless of the individual Troop results.
2) Foreign Support Cards: These cards give represent historical figures from other countries with various bonuses/rewards tied to their historical roles. In most instances, they provide additional resources (basic and supplies) upon achieving victory conditions. They are intended to help all the players generally the same, and as a matter of being only rewards, help out the team in all instances.
3) Spoils Dice: Similar to the cards, I made a set of dice which have various military supplies on them. They would be rolled to give the players additional supplies for other battles.
So here's the question: What do you think is the best way to reward the team for winning the battle and reward each player for achieving their troop's victory? I will give one example to seed the discussion...
IDEA 1: Draw one Reward Card for each player, regardless of whether their general was actually at the battle. Since each player controls one troop type, each player contributed to the victory, and the victory in its entirety gets the attention of foreign countries who wish to send support. In addition, only let those Generals who were at the Battle roll the Spoils Dice. Those Generals can distribute those spoils however they wish, immediately allocating them to another Battle.
This is just one example, but I am sure that you can see many other ways to works these mechanics. I look forward to your ideas.
I. don't think "upgrades" fit the theme, which is the revolutionary war. While there is a tech track in concept, it is not aimed at improving the generals' special powers--those are set. That said, I could see one type of reward being an instant upgrade of a troop unit or two.
Reward cards that can be saved. I am not sure there is a benefit to saving cards, but there isn't any reason they couldn't be.
extra reserve resources is my primary choice for rewards. Originally, I was going to have the rewards on the battle cards (which contain the victory conditions). But that felt to static. That is why I moved to dice.
Also, the current concept has the foreign support cards rewarding guns, money, gunpowder, etc. The spoils dice represent only those things found in the battle--horses, guns, ammo. I made 4 dice, but maybe I only need two or three.
I am not sure the morale rewards are something I could translate into this game, but I was thinking of having a sliding scale for the foreign support--with every victory it moves up 1; every loss moves it down 1. I could tie the number of cards to that sliding scale. What do you think about that?