As I talked in other thread, I would like to design a warfare mechanic that reflects the feeling of all the strategies that could be used in a real battle instead of each side roll a set of dice and resolve. Last time, I decided to use duels of units with cards to resolve battle. I was thinking to combine unit cards with strategy cards.
Now, yesterday , I watch the 2nd movie of red cliff, and in that movie, both sides are explaining their strategy and anticipating what the others are going to do. By looking at this, I said to myself, what mechanics represent best this situation: probably Mind Games.
By mind games, I would refer to something like lord of the rings confrontation card play.
But I hate mind games, and I think that I hate them because there is too much calculation involved behind and I always get in an infinite loop of thinking which is very annoying. It's not like if my opponent had 2 or 3 choices and I need to anticipate one of these. So I am trying to find solutions to make mind games less annoying. Here is what I have so far:
Limited decision: Having only 2 or 3 decisions, limit the possibility combination reducing the amount of thinking behind. In LOTR Confrontation, you have around 10 cards. If you could only use 2 or 3 cards per battle, if would be easier to calculate.
Random Elements: If the result of taking a decision cannot be clearly calculated because there is a random elements in it, there will be less calculation to do. For example, in LOTR confrontation, the value on the cards add dice to your combat roll. If your combat value is 1 or 2 less than your opponent, it does not matter much, you still have a chance to win with a good roll.
Historical Trail: The next card you are going to play is influenced by the previous cards played. Which means that the player can try to anticipate your strategy according to what you have done so far and the player's card play is limited to what has been previously played.
Do you have other ideas to make the mind games less brain burning and more fun?
