Hi guys,
I’m wanting to get some feedback about my battle mechanics for a game I am working on. First, let me give you some background information about the game. The name of the game is called Creature Clash - War of the Elements. The board is composed of modular tiles (not sure of the exact number yet), and each tile corresponds to a type of element. There are five elements: fire, water, air, earth, and aether. Each player starts the game with a certain amount of creatures, and each creature will be composed of a specific type of element or element combination. During the game, players will generate elemental energy by taking control of tiles, and elemental energy allows players to create or level up creatures. The goal of the game is to completely eliminate the other player’s creatures, which happens during clashes.
The main battle mechanic is the clash, and this is what I am wanting feedback on. During a player’s turn, he or she may initiate a clash, and a clash can be initiated if a player has creatures on a tile that is adjacent to an enemy occupied tile. Each tile can be populated by up to four creatures, and a tile can be attacked by more than one tile at once. When a clash is initiated, each player organizes their defenders and attackers into a line-up (more on this later). After ordering their creatures, each creature takes turns attacking and defending. When it comes time for a creature to attack, the player can choose which creature it is targeting. After targeting a creature, the attacker rolls a number of attack dice equal to the creature’s level, and the defender rolls a number of defence dice equal to the creature’s level. The dice are like heroscape dice; the attack dice have hit symbols, and the defence dice have block symbols. If the number of hits is greater than the number of blocks, the defending creature is decreased by one level (if a level one creature is decreased by one level, the creature dies). If the number of blocks is greater than or equal to the number of hits, the attack is blocked and nothing happens. After the attacker attacks with a creature, the defender gets a chance to attack with the first creature in his or her line-up. In addition to attacking, a player can choose to have a creature delay its attack. When a player skips his or her turn, but he or she can attack with two creatures at the same time on the next turn. After the defender attacks, the attacking player gets to attack with the next creature in his or her line-up and on it goes. This continues until the defending player is eliminated or the attacking player chooses to retreat.
I would be very happy to see what you think of this mechanic.
Here is an example of a clash. Bob and Jack are playing. Bob is the defender and he has two level 2 fire creatures and one level 2 water creature on a tile. Jack is attacking with three level 2 earth creatures and one level 1 air creature. Bob orders his creatures as follows: water, fire fire (this means water will attack first for him). Jack orders his creatures as follows: earth, earth, earth, air. Jack begins his attack with his first earth creature, and he chooses to attack the water creature (water is weak against earth in this game, and he will get a bonus by attacking water with earth). Because Jack’s earth creature is a level 2, he rolls two attack dice. He rolls a hit on one die and a blank on the other. Normally this would count as one hit, but since water is weak against earth, the hit counts as two. Because the water creature is a level 2, Bob rolls two defence dice. Bob rolls two blocks, which cancels out the number of hits, and the water creature doesn’t receive any damage. It is now Bob’s turn, and he must attack with his water creature (since it is the first one in his line-up). He decides to attack the level 1 air creature. Bob rolls two attack dice for his water creature and they are both hits. Jack’s creature automatically dies since he can only roll one die for his level 1 air creature. The battle continues and eventually Bob only has his water creature left. Jack skipped his last turn and Bob just finished his attack. Since Jack skipped his last turn with his earth creature, he can attack with two earth creatures at once. He rolls four attack dice (two for each level 2 earth creature). He rolls 3 hits, which become six hits since earth is strong against water. The water creature rolls two dice and only one is a block, and the water creature is reduced by one level.