I'm interested in a game mechanic where players can control neutral unit(s) during their turn for their advantage. Is there any game like that that exists?
Neutral Units?
Mon, 01/26/2015 - 00:15
Mon, 01/26/2015 - 06:04
#1
Sid Meiers Civilization lets
Sid Meiers Civilization lets your neighbour play for barbarians you attack. Furthermore, you can bring new barbarians to the map via events triggered by culture cards.
Advanced Civ has barbarians and pirates that can come to the game as calamities. They are controlled by the player who traded the calamity to the suffering player.
None of these examples mean what I think you have in mind. I imagine a kind of risk-like game where a neutral faction acts similarly to the players, holds teritory and might even capture players territories, so to say a neutral fection that persists and has significant, changing influence on the game. I don't have any game in mind that does this, though there surely exists something like it.
Mon, 01/26/2015 - 06:39
#2
Risk
Risk has some rules for this.
When having 2 players, a neutral can be placed on the map. But this neutral is more or less in the way, than that it can be used though.
However, you could use this neutral for attacking as well. But players often have their own rules for that.
Mon, 01/26/2015 - 08:25
#3
There's Talisman, where you
There's Talisman, where you draw events cards that can be helpful, neutral, or hostile. Some are persistent and remain in the space played until resolved. Not quite units though.
I did a small one where you roll a die each turn to determine what direction the neutral units move on a hex grid. There are two different colored sets of chits moving independently. It is random which activates. They start the game adjacent to a town and return to an adjacent space if they move off the grid. They attack if they move into a space occupied by a player, but players may spend a coin to move them for one turn instead of their normal random move.
Random implementation for neutrals is really easy though. It could be as simple as one card with an attitude (passive, aggressive, funky, etc.) and a direction arrow on each edge. You pick an edge of a random card and draw to determine attitude, movement, etc. according to what side you selected. Spin the card when you put it down.
Mon, 01/26/2015 - 09:35
#4
I've always liked space
I've always liked space pirates in Sins of a Solar Empire (a PC game), where they attacked periodically and went after the played who had the most bounty on them. Bounty was put on the player by other players anonymously.
Fun minigame within the game. You had to think if you can take on the pirates or spend some cash to diver their attack.
Dagar, X3M,
Risk-like neutral units have the same power as the players, which I don't find as an interesting game mechanic since you're not bringing anything new. I was actually thinking about neutral units that have its own powers, which are different from the powers of your units. Cards would be dealt such that players can control its powers, and/or players can move them on their turn towards their opponents.
Soulfinger, I like that implementation of how you move your neutral units. I'm currently using cards to control its powers and players can freely move the units on their turn.